Thrift Store Find Transformation (with a bit of careful editing)

A few month ago, I found an interesting serving dish during a thrift store hunt for metal.  I'm always searching for metal that has some kind of unique texture or pattern, and this serving dish was a standout. 

At first glance, I appreciated that there were different images separated by column-like designs.

The 'capital' of the column-like designs appeared to be a scarab, and I thought that $5.00 was a good price for something so curiously cool.

Then I started paying attention to the depicted scenes.

???

I started thinking that some kind of story was being told around the perimeter of the dish since each scene is different.

The setting appears to be somewhere in North Africa or the Middle East, with most scenes including camels and men with weapons, mostly rifles.

It has a very 'fighty' mood.

I can't help but wonder who the intended audience was for this serving dish.

I was quite confident that I wouldn't want to use any of the scenes of men hoisting rifles in the air (especially after inspiring someone to boycott the 2012 Holiday Show), but knew that I could still do something with those columns-like segments which I began to carefully cut out with my jeweler's saw.

 

A couple of those segments have already become feature pendants after all edges were filed and sanded and necessary holes were drilled.

Necklace with wire wrapped amethyst, iolite, labradorite, chalcedony and crystals.

Necklace with wire wrapped amethyst, citrine, iolite and honey jade.