Last year Winston entered The World Champion Custom Belt Buckle Contest and took second place in the competition. Winston (for health reasons) did not enter this years contest so he made this custom eagle buckle carving for the winner of the 2014 contest.
It was hand carved by Winston start to finish over a three day period of time using diamond bit hand tools. The Custom Eagle Buckle Carving is cut from a large 10 inch Gold Lip Mother of Pearl half shell from the Philippines.
This Mother of Pearl above has been hand ground by Winston and ruffly polished using a large diamond bit grinding wheel. Then edged and prepped to reveal it's natural white and yellow mixed colors. Each Piece is different because it's pearl-yellow flows one way and it's pearl-white mixes in beautifully a different way in every piece.
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| Winston Draws The Custom Buckle Onto The Mother Of Pearl Before He Extracts it From the Pearl |
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| Now it's time to take the edges off and rough the carving out |
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| Back Side of The Eagle Head Carving |
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| The Beak and Feathers of the Eagle are starting to come to life |
This custom belt buckle's style is modeled after the artists custom buckle collector's series (Harley Feathers) but is not one of the 10 numbered buckles signed by Winston because of it's donation to the World Championship Belt Buckle Contest (The winner this year was a custom buckle named Space Cowboy by the Artist Daniel Icaza of San Jose, Costa Rica)
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| Using a Low Grit Diamond Wheel Winston Roughs The Eagle Head With More Detail |
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| Winston Applies a Rough Sketch Of The Eagle Head's Cheek Feathers Before Finely Carving More Detail |
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| The Start of Something Amazing Using Hand Tools with Precise Diamond Bits. We now see the Buckle start to Transform into a Majestic Eagle |
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| Eagle Buckle Before A Good Hand Polish by The Artist Using a Fine Grit Diamond Blade. |
Winston Custom Belt Buckle is Hand Made, signed by Winston usually with a quote and numbered.
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| Hand Polished with a buffing wheel and Before The Eye is Set in this Custom Eagle Buckle |
The tongue below is hand carved from the gold lip of the large shell mother of pearl.
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| Mother of Pearl Hand Carved Eagle Tongue |
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| Handmade Custom Eagle Belt Buckle Finished with a Fine Hand Polish and The Eagle Eye |
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| Finally after 3 days The Eagle Buckle is Finished Before Gold and Silver Mounts are added. |
Winston announced: "It's with a humble pride that I gratefully offer this eagle carving to the winner of this years World Championship Belt Buckle contest. We americans carry a certain pride of this soaring bird where some of us have even been very fortunate to carve or paint his image. May you and your family wear him for many generations to come."
The artist gives much thanks to JW Copper of the famed Bal Harbour Shops in Miami for their contribution of materials. As well as The 3rd Annual World Championship Custom Belt Buckle Contest 2014
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