Yes it's true...I've blown my ENTIRE STASH of very best clock gears...hand-harvested and cleaned up by yours truly....on ONE necklace! And I must admit, I'm preening like a pea-hen over the(almost...not quite finished) results...it's a break-thru! Over the years, I've often used larger, more industrial-sized gears in my sculpture(always did love their symbolism), but with this necklace, I think I finally figured out where I'm coming from...aesthetic-wise...jewelry-wise...or refigured it out.....after forgetting....for a long time......whatever. As I worked on this necklace, I found myself picturing a tribal society, prolly after some terrible apocalyspe...mining for artifacts leftover from the industrial past...rather than mining for raw metals and stones. Simple machine parts, hardware, and bits of shaped metal become the diamonds and gold. To be polished and treasured. With this in mind, I carefully formed each link to give this piece a carefully-crafted, elevated look...something of value, even though all of the metal involved is just our ever-trusty, workin class friend...solid brass...made more valuable in my (imaginary?)post-apocalyptic world, because it doesn't rust. No matter how humble the metal, I still see a fierce, elf-like, warrior princess creature, out in the rubble, totally ROCKING it! (...being all badass...with her bow and arrow....you GO, girl!) The contrasting geometric shapes & planes of the gears catch the light so they glitter independantly of one another, making the whole necklace sparkle & flash, despite the absence of faceted beads or modern day bling....sure to draw many a curious eye! I think I'm on to something with this one, although I definitely need to figure out my long hours for making those gears presentable. They were a mess! Many of them were covered with nearly a century's worth of dark, black grease, when I first laid eyes on them.