I hope everyone’s winter Holidays have been fun and pleasant! For this blog post, I want to talk about my experience building a cuckoo clock kit I got for Christmas. Although it isn’t my art, I think it’s cool to reflect upon my thought process appreciating the original artist of the buildable piece. It’s somewhat similar to doing a study of an artist’s work.

So here’s the clock in question! It was a fun challenge to create. Initially, I was kinda beating myself up about building this clock instead of doing my own art or something more productive. Honestly, it was a really nice break from rushing to complete projects and the like. As I followed the instructions to make the clock, I thought about all the planning and designing it took to create the initial plan for the thing. It seemed pretty well thought out. As you build it, you notice the decisions that were made in the piece. Some things are really clever, others you might think could have been done differently. The whole clock is wonderland themed, with many references to playing cards. I noticed as I was assembling the roof that the symbols on one side were upside down. I assumed this was a mistake. As I continued assembling the roof, I realized that it mimics the look of an ace, thus the upside down symbols on one side. However, I did also realize that the clubs are upside down… I think that is actually a design flaw. Still, I think that this card design adds a really cute touch.

Overall, I really love the design decisions in the clock, and especially love that the bottom step can be pressed to make the cuckoo do his cuckoo noise whenever you want, as opposed to waiting another hour. I love the little pull down light switch as well. The little buttons really give the feel that the clock was thoughtfully designed. The ingenuity within all the moving parts is really cool, and, because I got to wire it up, I feel more proficient working with these types of things in my art going forward. This was a really nice project that let me take a breather and make something I’m truly pleased to have in my home (many thanks to my mom for getting it for me). 

Of course, once I was done with that, I did work on other things. First off, here’s the finished darth vader hat:

The darth vader mask was as much of a doozy to make as you’d imagine. It was another fun challenge, though. I’d like to make another for a craft fair in the future. I think with more practice and different weights of yarn, I could streamline the design further.

I also finished a project I started during the summer and didn’t pick back up last semester. I was illustrating a new home screen for my phone background to remind me of my pets, past and present. I made it through most of it, but I still had to finish two more pets. I think it’s clear as soon as you look at it which two pets were made more recently. I think that’s a sign of improvement! 

Now, it’s back to crocheting to try and finish all my commitments before the swiftly approaching spring semester. I just wish that meant it was spring now… not quite though.

More to come!