Watch Case Pendant: Cigar Label

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I picked up a few goodies at the Alameda Flea Market. One find was a box of 10 old watch cases minus any glass fronts. I had experimented with Amazing Glaze Embossing Powder in the past and thought these cases would be great to fill and wear. As always, click on images to greatly enlarge.
I dug through my vintage cigar label collection and found an embossed, regal-design label that I knew I could get two interesting sections from. I traced the areas to cut and trimmed out the pieces.
Using Mod Podge, I glued the bottom graphic into the case and allowed to dry. Then following the directions that came with the Amazing Glaze, I partially filled the case with embossing powder and baked in my counter-top oven. It took around 8-10 minutes to completely melt the powder. There were a few obvious bubbles when it cooled, so I baked it again and they greatly minimized. Then when the first layer was cool, I glued in the second layer, dried, covered with powder and baked again.

I was pretty happy with the results of this one, the shadowing from the layering is pretty neat, and by using the original label, the embossed paper adds a seriously cool touch.

I was simultaneously working on another larger and deeper watch case, the bottom one in the stack. It was filled with almost 1/2″ worth of powder. I had a terrible time with bubbles and cracking and even though reheating seemed to help a bit, in the end, the acrylic turned dark brownish-yellow and leaked through the cracks of the back watch part opening. That piece was a total loss. So in the end, I would recommend sticking with the thinnest layers possible, not overheating (which created discoloring), and if your image is precious, be sure to use a copy.