S-One Expo Stuttgart
Marina At Keppel Bay
South, Singapore
November 2012
The Cuckoo Clock Workshop was full even before 1200 hours. Such was its popularity!
The participants were seated in a row of white tables
and given some wooden cuckoos to paint with dark brown wood paint...
and given some wooden cuckoos to paint with dark brown wood paint...
This was followed by a session where the clockmaker showed them
how to use the chisel to shave a block of wood...
Gerhard, the clockmaker, hails from Black Forest in Germany. He lives about half an hour away from Lake Titisee and has a workshop nearby. It is not an easy job, he says, a lot of strength is required to chisel at the wood daily - his tough biceps can attest to that!
A cuckoo clock is a clock, typically pendulum-regulated, that strikes the hours with a sound like a common cuckoo's call and typically has a mechanical cuckoo that emerges with each note.
The story of clock making in the Black Forest began in the 1630s. People there had always crafted and carved using the local wood that was one of the few natural resources in the area, especially during the long winters when the land was covered with snow and they could hardly leave their houses. The clock with the unusual bird call very quickly spread around the region.
A selection of Gerhard's beautiful handcrafted cuckoo clocks. The ones here are not on sale.
Orders can be made online from his website. The simplest starts at S$450 with a 70 Euro shipping fee...
Gerhard's impressive set of tools...
Which he used to carve out these beautiful decorations...
The full album is available at:
Merlion Wayfarer's Picasa (Events - S-One Expo Stuttgart)
