DIY wall clock

                 
When I came across this "Whatever, I'm late anyway" clock on the web I got very excited. This would suit me well as I am late all the time ;-). I wanted to try making this clock myself just because I had a lot of free time on my hands. Making a clock is lot easier than I thought. The important step is choosing a design that can be created easily on a canvas.

Materials used

Gallery wrap Canvas
Acrylic paint - black, blue & white
Small brush
Clock mechanics and hands
Cardboard
Xacto knife

Procedure

First, pick the size of the canvas. Initially I bought a 12x12 canvas but felt it was too big on the wall. So I used a 10x10 canvas instead - big mistake. Now, after the entire clock is finished I feel that the clock would have looked a lot better on 12x12 size.

Next step is to paint a base colour on the canvas. I used black since I already had a bottle of black craft paint lying around from another project. (I used 'CraftSmart' brand paint since it was on sale). Any dark shade would look good.

Now comes the fun part of the project - adding the text. I wasn't confident about my skills with a brush directly on the canvas thus chose to create a stencil and then use it to transfer the paint. I cut up a cardboard piece from a cereal box to match the size of the canvas and using a pencil wrote the text on it. Picked up an ex-acto and began cutting the cardboard sheet.

Soon I realized it was going to take a lot longer than I anticipated. After a few letters I started to cut only some part of each letter (just a hint of where the letter begins and where it curves) to speed up the process. Once that was done, I laid the cardboard on the dry canvas and started to paint the letters. I decided to go with blue for the text. Once the text was complete blue on black looked lovely.

Next step is to fix the clock mechanics and hands. You can either purchase the mechanics and hands set online or pull them out from an old clock. I found that purchasing a basic clock from walmart ($4) and using its mechanics was a cheaper option than purchasing the clock mechanics set. Of 'course the clock hands of the walmart clocks are not that fancy. But hey....I don't even know if my clock is going to work. So I picked up a clock from walmart and it came apart fairly easily. Pay attention to the order of the minute and hour hand before you remove them from the clock.

After disassembling the clock, I painted the hands of the clock with the same blue as the letters. Be careful not to bend the hands of the clock. Now all that is left is to fix the clock mechanics and hands. The shaft was longer than the thickness of my canvas. So I cut a few pieces from a cereal box and placed on the shaft. Then I taped this onto the back of the canvas and fixed the clock hands on the front.

My clock started to work and I was very happy. However, a day later I noticed that the hands of the clock are rubbing against the clock and not moving. It turned out that the tape was unable to bear the weight of the clock. After trying many ways I decided to place a cardboard sheet covering the entire backside of the canvas. Then I got rid of the small pieces on the shaft and taped the mechanics onto the cardboard. Voila! The clock has been working perfectly since then.

But with the blue text and the blue hands, it was a little difficult to read the time when the clock hands were in the bottom half of the clock. So I decided to switch the text to white and am very happy with the decision. The clock looks great and is fully functional.

Still life painting - Ethnic Touch

This is the second painting I did in the class. The peacock and flowers on the small sectional divider is my favourite part. The technique is quite different.

Still life - Bottle and Flower Pot

This is the first painting I created in the class I joined. The shapes are not perfect but I learnt the concepts of light and shadow.

Custom color coded keys

                                     

Everyday I find the right key for the door only after 4 wrong attempts. This started to drive me nuts. But thanks to nail polish, I now have color-coded i.e. easy to remember pretty keys in hand. Of course I still need to map a color with the respective lock; but it is much easier this way than counting the keys to remember that the 3rd key corresponds to such-and-such lock.

A set of keys and nail polish are the only things you need. Paint the pattern you desire on the key head. Let it dry and paint the other side. Voila! your lovely keys are ready.

If you don't like how it turned out all you have to do is use nail polish remover and start over again. It's that simple. I would suggest painting only the key head. Painting the key all over involves the possibility that the dried nail polish chips might get lodged in the lock and jam it.

I painted a single color on the key using the existing design of the key head as a guide.
For the second key, I did a base coat in light brown color. Once that dried, I used a darker brown to apply small dots all over.
The third is my favourite of all. First step is the plain violet all over. Then came the diagonal glitter lines. However, I  I guess I applied the lines too thick; they were sticky for quite some time.

Stained glass-ish side light/window



Side light

The long plain window(aka boring) next to the main door was begging for some upgrade. Stained glass was an expensive option but lucky for me I came across gallery glass paints. I got super excited with the idea of an inexpensive paint that gives the look of stained glass with the option of peeling it off at any time. No damage to the glass...Perfect!!

I began research on the various techniques and mediums and found all the needed information at http://galleryglassclass.blogspot.com/

The first step was to plan a design and the colour scheme. I do not have a 'before' picture of the window. Its basically a thin long window divided into 5 panels. Since its my first attempt I decided to keep it simple and replicate a design on all the panels. I chose to create a border and etch a design in the center. The materials used and the steps involved are described below.

Materials Used

1. Gallery glass:  colours (yellow and red), etching medium, redi-lead, instant lead
2. Blank stencil sheets
3. X-acto knife
4. Stencil brush
I bought all my supplies from Michaels.

Process

1. I first drew a border on the paper such that the size matched the window panel. This helped me decide the exact size of the central design. Then I sketched the design on the paper.


 

2. Next I taped the blank stencil sheet onto the paper and began cutting using the x-acto knife. This was the most time consuming part of the entire project.
 

3. Placed the redi-lead strips on the window to form the border for each panel. (no overlap) and sealed all the joints using liquid leading.
4. Now it was time for the colours. I wanted to create diagonal streaks of yellow and red in the corner boxes. I began by squeezing out yellow lines and randomly placing red lines in between. Then using a tooth pick I combed the two colours to merge them slightly. The first box I worked on ended up as a box filled with orange rather than a mix of red and yellow lines. Lesson learnt--don't over comb!! Since its the top most box I figured no one will notice ;)

5. After finishing all the corner boxes I moved on to the central design. I taped the stencil in the center of the panel and used the etching medium in a 'pouncing' motion to create the etched design. Continuig the process on the rest of the panels was easy.

I  was very happy with the results of my first DIY project.

Fast forward 3 years and the paint still looks great.

Initial Dabblings

I worked on a few oil paintings from Lola Ade's book and was very proud of the results. Only later did I realize that I was not doing justice to the art form.

They are all reproductions from Lola Ades's book.