Retirees often find themselves with time on their hands and sometimes removed from social contact when they leave jobs they have occupied for 15, 20, 30 years or more.
Craft-related hobbies can provide connections to people with common interests, and offer creative and fulfilling outlets for the time and talents of the recently retired. What’s more, the works of art they create often become heirlooms for children and tangible connections to their own history.
One such craft-related activity is clock making. Many people take up clock making upon retiring, but their reasons for doing so vary widely. More than a way of occupying time, clock making allows hobbyists to keep their minds busy, to employ detailed skills learned in their trades and to express themselves in a creative process.
The professions from which the craftspeople come vary widely from those involved in highly detailed occupations such as tool and die makers and project engineers to firefighters, salespeople, teachers and writers. Others who take up clock making find that it is an activity that fulfills a passionate fascination with time and history.
For example, many clock makers use woods or other objects of both personal and historical significance. Some use wood harvested from their own properties or salvaged from restoration projects. One man uses walnut wood, which as the story goes, came from a staircase that had been put into the White House after it was burned by the British in 1812 for President Madison’s private use.
One of the more prevalent reasons for taking up clock making is the preservation of family heritage. Making heirloom clocks to give to their children and grandchildren allows clock makers to pass along a sense of cultural tradition. One man patterns his designs after architectural elements found in Scandinavian buildings. Many have clocks that their fathers gave to them and that they want to restore as heirlooms for their children. Some even duplicate clocks that they have been given so that each of their children can have the same clock.
Virtually all of those who make clocks as a hobby derive great pleasure and joy in giving their handmade clocks to others. All give clocks as gifts and many include clock making as a way of giving to their communities by donating their works to charitable auctions, and nursing home residents, or using the clock making process as an opportunity to mentor teenagers.
Clock making might seem a daunting hobby to take on later in life, but many start with kits that make the learning process easy. You can start with a complete kit, which includes all the mechanical clock parts as well as the pre-formed case which only needs to be stained, varnished, and assembled. Kits are available in many sizes, and range from simple desktop clocks to large, intricate grandfather clocks. For the more experienced hobbyist, patterns are available that allow the craftsperson to cut their own wood and mix and match faces, hands, chimes and movements.
One of the leading suppliers of clock making kits is Klockit, a Lake Geneva, Wisconsin based company. The company offers complete kits as well as plans for clocks around a variety of themes including traditional grandfather, grandmother and mantle clocks as well as clocks with nature themes, and clocks in which the craftsperson can insert photographs.
You can see more clocks made by crafters, request a catalog or order online at the company’s web site www.klockit.com. Catalogues are also available by calling 800-KLOCKIT (800-556-2548).
Courtesy of ARA Content
