I'll take the High-way - steampunk challenge

I think my post yesterday about "breaking out of your shell" is very timely, as that is how I'm feeling today....a little apprehensive about breaking out of my shell into the Master Muses!  You see, today, my first Master Muse project that is up on Tonya Davidson's blog for Whole Lotta Whimsy.
 
The challenge I was given for this first project was to create a metal clay piece that incorporated

• the technique of stenciling, 
• the theme of steampunk, and 
• the inclusion of some recycled watch parts. 

In response to the challenge, I created "I'll take the High-way".
 

Photo by Drew Davidson

I think the biggest challenge part of it all was finding a way to keep my Birdland Creations branding/style of whimsy and portray Steampunk!  I went back to what the definition of steampunk is and based my design on "fictional technological inventions" to create a balloon powered car that takes the "highway".  What do you think?

The stenciling was fun - I like the technique. I hadn't tried it before, but I'll use it again now.  If you haven't tried it - give it a go.  It seems that most people use stenciling for patterning, as texture/background - but I wanted to use it in a pictorial way, adding the definition to the hot air balloon.  It adds good depth to a piece as you can make the stenciling as deep as you want by adding more layers.  The watch parts in the piece are all attached using rivets. Full instructions are in my step by step tutorial for this project which will be available at Whole Lotta Whimsy soon.

Another master muse will share their project next Wednesday on Tonya's blog - hope you'll go and see what they do with the same steampunk stencil challenge!