#clear resin

I’ve been drawing on two inspirations - the movies Ex Machina and the Fritz Lang masterpiece Metropolis. Both have amazing android/robots in lead parts.  I was disappointed with the LED embedded head experiment but this direction may change that.  These pieces don’t have the LED light just layers of resin with watch parts embedded.  The silver head is  symmetrical - the gold just random parts.  The “eyes” are gold tone pin heads.  I’ve used mixture of jewellery findings.

I wanted it to look like the heads are “crowned” - with slight religiosity mixed with technology and biomechanics. They are designed to be worn mid length on the chest but I’m happy to change the length or put it on a cord for a masculine piece.  

So I’ll start working on the other resin heads to see where this tangent leads me….

Steampunk clockwork “brain” pendant necklace.   Mech head 1, 2 and 3.

These look really simple but like anything with resin - it wasn’t simple. Lots of trial and error, testing different resins, a pile of rejects but I really like the final piece. The face has a zen quality to me - it reminds me of the automata dolls from the 19th century or the robot in Metropolis. The brain being represented as a clock work mechanism is an old trope but I really wanted to attempt it using epoxy resin. It’s opened up a thousand ideas that I’ll be exploring more.

There was a “happy accident” early on. Due to the original being a clay model. the mold produced a frosted appearance and texture even using crystal clear resin - that was great, I love the frosted look, but how to reveal the gears and mechanics - that took awhile to work out. The gears are laid layer by layer with a 16 to 24 hour drying time between each pour. With 5 layers the gear and cog “brain” has depth and complexity. 

Due to the curve of the forehead there is some distortion/refraction when viewed from the front. As you can see in the photos, when viewed from the back the gears don’t distort. I didn’t use any trick lighting in photos - the shape tends to capture light. There is the occasional air bubble - something I’ve got to learn to live with when working with resin without spending a fortune of a vacuum chamber. 

The gears are all vintage or antique from an array of watches and pocket watches. The head is 1.5 inches high, 1.1 inches wide and 0.5 deep. I’ve put it on a really long necklace, Gatsby length - 38 inches long. Due to the length I haven’t included a clasp as it’s not really needed. The chain is black with faceted cut brass cable link - it really sparkles as it moves. If you would like to wear it higher - I’m happy to alter the chain to any length you want. I can also put it on a different chain or cord.