Ever watchful, ticking away

Hello All,

I meant to keep this post very short but there is so much to say about this project..........so here goes my 'story' with this project :)

When an eye doctor approached me for a "piece" for her clinic, a hunt for a thought started. She narrowed it down to a clock! Step 1 out of my way. But I realized later that that was a very small step! My fancy took flight and I thought, Voila, why not an eye shaped clock! I proposed the idea and my client (oh dear, she's a friend now!) liked it. I made a sketch (and you'll see how crude it was) and sent it to her. Approval! Good good......

But all was good until I got started. Finding a carpenter who would saw a frame that shape was a task tougher than I thought. My usual framing guy said a flat no. And then, serendipity steps in. I was just walking past a plywood shop and decided to walk in to enquire. The carpenter looked doubtful (and almost eyed me with the "Are you mad or something?" looks) but he agreed to trying it out. He wouldn't, but, draw the shape. So, there I was, with my son's sketch pen and a piece of wood in front of me, drawing a crude eye. Thanks to a sketching background, it soon began to look like an eye. The carpenter was unimpressed though. A couple of corrections and a bit of back and forth later, he gave me the frame. Ahan! Looked exciting.

Next step...........the iris. I needed a template. Google is always God Rescue! I googled, liked something, downloaded and printed. But somehow, it just didn't feel right. And trust me, I have NEVER spent this much time on deciding upon a colour scheme for any project. At one time, I was tempted to call my client to tell her I can't do this. It just wasn't happening. But then, I have a miraculous circle of friends and one of them has the most mesmerizing eyes ever! A call to her and she agreed to sending a close-up image of her eyes. She did, God bless her and I finally took off. Paint was bought, outlines were painted.......and bingo! I didn't have the required colour background :( No project of mine has EVER faced this many hurdles........

But then, those impressive Daler Rowney and Faber Castell pencil colour sets came to rescue. Almost 10 iterations later, I had the colours I wanted. Neha honey, your eyes are magic, until I had to draw them! :D :D

At the last step, namely, painting the lashes, came the viral infection!! The worst I've ever had. 3 days in bed, nursing a horrible cold and cough. The cough got so bad that my throat was parched and my ribs ached from the non-stop coughing. With shaky hands, I managed to paint the lashes and add the clock hands. The clock now sits safely in the client's house but this piece will always remain memorable to me. Not because I think it's particularly well made but because I did EVERYTHING in it myself, except the frame cutting and glass polishing. The lashes have been cut from an aluminium sheet using a heavy duty sheet cutter, I fixed the clamps myself (for holding the glass), hammered the lashes in place, painted every single square inch myself. But this piece will also remain a reminder of how it shook my confidence. I think, once in a while, it is necessary to get these kind of pieces to scare yourself into non-belief and then, learn to conquer self-doubts. I sincerely want to thank my husband, who would just not relent and push me farther for doing the best I could with this project. Any idea which he didn't think was up to the mark was ruthlessly scrapped. If not for his honest feedback, the project would've looked very different from how it looks now :) A HUGE thanks to Neha, for the image of her eyes :) And to Karishma, for putting up with the delays and allowing me the freedom to choose how I work on this project........

And after all the banter, here is the image of the ever watchful eye, ticking away to glory :) The clock measures 25 inches in width (eye lashes are extra) and ~ 12 inches in height (eye lashes extra). It is a lousy photo, I know but this was all I could manage with having somehow finished it in time, in spite of the illness. I don't know how clear it is from this image but the pupil is beehived in chocolate brown colour with the white 'reflection' in beehive too. The 'lines' jutting out radially inwards and outwards are 160 gsm black, green and brown paper, tapered to create an iris-like effect :)

Now, some work-in-progress photos :)

1. The "crude" sketch :D

2. The 'frame' (after the carpenter probably gave up on me as a nut case)

3. What I had initially planned to make (but it just didn't feel right!)

4. With the sketching and pupil done....

5. The 3, 6, 9 and 12 are outlined

6. The eye lashes attached, but not yet painted.....

Happy Quilling

Pritesh

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)