Saturday 15 February 2014

More furniture renovation

I have bought a cheap bundle of furniture on ebay, advertised as "in need of repair". On closer inspection it was carelessly assembled and unfinished. In other words, a challenge.


I started with the clock, since it would fit nicely into my clockmaker's shop. This is what it looked like and what I did with it:


First of all, since it is kit furniture, it has ugly tabs which I learned how to deal with when I made half-scale kits. I cut off the tabs (picture in the middle) and sandpapered until the surface was smooth. I painted the inside of the clock dark brown, and I painted the pendulum gold. I then stained it with mahogny stain and gave it a coat of varnish. If I had made it from kit I would have glued in "glass" from the inside, but I couldn't do it now, so I cut a piece as neatly as possible. I glued on a face from another clock that I had remade - with this one, it didn't look bad at all. And I covered the places where the tabs were still visible with golden stickers. 

Here it is in the clockmaker's shop - which has developed a lot since I last showed it here: 


 

There are several new long-case, or grandfather clocks which I have improved. There are also several new mantel clocks that I have bought in a bundle from ebay (there are still more models I haven't got so I am hunting for bargains). But I am most proud of two recent additions:


I bought them on the same day from two different sellers. The one on the left is a pen sharpener of brass-like metal. The pendulum moves if you shake the clock, but at least it looks natural. The clock on the right is a collector's item from Durham Industries, of which I could not find much information except that there are lots of miniatures on ebay and elsewhere, and the marking says Durham Industries, New York, Made in Hong Kong 1972.  There is a knob on the back which makes the pendulum move. I think both are lovely and a very good complement to the clockmaker's stock. Items like these, put in the foreground, make a huge difference in a room box or any miniature environment.



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