[Bradjhomes]

Stunning work

 

[stewham]

That is amazing!

I wish I had even half the talent and patience for that.

 

[Oilers Fan]

That looks fantastic! Great job!!! I definitely do not have the patience or artistic ability to do anything even remotely close to that. Amazing!!

 

[DuncanP]

These threads make me feel so useless.

...But great job!

My artistic talent...

 

[vandelsand]

Amazing job friend! Incredible.

vandelsand

 

[vilts]

That looks fantastic! Great job!!! I definitely do not have the patience or artistic ability to do anything even remotely close to that. Amazing!!

Thanks! About artistic ability - this is totally learn-able skill. My first tries were really-really horrible. Probably the first engraving I dared to put up publicly was this knife, that was just after one week intensive class. This design is wrong in oh so many levels. I truly believe Gladwell's 10000 hour rule about becoming "good" at anything. In engraving I'm still very far from that 10k hour mark, so there's still a lot to go and improve.

Patience. Yes, that's an interesting one. These project take time. But so does every other job. My biggest project so far is around 50 hours, but that is nothing compared to high-end guns that have 600+ hours of engraving on them. I wonder if I'd go crazy when doing one of these .

 

[tinknocker]

10,00 hours or not, I still could not do it. Besides a good artistic imagination, you need a steady hand, good hand eye coordination and good eye site, which I have none.

Keep up the good work. Love to see other projects in the future.

 

[rcs914]

Really amazing work - as tinknocker stated, even if you feel like you are just reproducing a large design in a small size, it requires so much patience, hand-eye coordination, etc. I would assume that you can draw decently too - what I would come up with would be far less attractive I am afraid.

About how many hours would you say you have put into working on that side of the case?

 

[SteamJ]

And nudes, yes, they would need as high resolution as possible, or they'll look hairy where they shouldn't be.

That would be perfect if you're engraving Robin Williams!

But seriously, that's truly amazing work. You'd never convince me the watch wasn't at least in the high hundreds of dollars if I didn't already know what it cost.

 

[vilts]

Really amazing work - as tinknocker stated, even if you feel like you are just reproducing a large design in a small size, it requires so much patience, hand-eye coordination, etc. I would assume that you can draw decently too - what I would come up with would be far less attractive I am afraid.

About how many hours would you say you have put into working on that side of the case?

I can barely draw... Most practice is actually with scrollwork and that's at "OK-to-good" level.

I don't have my notes at hand, but I think it was something like 90 minutes for the design (it's symmetric, so time is halved) and ~8 hours for engraving. So if I do all the surfaces I want to do, it'll be somewhere around 30 hour mark.

That would be perfect if you're engraving Robin Williams!

But seriously, that's truly amazing work. You'd never convince me the watch wasn't at least in the high hundreds of dollars if I didn't already know what it cost.

Much appreciated. Actually, if I would charge a proper hourly rate for the work, its value will be in hundreds of dollars

Have you checked out Andrew Biggs work? He's the one who engraved the back of your Magrette and engraves their watches. Stunning work, he does.

 

[vilts]

I did manage to find a little time for the project today. But not enough to finish completely the section.

First lug. As this is such a small area, I freestyled the design. Here are the contours cut and main scroll backbones drawn. Also you can see on the watch how time passed by.

Backbones are cut and ready for fill-in leaves.

Leaves cut, background relieved and stippled.

Unfortunately no time for shading today. Right now it looks a little rough and off balance with design, but it'll be good once shading is in place.

Also an interesting encounter happened over the weekend. Me and my dad were presenting our "stuff" (engravings, knives, swords) at one event and this watch was also one of the show pieces. It did get quite a few good looks, but one fella said, quite smugly I must add, that I've ruined a good watch.

So there you go, a meticulously ruined watch.

 

[vilts]

Well, it's been a while. Haven't had much time to progress with the watch unfortunately, but the top sides of 2 lugs are done now.

 

[GipsyKing]

Awesome work. Congrats!

 

[SouthernBeau]

Simply beautiful work. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Sammygator]

Impressive!

 

[Nadim]

Amazing!

Thanks for sharing pictures at the different stages.

Now I want this done to a Makara! Sending PM now...

 

[zombaid]

That is some gorgeous work! Thanks for sharing!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Pallet Spoon]

Incredible! You really shouldn't be wasting such talent on inexpensive pieces. I think you are ready for prime time . Your "early" knife was beautiful. Work like this is typically worth a LOT of money. The hand engraved Magrette pieces I lust after come to mind here.

 

[akcapwatch]

So much about wearing a watch is a conversation between the wearer and the design details. What a quiet reward it would be to look down at this watch.

 

[jashotwe1]

A true work of art!