- Christmas Reindeer Silhouette Clock
- by S. Roberts
Make a Christmas decoration that
is both functional and decorative with this festive reindeer
clock.
Silhouette art originated in
Europe in the early 1700's and became very popular in Britain
in the early twentieth century. People would visit a silhouette
artist to have their profile drawn. You could do this yourself
by taping a piece of paper to the wall and sitting a model in
front of the paper (sideways on) and shine a lamp or torch onto
the model so that their shadow is cast onto the paper. Draw around
the outline of their shadow with a pencil, cut it out and stick
it onto a contrasting piece of card. This same technique of crating
a profile made many silhouette artists wealthy and famous.
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To make a reindeer silhouette
clock you wont need any reindeers to model for you, but you will
need...
Black paint, gift wrapping paper,
thick card or an old grocery box, a length of tinsel, a clock
mechanism and clock hands (you will find these at craft shops
or Maplin) and a print out of pattern of reindeers and Santa
in his sleigh. You will find the link to the printable pattern
below.
Stick the print out onto the
back of the gift wrapping paper so that you can still see the
reindeers and Father Christmas. Santa has 9 reindeer, but there
is only enough room on the clock face for five.
When the glue is dry, cut out
the reindeer and the sleigh. |
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To make the clock face, draw around
a large dinner plate or a tea tray onto some card. An old grocery
box is great. Cut out two identical circles, and glue them together
so that the lines in the cards structure cross, this will give
the clock face extra strength.
Once the glue is dry, paint the
clock face black or dark blue. Again leave to dry.
Push a pencil through the centre
of the clock face ready to attach the clock mechanism. Be very
careful and use the old Plasticine trick - Put a ball of Plasticine
on the table, put your card on top of it where you need the hole
to be, and push the pencil through the card and into the Plasticine.
Arrange the sleigh and reindeer
profiles on the clock face t look as if they are in flight and
stick them down.
Push the clock spindle through
the hole and push on the hands. The mechanism has a hole for
hanging the clock on the wall.
Finally stick a length of tinsel
around the edge of the clock face. Use pegs to hole the tinsel
in place whilst the glue dries, and then remove the pegs.
Put a battery in the clock and
then time yourself whilst you name all of Santa's nine reindeer.
The link for the printout. http://www.santaspostbag.co.uk/christmas-reindeer-silhouette-clock.html
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