Finally got some work done

So I finally managed to get this gross oil-based clay to soften up enough to work with. I have been avoiding using it because it is so hard and crumbly and smelly. But the model is do tomorrow so yesterday I put some work into softening the clay. I heated some water in the microwave and then put the clay in a ziplock in the water. Once it softened a bit I broke it up into smaller pieces and then re-heated the water as needed, since the stuff hardens up pretty fast.

My assignment is to make a model for a chased and repousséd piece that is abstractly based on an item we had to pick the first week of class. I picked this little metal doohickey which turned out to be a clock winding key. I am a bit too literal to be good at abstraction, so I just sculpted a larger version of the key with the clay tonight. I wish I had started sooner because only now do I have a more abstract idea: making a pattern of gears at different levels. But that would be pretty geometric, which is not one of my strong suites - I tend to get too obsessive about it. I tried to make a model, but I really need actual gear images printed to size to trace so that I can get all of the teeth to match. I wish I had my own printer! I am going to make a quick sketch and ask my professor about it tomorrow, and then work on whichever idea he thinks is better.

Here is the key and my rough clay model:

They're like twins! :P