Submitted by Myra Cheng Moon as part of Beadmas 2022 design team contest.

What is this design?
This design shows a steampunk cat dragon toy, with a wind-up key as dangle attached to a moving chain and bail. The other end of the moving chain is attached to the bottom of the bead, near his boot on the right. He is wearing a coat with a high collar, armor on the shoulder (left), boots, gloves and a fancy high hat with goggles as steampunk clothing. The left of the goggles show a shutter and on the right is a real peridot gemstone in a round diamond cut. He is holding a pocket watch, with three Roman numerals (XII, III, VI) and two dots between each of them visible. The pocket watch also shows 3 o'clock as time and has a top ring with a static part of the chain attached to it. The back shows mechanical looking dragon wings and tail with static gears and screws on them. The key is made of bronze material and has a screw shape at the end such that it can be screwed inside the bead at the back in the hole of the larger gear in the middle. Three gears on the back are shown which will rotate when the key gets screwed inside the bead. The first two links attached to the key have a different shape in order to let the key be rotated freely without rotating the chain. Everything except the bronze key has a brushed silver finish. We thought of a size similar to Leprechaun Bunny / a bit smaller than Beadmail #1 /Beadmail #1 size. The size of the bead should be just big enough for all details to come out nicely.

How is this design important to you?

• Winding the key will keep the gears for a better world going.

• A pocket watch to remind us of the fact that there are different time zones around the world, but we still live together on it at the same time.

• 3 o'clock, a time resembling the letter L for love and life.

Description:

Add Purrfect Time to your OHM collection with our Steampunk Cat Dragon.
Wind up his magical key and move the gears on his back, which symbolizes how we all continue to work together for a better world. He’ll tip his hat to you as he checks his pocket watch, reminding us how we all live together in the moment though we exist in many different time zones. The tiny hands of his watch make up the letter L for love and life. A moment, embracing positivity and connecting us all, the purrfect time!

How did your team come up with this design?
I already brainstormed myself on the basic meaning and idea for the project and wanted to design a steampunk toy with a wind-up key. After the team was formed, we started brainstorming on possible ideas for our toy design. I made a list of options and we voted on our favorites. The dragon and chubby cat, however, were even for the results, but everyone in the team loved the idea of combining these two into a cat with dragon wings, so we went with that! Afterwards we brainstormed on details and made some concept sketches to see what our design could look like. We voted again for the details we liked most: pose, face, tail, type of goggles, etc. We did the same for sizing, finishes, material, key mechanism etc. Every time results were even, we asked fellow bead lovers to help us out by voting for what they would prefer. Somewhere in the middle, when most of the details were final, we brainstormed about what he'd be holding with the charity and basic meaning of the bead in mind. That's when we decided on the pocket watch and that's also when we made the meaning more specific.