One of those little clips... reminded me of a sad face when I turned it upside down (or else one of those yip-yip monsters from Sesame Street). Crop, levels, colorize, adjusted hue and saturation, layer of soft light, usm.
Perfectly conceived and processed; exactly what I hoped to see in this challenge, and not a thing I would change about it. Can I add a photo of a paperclip to my favorites? Yes, I can :)
I really like the desaturated, almost b&w quality. You've managed the light very nicely, too, as the background is not too bright. You may be seeing a similar object from me this week as I'm at my office desk and have binder clips for of my potentials. :-)
Yip, yip, yip! Thank you for reminding me of those, I loved them as a kid! :) My preference would be not to have the fall off of focus around the left edge of the "mouth" - would like to see what other ways you might come up with, other perspectives, for the same subject.