Saturday, May 04, 2013

I Made a Hole in the Wall!

I made a nail hole in my freshly repaired and painted wall. For some, this would be horrifying, but not for me. I plan to put dozens of holes in the walls of this room.

The first was for this stunning Vienna wall clock.



Many of you will remember that I already had a similar clock in this same spot. The previous clock is a miniature, and it didn't fit the space that well. It was also off-centred on the wall because of the rebuilt drywall duct wall. I had just reused an existing nail hole in the wall, and I was able to enjoy the clock since then.

It's starting to be a bit of a shock to see some of these old photos now...



But now that the walls are done, I had planned for a larger clock for this spot.

This particular clock was a MASSIVE restoration effort. The case was infested with live woodworm beetles, and it was missing 2 pieces of moulding, the top, and all 3 finials. It took over a year to restore it, fill all the thousands of insect holes (after treating the case with a penetrating chemical insecticide), and rebuilding all the missing pieces. In the end, it has become one of my "showiest" clocks, and one that I'm happy to have in this room (where I spend most of my spare time).





For fun, here are a few "before" photos:

 photo WernerVienna01.jpg

 photo WernerVienna06.jpg

 photo WernerVienna04.jpg

 photo WernerVienna08.jpg

A lot of other clockmakers/collectors would have saved the movement and used the case as firewood, but I knew it could be beautiful again (with a lot of effort).

The parts had to be kept in my freezer until I could deal with the insects.

 photo WernerViennaFreezer.jpg

 photo WernerParts04.jpg

5 comments:

  1. Astoundingly beautiful. You definitely have a right to be proud of your handiwork. If I could, I would fill my house with clocks, too. Perhaps some day.

    BTW, did I catch a glimpse of Al on your computer tower...??? A man of many abilities AND great taste to boot.

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    1. Haha, Yup. He's still there. I need to watch FMA Broherhood though. I've only seen the first series and The Conqueror of Shambala.

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    2. It's a MUST. IMO, Brotherhood was better.

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  2. You did a beautiful job restoring this clock!!!

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Most of the clocks I buy are "wrecks" or as we sometimes refer to them: "basket cases". I still have dozens waiting to be restored.

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