Thursday, May 26, 2011

This is the story of a clock....

I love clocks.

okay, I love many things (clocks, lamps, movies, baskets, my boys, the sun, etc...)

But clocks are that one thing I look for each and every time I go out 'window shopping.`




It's my mom's fault. (Yes, I blame my mom for lots - but it's true!) She adores clocks. (and lamps, now that I think about it...) She has an old wedding clock that she still cherishes to this day. I'm pretty sure it's still sitting on top of the stereo with the Antique-looking lamp I surprised her with after finding a much cheaper version of an original we saw while shopping one day.

The clock is a gold version similar to this...

antique clock
Picture borrowed from here
 And the lamp is similar to this this one..
Picture borrowed from here

The most beautiful clocks I've seen were at 'historical museums.' - ie; Places where they had lots of old furniture, clothing, houses, and such.

With clocks, the older the better - hands down. It's much harder to find that hands-on detail that made the old clocks so beautiful nowadays.

But who are we kidding.. had I been around in the "good old days" I most definitely wouldn't have been in a social class that could afford such magnificent pieces.

Now for some prettiness...
Victorian clock 406
GRANDFATHER CLOCK 409


Pictures borrowed from here
   
Pictures borrowed from here


Antique American clocks, Old, vintage US clocks
borrowed from here

I'm lucky, although he may never admit it to his buddies (or anyone else for that matter) - Andrew loves the look of old clocks as well.

Which brings me to the reason for this post...



I found this baby for 5$ at a thrift store a while ago. I HAD to get it because,

A) It worked
B) It was 5$
C) I was in love.

Thing is, it was still pretty as it was. It was scratched, sure. It was a couple different shades, sure.

But, it worked. Perfectly.

I know me, I know how I work -- I have a tendency of breaking things.

So it took me a while to actually do something to this clock.. My fears were justified.

After a bunch of sanding and paint removal, I took out my favorite ebony stain and ended up with this..




You see that fantastic painters tape job I did.

Yeah, not so fantastic.

After I had that perfectly stained look...
(about 2-3 coats with some sanding in-between) 

I removed the (not so trustworthy) painter's tape and found out the clock's beautiful face (that I know I should have removed, but didn't want to break my working clock) had also been stained, and some of it's original paint had come off with the tape.

So I did something VERY stupid.

First I took some varsol to it, to try and remove the stain -- easy fix!

But it wasn't working very well.

So I took out the good 'ol furniture stripper I had used on the clock's wood.

Bad idea.

This was a metal face.




And I didn't have very steady hands this day.

So, I went back to the drawing board. Literally.

Yup, a pack of 200 for 8$.
Take that stupid scrapbook paper that sells for 10$ for just a handful of sheets.




After about an hour or so of measuring, drawing, re-measuring and re-drawing -- making sure everything was perfectly in place -- I ended up with this...


It took me until seconds before I was going to glue it to realize that I had a second 6 between 10 & 12.

I blame it on being so distraught about the whole face clock mess up.

But with the love of my little buddy, I kept sane & calm, started over (trying to trace off the original to make matters easier) & ended up with this...

 It still didn't look quite finished...

So I went digging around in my "craft-taken over" toolbox to see what I could find.

 Perfect!

So I cut it carefully and took out the glue gun....


Apparently in addition to being unable to put roman numerals in order, I also can't measure correctly.

So I carefully tore off the "too short" ribbon thingy and started at one end of the roll, not cutting anything until I knew I had enough.



I love how it turned out. I'm thankful that I did a silly thing and wrecked the face because, face it.. roman numerals are much more classy than regular ol' numbers.







Ohhh!

My hesitation due to fear of wrecking the clock.. JUSTIFIED.

No, not because of the itty bitty screw up on the face..

You know how I mentioned how it was in total working condition when I bought it for 5$..


The hour hand won't stay in place (I don't think I put it tight enough) and the pendulum is currently not swinging.

But according to mom, I can fix it. My credentials? I made a clock in grade 11.


I don't remember everything I did last week, let alone 9 years ago.

Any ideas on how to fix my obviously "not put back the way it was supposed to" clock?

4 comments:

  1. yay!!! I've been curious about this clock post. It turned out awesome and I have to agree that roman numerals look so much better.

    Since you've already taken it apart and put it back together, it shouldn't be such a big thing to do it again, right? At least to fix the hour hand. As for the pendulum, I would google it (because if I don't know, I google) and see what you can do. It's probably a balance issue somewhere in the innards. Good luck.

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  2. I hope it can be fixed1?! It looks fabulous!

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  3. I hope you can fix it...it's certainly gorgeous. I am happy to be your newest follower. PLease stop by for book club if you're interested--connie, measuredbytheheart.com

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  4. Mom had a cuckoo clock I loved! Come follow me at Weidknecht.blogspot.com! I'm your newest follower!

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I'd love to hear what you think!

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