Making up time

A new product in my range is clocks!!!

I have decided that my swirly slip patterns would look pretty slick on a round clock face and provide a really nice textural effect behind the clock hands - kind of like functional art!

The thing I love about making these, is that they are dead simple to make and fun! The hardest part is finding the appropriate movements to turn it into a clock! More on that later.

So, how do I make these things, eh?

First, I throw a wide shallow cylinder:

Then I wait for it to go leather hard and turn it into shape, cleaning off all the nasty bumpy bits.

Next I apply my slip texture, wait for that to firm up and add the central hole then fire! Vioila! Done!

Making it a real clock....

What movements do you need?

Well, from what I can gather from my research and some trial and error, you need to be certain of the spindle length of the clock movement. It's depth is super important.

My clock faces are about 3/8" thick (roughly 9.7mm) and the spindles (the shaft that goes through your clock face and connects the dails to the mechanism) come in 11, 13.8, 16.2 ,20.1, 26.2 mm lengths. You need to measure the thickness of your clock face and allow for a little length of spindle to stick out in the front of the clock face so you can screw the hands and finishing nuts on the spindle to finish off the clock.

With my clock face thickness, I chose the 13.8 length. Don't worry if none of the lengths seem to suit your needs, as the mechanisms come with rubber washers of various thicknesses to adjust the spindle's length accordingly.

Shop around because a lot of the hour and second hand movements I have been finding on the internet are quite old fashioned. After many hours, I finally found some suppliers who stock a bit more contemporary hands, so they are out there. I ended up choosing the B series hands from:

bude time enterprises ltd.

You need to choose hands that are the appropriate length to fit onto your clock face, and that decision is completely yours, as you may want to make an off-centred clock face or so forth.

What I can say, is you should be aware that the larger the face, the more powerful a motor you will need- more kick to get it around over time. This motor is called Model High Torque Euroshaft Movement, well it is called that in the UK, on this site, not sure about other sites! For the average sized clock, all you need is the Euroshaft Standard Movement.

Once fitted into the central hole and secured, one battery in and you have a working clock! You've just created time! Magic!