Purple and silver clock *NOW WITH TUTE*

I made this clock from scratch, or at least I swiped the innards of an old clock and made myself a new face Wink

It's MDF painted with acrylics and the workings are from a cheap old plastic wall clock, I strongly urge all budding clockworkers to harvest the organs from old clocks and remake them to your liking!

Front (please excuse the cropping):

Back, pretty plain but hey, noone sees it:

Closeup of the details:

If anyone is interested I can give a tute

***TUTE...

1. grab some paper and a pencil and choose your shape, I literally put pencil to paper and just started scribbling. think of the style and size you want. I wanted something oversized and unusual, thus the curvy spikes.

2. for mine, I used MDF (medium density fibreboard) but try pine sheeting, masonite or any other scrap timber. my mdf was 6mm thick.

pencil a mark which will be the centre of your clock, this is where the hands will turn from. for a strange shape like this i marked a circle around my centre point,

(**if you do not have a large compass, tap a nail lightly into the centre mark, tie a piece of non-stretchy string around the nail and wrap around a pencil on the other end, hold the string taut and draw your circle.**)

free-hand your shape around this circle.

3. now, grab your old clock and remove the workings, don't be intimidated. you will probably find that the hands are held on the front of the clock by being pressed into the centre spike. I just needed to pull mine off (be sure to hold the very centre of the hands, not the hands themselves) with a little persuasion they came off and left me with a centre spike held on with a small nut which i removed with pliers. you will probably find the back just falls off the old clock now, if it's glued on, slide the blade of a craft knife under it until it pops off.

4. cut out your shape with a jigsaw

5. leave the hands to the side and eyeball the centre spike to see what sized drill bit you will need to make the right hole in your new clock face. if in doubt always start smaller! drill your hole and see if the fixture fits through snugly.

you can either glue on the clock back but i made a small niche for it to sit into so i didn't need to glue it, also i can remove this fixture and use it on another face if i want!

to make the niche, insert the workings (if your clock is an odd shape make sure the backing is in the right position. my backing had the battery on the bottom so i inserted the spike through the hole and turned the back until it sat in the right position) and draw around the square back of the mechanism. remove the mechanism. chisel out your niche, make it just deep enough for the backing to fit into and not move around.

6. the fun part... paint or decorate your clock face. be creative, paint a pattern, decoupage, glue on fabric, anything.

#6a. for the swirl effect i painted, i did this next part first. i marked out the hours and then using a ruler, drew a straight line between 12 and 1, 1 and 2 etc. i measured the middle on the straight line between the numbers and marked this.

next i grabbed a large dinner plate and lined it up so the centre hole and the mark between the numbers was connected, then traced the line, i continued this all the way around.

i pained the alternating purple and silver in light coats, re-marking the hours between coats so i wouldn't lose the position.#

with the decoration dry reassemble your fixtures and add the hands. hold the back of the clock and manually turn the hands until the clock reads 12 o'clock. mark this position with a pen or marker on the clock face. continue to turn the hands to read every hour and mark the positions. remove the clock workings again.

now you add your numbers, or spots, or stickers or whatever you like so you know what the time is. dont forget to spray or paint a few coats of varnish to protect the face.

7. with the face dry, reassemble the clock. add a hook or eye to the back for hanging, you may need to glue a scrap piece of wood where the hook will go, and then screw the hook into it if the clock backing sticks out too far.

8. stick in a battery and hand it up!

i hope this makes sense to someone, just post any questions and I'll answer them if i'm not clear enough.