Clockmaker's Workshop
We have an horologist friend who takes very good care of our antique watches and clocks for us. For a couple of years I have wanted to make him a thank you gift of a miniature clockmaker's workshop but never knew quite where to start. One day, as I was browsing on the internet, I came across a picture of a beautiful, small clockmaker's workshop that was posted on a great blog called Miniature Treasures. I just thought this was so beautiful and such a wonderful rendition of the very thing I wanted to make that I decided to follow in Tony's footsteps. Thank you Tony, for sharing your work and inspiration!
This is my version... Barbara Vajnar made the wonderful furnishings, some of the tools and the crates (so she gets most of the credit), the cat is by Annie Willis , Scott Hughes made the light, Ray Storey made the little bell jar that covers a tiny watch movement, and I made the rest. I put in a few more finished clocks. No, they don't work.
I had asked our horologist friend if he had any really small ladies watches that were no longer useful and gave me a small box of full size, but tiny ladies watches that didn't work and weren't worth fixing. The fun part of this project was that most of the clockmaker's tools and some of the clocks are made from those old watch parts. The wheel on the lathe does turn. The grinder is made of two different Dremel attachments. And yes, I know a watchmaker's lathe should be much smaller, but mine is made out of watch parts and, for our friend, I thought that was appropriate.
The silver carriage clock on the shelf with the green face is made from one of the watch cases, and several of the dials, hands and pendulums on the other clocks are from those as well. The tiny parts that came from inside some of those watches are on the work tray on the bench. The tiny screwdriver on the tray is made from the pin that holds the strap on the watch. I ground down the end to make it like a flat tip screwdriver. The oil can and little round brass jar on the drawers in the corner are also made of watch parts... and look at the stand of the magnifying glass too. The tray under the bell jar is a mainspring case. The white bowl on top of the drawers is full of "spare parts."
When I gave the watchmaker's shop to our friend, it was a big hit! He really, really loves it...What I didn't expect was for him to put on the jewelers loupe and have a CLOSER look! OK, A REALLY CLOSE LOOK. It passed muster. Whew!
This is my version... Barbara Vajnar made the wonderful furnishings, some of the tools and the crates (so she gets most of the credit), the cat is by Annie Willis , Scott Hughes made the light, Ray Storey made the little bell jar that covers a tiny watch movement, and I made the rest. I put in a few more finished clocks. No, they don't work.
I had asked our horologist friend if he had any really small ladies watches that were no longer useful and gave me a small box of full size, but tiny ladies watches that didn't work and weren't worth fixing. The fun part of this project was that most of the clockmaker's tools and some of the clocks are made from those old watch parts. The wheel on the lathe does turn. The grinder is made of two different Dremel attachments. And yes, I know a watchmaker's lathe should be much smaller, but mine is made out of watch parts and, for our friend, I thought that was appropriate.
The silver carriage clock on the shelf with the green face is made from one of the watch cases, and several of the dials, hands and pendulums on the other clocks are from those as well. The tiny parts that came from inside some of those watches are on the work tray on the bench. The tiny screwdriver on the tray is made from the pin that holds the strap on the watch. I ground down the end to make it like a flat tip screwdriver. The oil can and little round brass jar on the drawers in the corner are also made of watch parts... and look at the stand of the magnifying glass too. The tray under the bell jar is a mainspring case. The white bowl on top of the drawers is full of "spare parts."
When I gave the watchmaker's shop to our friend, it was a big hit! He really, really loves it...What I didn't expect was for him to put on the jewelers loupe and have a CLOSER look! OK, A REALLY CLOSE LOOK. It passed muster. Whew!