Metronome Assemblage

I have been working on several assemblage pieces lately and thought I would share one with you. I bought this metronome at a friends auction several years ago. There were so many neat and wonderful things at the auction but I have been t r y i n g to buy only what I am going to use. The eye on the pendulum is from a tattered 1800's book.

According to the dictionary "A metronome is an instrument containing an inverted pendulum, set in motion by clockwork, and having a sliding weight attached to the pendulum rod, by the shifting of which the number of strokes per minute can be regulated to measure time in music." I am missing the sliding weight.

The metronome was broken and missing parts when I bought it. This is a perfect piece for assemblage as I feel I am not wrecking any antique for art's sake. It also gives me some design problems to solve, of which I love the challenge. Making something look like it was always meant to be that way.

The top was missing, so I fabricated an etched metal one to which I attached a metal eagle (or hawk). Check out the previous post and see if you can find the auction winnings that I used in this piece. The little round plate above the wind up mechanism was missing. I found a brass piece in my stash that had three tabs, so I cut them off and filed it smooth and round. There was also a large corner piece missing, so I fabricated a decorative etched brass piece to cover it. The bottom panel was missing, so I cut a piece of wood from a cigar box to replace it. The bottom front panel was also missing but I chose to not replace it as I liked that you could see the inner workings without it. The decorative feet are from the same clock auction as the bird.

To balance the brass piece on the other side I made up this brass plate and verse "Time knows no boundaries, and with the beat of majestic wings I am transported." by Kim Rae Nugent.