Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!

I am SO annoyed. I had just finished cleaning and polishing these rings:

when I managed to completely lose the one on the right with the heart. I have turned the workshop upside-down and can't find it. It is getting to the point where I would actually be quicker making another! These rings are part of my collection for the "Beneath The Skin" exhibition in Sheffield, of which the tattoo machine is going to be the centrepiece of my section.

FORTUNATELY, the tattoo machine is going much better!

I tried out the finished plate which will adorn the side of the machine to ensure that it all fitted:

It does! Which is just as well as I couldn't cope with having to remake this.
Just as well I had taken photographs of how to assemble it:

Today was also the first time I used Daikon radish to prepare the metal surfaces properly... what a stench!

The piece is now soaking in hot Rokusho:

More photographs tomorrow or Friday, plus some of the other pieces which will be part of the exhibition.