Let me just declare to the world, I love my macro lens!  There is just so much to see with this lens.  Even the most banal thing looks magical through the macro.

Todays creative project occurred to me while I was perusing the MAKE blog yesterday.  They had posted this really awesome 1950’s informational film on how watches work.  Lately, I have had a growing interest in gears.  I recently picked up a cheap Ryobi bandsaw with the hopes of making my own wooden gears.  A while back, I came across this site which has these amazing homemade wooden clocks and that led me to this web-based gear template generator.  Isn’t the internet grand?  All you have to do is print out the template, glue it onto your wood and carve it out with the bandsaw.  I am ultimately interested in making some mechanical toys for June to play with.  Not sure exactly what yet.

Anyways, more to the point.  A long time ago I used to edit publicity stuff for DreamWorks and they used to give really cool gifts in those days.  The pocket watch above was given to me for working on “The Time Machine”.  I’ve always loved the way it looks, being able to see the gears turning inside.

So, last night, I decided to give it the old macro treatment.  I had a heck of a time getting it open.  I spent an hour and a half using all sorts of methods until it finally popped off.  I’m glad I persevered because once I put the watch on the light box and hooked up the macro lens there was, of course, so much beauty to behold.

This afternoon I cut the footage to music.  The song I ended up using was my audio clip from Day 133.  On that day, my friend Jeff and I took a recording I made of one of my music box songs and played with the sample on the monome.  It turned out to be the perfect song to watch these gears turn to.

I hope you enjoy!