Tag Archives: revamping a Swedish Mora clock

Last summer, a friend of mine – Anthony {who is related by marriage} suggested to me that my reproduction Mora clock in the entry would look great if it was painted red.  I would have never considered that color in a million years – I have zero red accents in my house.  I love the color – but it never happened in my decor.  Now, Anthony is not just a casual observer who puts in his two cents…he is an artist and a designer and I have great respect for his talent and ideas.  Red would be such a radical change!  But – I did have this small reproduction Mora clock that I bought when I was first starting to stage homes for sale.  Maybe that could be my test case!

So, I had some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint left over from another project…so I dove in.  I paiinted the body in Emperor’s Silk and the moldings in Versailles. Then I did some distressing.

Then I started to do a little bit of research on various motifs that would be seen on authentic Mora clocks.  Several years ago I bought a fantastic book “Handbook of Decorative Motifs,” by Birthe Koustrup – a Danish artist.  This book is a great resource for any painter or designer.  The book has so many great motifs in it – so I highly recommend it.  But, there were two pages on Swedish design that interested me for this project.  There were bouquets and garlands from paintings in the Zorn Museum of Mora (in Dalecarlie).  I wanted something authentic for the center panel.  I also look up some other designs online and a few that could be placed elsewhere on the clock.  

Pic of the bouquet…pic of the book

 I first did the center design the same size as it was in the book – big mistake.  It looked jumbled and crowded and I spent the better part of Saturday afternoon doing this.  Waste. Of. Time.  But – lesson learned.  So I painted over it, enlarged the pattern and deleted some of it so it would fit – and traced the S-shaped vine and made circles where the flowers would go and repainted again.  I just added two more flowers – one on the top and the other on the bottom to fill out the design. Much better.

I wasn’t happy with a few of the flowers, so I changed the orange ones to Yellow Ochre and did my own design within it.  Nice thing about Folk Art – and Swedish Folk Painting in particular – is that their florals are fanciful and not true to life – very representative.  It’s really a lot of fun painting flowers like these!

I had to add a date to the piece, of course.  I remembered seeing one Mora clock with “1896,” so I put that date in the small center molding panel on the front.  I used the font Blackadder and sized it up to 72 pts. This font seemed the most naïve to me, so it worked.

Trying to figure out where it goes!

I added some other scrolls etc to the sides – and I used some Dark Brown Faux Crème Color with a little bit of water to age some of the corners and motifs.  I haven’t waxed it yet – but I will probably use some Annie Sloan Clear Wax and then if it needs a bit more age – I’ll add some Dark Wax to it.

Mama and baby Mora clocks!

I hope you like it – it was fun to do.  I am especially thrilled to be able to do some close up work now.  As some of you know, I had some eye surgery last week to correct an exo-tropism that had been plaguing me for the past year.  Better known as a lazy eye, this malady of mine should have been picked up when I was a kid but the doctors seem to think I just had great muscle control for many, many years.  It started to really affect my vision in the last year or so – my depth perception kept getting worse and worse.  As an artist, when your eyes begin to go – it’s very depressing. My eyesight is still a but blurry because the surgery was so recent – but every day I am seeing better and better.  The surgery even improved my general eyesight.  Unbelievable!  Now – if only they could do something about the pain right after the operation…

To read about how I antiqued the Mora clock in my entry, click here

 Sharing this with…Miss Mustardseed; Between Naps on the Porch; Savvy Southern Style; Power of Paint; Katherine’s Corner; My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia; Under the Table and Dreaming; Liz Marie Blog; House of Hepworths; The Shabby Creek Cottage; The 36th Avenue; Ivy and Elephants; Redoux; Romantic Home; French Country Cottage; Be Colorful, One Project Closer