The Eye of the Bull

At the moment I am making Something for the dining room of Ramsay House that is a bit bonkers as we say. It's like in computer science with layers of decryption upon layers, making something that no one will see. But I will know it's there.

SO

Watching paint and glue dry is frustrating as you all know but essentiel. 

I pass in front of this clock every day without really noticing it, I cannot even remember where it came from. The blue one below hung in the kitchen of my old country house for years and I recently took it out of storage and there was this hook so I put it there and then forgot about it despite it staring me in the face.

These clocks are called 'Œil de Boeuf' in French, or Bulls Eye in English. They are 'Toleware' or tin of you prefer and are molded over a wooden block to make the shape. I have always liked them and many years ago in Paris an English friend, bored with her husband working all day decided to make something and also liked these clocks so she bought one and had the case replicated by an artisan and found the workings and learnt to gild and assemble and she sold a LOT of them.

Long story short, I thought it would be fun to make a miniature one for the house instead of watching the paint dry on my latest Madness.

I saw this one on the internet and tried to mix them all up.

After searching throughout the house for something to make a mold from I came across this little porcelain bowl. My mold is not great, this product is good but it always seems to leave air bubbles and any piece taken from it needs work. This was always going to be a test and not the final clock. Usually I would go for working clocks in the house despite the cost but this one might just hang in the hallway, hardly seen. I lazilly used the same air clay, really not the best for this but it was near at hand. When it was still soft I scooped out space for the clock face, an image taken from the internet. I would have liked to use a watch face and glass but impossible to find.

Some decorative wire bought by the foot on Etsy and once the face glued in I put on thick layers of 'Triple Thick Glaze' to simulate glass.

And here we have it. It is a test, the size is not to scale, a bit too wide and deep. The chain in quite good, the gold painting is really terrible, yes believe me!

A close up with some clear mat varnish over the paint. The top ring needs a rosace or Something to finish it off. I didn't have all the right things to make this but was too impatient as usual. When I redo it one day I might use polyurethan resin and dent a hollow in the back to make it lighter, I might even add some fake 'workings' !! who knows, mad as I am.

A bit of 'mise en scene' with two air clay obelisks and my two favorite vases.

An out of focus photo of the back, I used an image to 'finish' it and waxed it up, never to be seen !

Ending on something different. I cut out some leaves from real leaves, once dry I will scatter them in the back hallway as if they had blown in from the garden!