August 21, 2002, 2002
Time for a really unique invention: Wooden clocks
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Thinking out of the box, artist Larry Nelson creates unique wooden clocks that literally stop traffic.
As he stands outside of a display window downtown during this summer's Friday Night Lives, people stop in their tracks to gawk at his oversized and unusual creations. With wooden gears turning and pendulum swaying - one clock even features a wooden chain he devised to make it run - questions come fast and furious: How do you make these? How do they run? Why wood? Why?
For Nelson, a tool and die maker and company owner, his hobby of clock making has transformed into an avocation, a passion for invention that drives his days.
"I was always into clocks, fascinated," he said. "With some study, I realized that 100 years ago clocks were made with wooden gears, and with new technology I've brought the old way of doing things back."
As for the questions and interest in his clocks, nothing could make Nelson happier.
"I love meeting people and listening to their comments," he said. "People from all over the country have enjoyed my work."
His clocks do have a modern twist: The pendulums on Nelson's clocks are now for show as a small electric motor drives the gears.
"Originally I was a purist but I found that people do not want to wind their clocks," he said.
Nelson has been producing wooden clocks for two years, making about 30 in that time using a variety of woods and designs. However, he spent many years before that thinking about the idea, researching history and designs and creating his own design and production methods. Nelson also redesigned the way clocks run, actually driving them from the opposite end.
"Nobody had ever done that before," he said.
He drew on his decades of experience in tool and die making to make the components of the clocks, which number in the hundreds for his limited editions or one-of-a-kind pieces. He cuts the gears on a CNC milling machine, though he makes some by hand using a small duplicator. He sands and finishes the pieces and assembles them by hand.
Each clock has an average of 16 gears, all wooden, as well as toggles, spindles and pendulums. Separating the clock gears so it would run was a huge challenge but he threw himself into the task.
"I spent several years part time trying out different combinations of teeth and curves, a good two or three years perfecting the mechanics," Nelson recalled. "But once I had it down, then it became a matter of doing it. Now it is just sizing if I have to do anything special."
Nelson found that clock gears are temperamental and precision of design and production is crucial.
"If there is too much friction or they don't fit just right on the involute curves, they won't run," he noted.
Nelson recently collaborated with Paul Paradis of Symmetree Designs to make an oversized clock on a giant slab of wood. This clock is a centerpiece in the display window downtown between Horizon Books and the State Theater.
Paradis said the two met at last fall's Leelanau Furniture Show, which Nelson participated in for the first time. After talking, the two decided to work together. Paradis, whose signature work is furniture made from large slabs of wood, said Nelson's clocks are a striking blend of innovation and a technical expertise.
"I haven't seen anything like it before," Paradis said. "Clocks have been made out of wood for a long, long time, but I think what Larry has done is sort of take it to a new level with imagination and a lot of ability to take the technical expertise he has and apply it in creative ways."
Delving into his creativity is a new pursuit for Nelson, who spent his career cutting and shaping metal and running a business. He is currently closing his business, Honer Die Inc., and moving to a home-based studio to concentrate on clock making full time.
The satisfaction for Nelson is taking something so accurate and mechanical and turning it into a piece of art. So far, he has found no end to the challenges or the design possibilities and is thrilled with the chance to continue building clocks.
"The unique thing about functional art is that it is fun," Nelson said, who also loves the satisfying wooden sound of his clocks' tic-toc. "Not only looks interesting and solves a design problem, but it also works, is moving."
"I found one day that I can look at a piece of wood and see a clock in it," he added.