This piece is a very realistic style of orrery created with the dollhouse miniaturist in mind. After finding a main brass base piece I liked, I drilled a hole for the main shaft. I then shined the brass a bit on the lathe and gave it a nice coat of wax. Next I turned a piece of hardwood for the lower base, which fit perfectly. I then made a small black transition cap for the top of the brass ornament, since an unwanted protrusion had been cut from it.
I normally bend a number of complete sets of brass rod planet supports and prep them at once. These also require creation and tweaking of the central loops. Having made many orreries before, I now sculpt, bake and drill planets one type at a time from Sculpy Premo polymer clay. However I wait until I’ve mounted them on the particular piece’s arm rods before adding wispy clouds to several of the planets. This is done by drybrushing with artist’s acrylics and a small brush. The sun is actually a 6 mm gold plated earring. For the central shaft I use a brass tube and the earring post is epoxied into the top hole. The bottom of the brass tube is secured to the wood base both mechanically and with epoxy.
