Harvest Time is Over

I've finally completed "Harvest Time," my altered Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Assemblage Clock. This piece was quite the labor of love and when I was just to the end, I tore it apart. You can see where I left off here.

Looking at the clock, it was nice, but it needed something behind it and the layer of bones below seemed hollow and lonely.

I decided to make a tree. First, I used a Tim Holtz tree wooden block stamp that I think may be discontinued. The shape of the tree was what I wanted but cutting it out onto paper it didn't look so hot. I decided to make my own and got some Aves Apoxie clay and used the stamp as a guide. When it was done, I added texture by running a metal pick over the trunk and branches. There was leftover clay so I made two more pumpkins to fill the clock.

Clay tree and pumpkins curing

While the clay cured, I decided I wanted hay around the pumpkins in the clock. This was a disaster - the platform was already glued in place and I was so caught up in the moment of crafting, I didn't think to just remove it. For the hay, I took a handful of honest-to-goodness excelsior and put it into a plastic zipper bag. I added three droppers of Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Antique Linen, closed the bag, and massaged the ink into the excelsior. I removed it and patted it dry with a paper towel. To keep it true-to-scale, I took scissors and snipped away at the shreds until they were about 1/2 inch long.

Yes, I did yell 'Excelsior!' as I stained and trimmed the pieces down

This is where good ideas nearly ruined this project. Since the clock still had a glass front and my platform was glued in place, I applied globs of Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium (Matte) to the tip of my index finger and I somehow was able to reach into the clock from the back, over the paper dolls, and added the medium to the platform in front of the pumpkins. I then dried my fingers off and pinched small bundles of the hay between my index finger and thumb and somehow dropped them onto the medium. It was a messy, time consuming task and the inside of the glass ended up with medium all over it and the hay wasn't as evenly distributed as I wanted.

I figured stopping and painting the now-cured tree and pumpkins would be a good distraction so I didn't cry.

I used regular acrylic craft paint in black to paint the tree and orange for the pumpkins. While they dried, I snipped more grape vines for pumpkin stems (see my previous post).

Painted tree

Once everything was dry, I assembled my clock to see if it needed anything else. In the following photos, you can see the glare and reflection on the glass. That combined with the messy straw sent me over the edge.

Ready for a dry run

This looks nice but the glare and reflection aren't ideal

I ended up taking my platform off, tidying up the hay, and unscrewing the interior nuts that holds the glass in place at the top of the clock. Sadly, the bones were held in place so firmly, I couldn't get to the lower nuts. With a heavy sigh, I enlisted my hubby to break the glass. I think I had my breath held the entire time he smashed the glass and plucked the shards out of the clock.

With the front and back of the clock open, it was now much easier to work on this piece! I ended up painting the inside walls of the clock black and glued the platform back in place.

Disassembled clock pieces

To fill the void around the bones, I used two lengths of Tim Holtz black Tinsel Twine and tucked them in with a metal pick.

The tree seemed too dark so I added silver ink over the high spots to give it more depth and shine. I added a few dabs of E-6000 adhesive to the back of the tree and secured it to the alcohol ink background. Sadly, I made the pumpkins too big to fit inside the clock so I have two ready to go for a future project.

Once the adhesive was dry, I re-assembled the clock. I am absolutely in love with the end result and it will be very difficult to let this piece go, but I can't keep everything.

Complete clock with old paper mache  jacks I made

The pumpkin gang is looking spiffy

Love the silver adding lightness to the background

Close-up of the bone crypt