It's About Time !

[Mark Yundt]

I was scanning some old photos ( yes, 35mm ) into my computer for storage and I thought you'd get a kick out of these.
Naturally since they were on film I did them some time ago but I still think they are neat. Once you see just what they are I hope you enjoy them as much as I did restoring them for a client.
The scale of these and some of the details are pretty cool I think.

[Mark Yundt]

Yeah,, they're Pocket watch Hutches. Made for keeping a pocket watch held upright during storage or overnight. My client had an extensive collection of all types of clocks , watches etc. and he said they keep better time if kept vertical as they would be in your vest pocket. When you'd turn in for the night you'd put your watch in one of these.
Here is another that I think is just spectacular when you consider the size. That inlay and the spiral columns were "fun" to work on as I did the repairs and made new pieces for it.

In the above photos I had to duplicate one of the finials, the moldings under the face ( the very fine one and the cove molding) On the other it needed veneer replacements as you can see some missing. And I had to replace one of the rope type moldings along the case. When done I did the Gold leafing too.

[Mark Yundt]

This one in particular just blows me away. Whoever did it was just amazing as a carver. as you can see it's approximately 10 inches wide and was almost 12 inches high. Those small flowers were under 1/8th inch. The leaves around the opening for the watch were even smaller.
The rest of the carving is just a tour de force in my opinion. Just look at the details and think of just how small this carving really is. And the top section,, Oh my.

The carving is so clean, crisp it just makes me scratch my head. Look at the areas behind the carving and even those areas are spotless. How fine the veins are on some of the leaves etc. the edging.

[Mark Yundt]

And then just for fun he asked if I could make a watch in wood. Sure. He gave me one to use for reference.
As you can see I copied ( rather crudely but it was kinda small for the burner I had) the scene on the back of the watch. I put his name on the face as well as on the side of the train.
I made a "crystal" for both the natural and the painted watches I made and beveled the edge as the real watch had. I did this out of Plexi.
I then made another which I painted. The face, the hands etc. were all by hand. Considering how long ago I did this some of the work is a bit iffy ,,, but it kept me busy at the time and he loved them.
Why 3:06? That's the time of his birth of course!

[Mel Fulks]

They are spectacular. I find it interesting that the marquetry piece, like many other great examples,has such a naive interpretation of classical design.

[Mark Yundt]

Yeah , how about it. But how often do we borrow from the classics. I still do it today.
He had such a variety of these but I only have photos of ones I worked on. I do have shots of one that truly looks like folk art as the carving is rather crude compared to these but it still has great appeal.

[Roger Strautman]

OK Mark, say what you want I do believe that you can carved one like is in your picture. Maybe make one to hold one of your special razors. The spark that lead to the fire! LOL!

[Mark Yundt]

Well thank you Roger for the vote of confidence. But I still believe this is one fine example of some truly great carving.
Hopefully on the next job that should be coming in ( I'll be posting the sketches) I'll be able to push things a bit more than I have on other jobs. This one will qualify.

[Ryan Mooney]

Wow those are inspirational! How lucky to have been able to work on those; thanks for digging them up and sharing them.

I'm quite fond of the way the leaves flow on the one in the third post, besides the pure technical excellence its also an artistic tour de force. What do you believe the wood was used for that carving? Getting details that small that crisp is interesting.

Personally I like the rope molding in the first post better than the second as a matter of personal taste but the veneer work on the latter is indeed stunningly done.

[Mark Yundt]

Yes it was fun seeing the stuff this guy came up with. He had one of the top 3 early American Folk Art collections in the country.
The wood on that carving is Mahogany.
That rope molding was so tiny but I got it done. That, and the little finials. Just matching the one was how shall I say,, interesting?

[Ryan Mooney]

The temptation to spend days just ogling the pieces would have been a bit much for me.

The wood on that carving is Mahogany.

Much nicer than the Mahogany I've seen lately - ah for the good old days I suppose

That rope molding was so tiny but I got it done. That, and the little finials. Just matching the one was how shall I say,, interesting?

The molding is imho fantastic, the form and lines of it really work for me. I can certainly see that it would have been a trick turning those, in the end I'm not sure which one you did though so its certainly a good match from here.

I used to work with a fellow who did soldering under a microscope with 1-2 micron wide gold wires - but he was using a bunch of tooling to reduce movements so not quite the same.

[Mark Yundt]

Relatively speaking this isn't so small compared to the guy who carves pieces of dust and grains of sugar! And then he paints them as well using a human hair.
He has Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs in the eye of a needle among other things. The carvings are sold with a full size microscope in a sealed box so any draft won't blow the carving away.

And no, this ain't no April fools joke either.

[Michael Kellough]

Amazing work! Yours too Mark

"the spiral columns were "fun"". No doubt. I'd like to know how you wrapped veneer around such a small post.

[Mark Yundt]

I figured if it was done once it could be done again. I took a strip of veneer and soaked it. Wrapped it around a dowel of the same size and let it dry. Then I was able to trim it to fit the missing/ damaged sections.

[David Weaver]

The piece in the third post is really really spectacular. The level of the work, and the amount of it done on just that piece is baffling.