The design of a piece is critical. Picking the right colours and adding glazes can add a whole lot as well. But often it's the teeniest little touches that bring a piece to life. Those same small touches add a great deal to the story. Yesterday I posted a short video of the 'MARVELOUS MACHINE' in motion. It was pretty cool to see it in action. Today I spent only few minutes on the piece but the time I spent made a big difference. I first painted the brass colour on the top plaque. It took two coats of the metallic gold. I then aged things down with the same glaze I used yesterday on the larger piece. While that dried I added a teeny bit of rust to one side of the base. Then I dry brushed on the smallest bit of dark metallic grey to the rotor and stand - where one would expect some wear. Then an even smaller amount of silver was added to the same areas. Then a couple of brush strokes of bright gold added wear to the brass plaque. A little more aging toned things back down.

Those few minutes with a brush and various colours of paint changed the piece dramatically. It brought it to life and added a whole lot of story. This little dynamo not wells the story of many decades of sevice.