The Jeweller's Clock

THE FIFTH CLOCK is done! Here for you to see is my newest Once Upon O'Clock creation ~ a clock for narrative jeweller Nina Bagley, who asked for reds and rooftops and moon and moth, because moths have been visiting her rather a lot lately. I also decided to include some text in this one. I am fond of entwining words around my images and thought it appropriate for this one since Nina puts words inside her jewellery. I hunted for suitable moth poems and found just a few.
The words that curl out of the moon's pipe smoke and chimney are from the T.S. Eliot poem The Burnt Dancer about a moth. O danse mon papillon noir is the refrain ... and on further investigation I found that a "papillon noir" is also an antiquated French expression for a melancholy thought, and I liked that.
For the small cluster of houses below, I took inspiration from medieval woodcuts of towns, where the whole group of buildings in enclosed within city walls, and the perspective is knowledgeably awry, with rows of houses piled simultaneously on top of and behind one another.
The moth is a Luna Moth, since it is sitting on the moon, and since they visit Nina from time to time too.
I think she likes it, and I do too... it'll be fluttering over the atlantic now, and I hope its fragile dusty wings can manage the long flight ...