Custom Carved Clocks

The Design Process

 
The pictures above illustrate the "before"and "after" of the design
process for a custom carved clock with Elwin Designs. This process
follows two basic steps towards a documented family heirloom:
 

 Developing Designs

If you have a design or idea in mind you're off to a great start. If you don't have
any idea of what you'd like, we have a meeting at the kitchen table over coffee
and cookies. We chat, discuss your likes and dislikes, good ideas, bad ideas, things
that are important to you; things you'd like included, family, pets, different ways to
represent things you'd like included and anything else that may come to the surface.
In the corporate world they call this a "brainstorming session". Here we also
discuss wood types, clock styles and sizes, over all dimensions, clock faces and hands,
clock movements (if you have your own, we can incorporate it), clock finishes of
natural wood or painted colors, and let's not forget hidden compartments. We take all this
information and come up with a rough design before we part company. An example
of this is in the pictures above. The clock was for this woman's husband who's a hunter.
They didn't have a lot of space so a tambour style clock would fit most places in her home.
She is a very funny woman and thought that having her husband sleeping on a hunt while
a seven point buck is close by would be a great topic. She also has three sons
represented by the three acorns and each son has a riffle with their initial on it in this
design. She was also inspired by oak leaves so they were used to frame the clock face.
 

Creating Previews

Here is where Kristie does her magic. Kristie has an amazing ability to design
things. Her gift for proportions and layout are unmatched. Kristie takes all the
information we discussed with the rough design and makes the final design sketches.
This sketch has to be approved by you and will be the final plan that is carved and/or
fabricated. Sometimes a few changes have to be made before it is finalized for approval
and that's expected. Once the final draft is approved, the sketch is signed, dated, and
sent to the workshop.
 
All the paperwork of idea note sheets, rough sketches and final drafts generated
 by our discussions are dated and kept for a documented history of your piece.