I made a clock!…Well sort of.
A little while ago one of my lovely customers came to me with a fairly ordinary Art Deco clock. As it turns out they happened upon it when it started chiming early one morning from inside one of the walls of their house! How it managed that feat after decades being buried without being wound is anyone’s guess. When they unearthed the clock it even still had the original warranty from 1948 hidden inside! The warranty was for 5 years by the way so I’d say it’s doing alright.
While it was still in pretty good condition the face was a little sad and plain so they came to me for a facelift! Being a huge Labyrinth fan they wanted the design to be inspired by the Baroque style clock from the movie which has 13 numbers rather than 12.
Obviously with 13 hours rather than 12 the clock could no longer be functional which made the design process a little easier for me. I may enjoy the aesthetics of a lovely antique clock but I have to admit the mechanics are beyond me.
In order to fit the existing shape of the clock I designed the face to be a simple circle where I could go to town with intricate detail inside (and this being the first time someone has given me the opportunity to make a clock face I really did get carried away). After making sure the client was happy with the design it was time to get sawing!
After hand piercing the face to get an abundance of scrollwork, I engraved a few details into the brass to define the features. I then cut out the numbers, hands and the elements which would hold the glass in place. After riveting the numbers to the face I painted both the hands and the channel created by the cut out numbers with black enamel to make them stand out. It was then just a matter of shaping the elements to hold the glass then nailing both them and the face to the wooden base with little brass rivets.
The result is a curious amalgamation of styles and time periods I hope has given this clock enough life to get through another seventy years!
If you’d like a custom piece of your own fill out the custom request form and I’ll get back to you ASAP!
