Rollers [Apr 2011]

VCR Tape Rollers, Stainless Steel Wire, Hematite Bead

Made a bunch of earrings from tape rollers from salvaged videocassette recorders.  For icons of 1980's technology, they have a surprisingly art deco feel to me.  Each VCR has a pair of these rollers, and I'm yet to find two pairs that are the same.  The steel shaft is extremely tough steel - I broke a number of solid carbide drill bits before getting the technique for drilling them down.  As you can see in the photo below, I started off using off-the-shelf earring hangers because i had run out of stainless steel wire.  I thought these let the earrings down though, so ordered some 0.5mm SS wire and made my own hangers, complete with a little cylindrical bicone hematite bead.


There are a few pairs of these left - if anyone is interested, email me know.  I'm asking $60 a pair.


A blast from the past - The Beginning [1996/97?]

Cut section of Steel gear and splined shaft from car gearbox, brass pin.

This is where it all began.  The first piece I ever made, some time back in the mid 90's.  I found these images as black and white photo negatives in a pile of old darkroom junk I had in a box under the house.

I remember I had been pulling apart an old car gearbox, and something about the way the gears looked on the splined shaft stirred something in me that has been growing and evolving ever since.


I used an angle grinder to slice off a section of the gear and shaft (took a long time - gears are tough!) and smoothed the back, somehow (I can't even remember how) fixed the shaft end into the middle of the gear, polished the whole lot and found a small brass cone shaped pin that fit into the centre hole in the shaft.


It was a heavy piece, being solid steel. It was given as a present to an ex-girlfriend, who may even still have it. I hope it hasnt rusted...