Local Artisan Restores Antique Clock Faces
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
CHAPMAN LAKE - The steady stream of packages make most days just like Christmas morning.
With great anticipation the recipient carefully unwraps the contents to view the tenderly packaged damaged or faded goods.
Elaine Kokenge restores or recreates 18th-century clock faces, gears and tablets.
The Ball State University graduate never knows what will arrive in the post, except that it will be a precious, antique clock piece needing repainting, repolishing or reproducing.
Her work in timepieces began 11 years ago, when a clock repairing friend asked her if she would restore a clock face or two. He worked on the clock shell and mechanics. For two years he gave her a couple of projects a month and urged her to advertise in a trade magazine.
Since then the work has steadily arrived at Elaine's Studio.
Potential clients send in parts of their clocks - the faces, gears or tablets - with specific instructions about the work they want done.
Often the clock's history is provided. She knows the piece has been handed down from generation to generation.
When clocks began to be manufactured in quantity, they were peddled through a lease. For a few pennies the timepieces were kept in the home. When the lease expired the salesman came around to collect the clock that had graced the mantlepiece for months.
By then the home's occupants couldn't do without it and a successful sale was concluded.
Because the prices were relatively dear, the clocks became heirlooms.
If Kokenge's quote is accepted, she proceeds with the work. If the quote is rejected, the piece is returned to the owner.
Kokenge, 39, will admit her approach is, by necessity, detail- oriented and, often, backward.
Tablets are glass panels on clock doors. They block the view of a swinging pendulum.
Whether the subject matter is pastoral, floral, architectural or mythological, the images are realistic in nature, down to the dew on a rose petal.
If Kokenge's client wants a reproduction, it's the dew on a rose petal the client gets.
She photographs the pieces as they come in to start the painstaking process of reproduction.
Fortunately she has access to old glass, which has a different look and texture than modern glass, to serve as the tablet's canvas.
First a template is made - a detailed sketch of what is left of the original.
"A tablet can be missing huge areas of the image," she said. "But there is always the ghost."
Through the years the paint layers become part of the glass. Shapes are discernable if the piece hasn't been cleaned.
"The ghost tells you what was there. Reproduction is a fascinating, challenging thing do," she said.
Using oil-based paint mixed with a special medium so it adheres to glass, her first steps are to paint the details. Larger areas of color are filled in layer by layer.
Antique clocks often were highlighted with gold leaf, silver or bronze.
She's trained herself to apply these embellishments, too, although she contracts out resilvering - calling the process too toxic.
Carefully unscrewing the lid of a small glass jar, Kokenge reveals contents of a fine silver-colored dust.
"It's bronzing powder," she said in a whisper, fearful of disturbing the air over the particles. "When I work with this stuff it gets everywhere. I have to clean the entire basement after I use it."
The silver powder is bronze and turns that color through a chemical process.
From the elaborate, highly illustrative tablets to "simple" jobs of applying black paint to faded Roman numerals on an original clock face, Kokenge marvels at the diversity and artistry of each part.
"I've worked on pieces from Australia and England," she said. "I've been surprised at every arrival."
Sometimes faces were printed on paper or wood; others were fired in porcelain.
Each material requires a different approach, and Kokenge is a master of many skills.
Gears are metal, often bronze, which doesn't rust, and they must be stripped, sanded and polished before being painted.
"Diversification has been my saving grace," she said. "There is a phenomenal amount of variety in the clocks."
Kokenge photographs the finished piece for her portfolio and informs the client the work is done.
She has rarely had a payment problem because the owners have discovered, as their ancestors before them, that the clocks are something they just can't do without. [[In-content Ad]]
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CHAPMAN LAKE - The steady stream of packages make most days just like Christmas morning.
With great anticipation the recipient carefully unwraps the contents to view the tenderly packaged damaged or faded goods.
Elaine Kokenge restores or recreates 18th-century clock faces, gears and tablets.
The Ball State University graduate never knows what will arrive in the post, except that it will be a precious, antique clock piece needing repainting, repolishing or reproducing.
Her work in timepieces began 11 years ago, when a clock repairing friend asked her if she would restore a clock face or two. He worked on the clock shell and mechanics. For two years he gave her a couple of projects a month and urged her to advertise in a trade magazine.
Since then the work has steadily arrived at Elaine's Studio.
Potential clients send in parts of their clocks - the faces, gears or tablets - with specific instructions about the work they want done.
Often the clock's history is provided. She knows the piece has been handed down from generation to generation.
When clocks began to be manufactured in quantity, they were peddled through a lease. For a few pennies the timepieces were kept in the home. When the lease expired the salesman came around to collect the clock that had graced the mantlepiece for months.
By then the home's occupants couldn't do without it and a successful sale was concluded.
Because the prices were relatively dear, the clocks became heirlooms.
If Kokenge's quote is accepted, she proceeds with the work. If the quote is rejected, the piece is returned to the owner.
Kokenge, 39, will admit her approach is, by necessity, detail- oriented and, often, backward.
Tablets are glass panels on clock doors. They block the view of a swinging pendulum.
Whether the subject matter is pastoral, floral, architectural or mythological, the images are realistic in nature, down to the dew on a rose petal.
If Kokenge's client wants a reproduction, it's the dew on a rose petal the client gets.
She photographs the pieces as they come in to start the painstaking process of reproduction.
Fortunately she has access to old glass, which has a different look and texture than modern glass, to serve as the tablet's canvas.
First a template is made - a detailed sketch of what is left of the original.
"A tablet can be missing huge areas of the image," she said. "But there is always the ghost."
Through the years the paint layers become part of the glass. Shapes are discernable if the piece hasn't been cleaned.
"The ghost tells you what was there. Reproduction is a fascinating, challenging thing do," she said.
Using oil-based paint mixed with a special medium so it adheres to glass, her first steps are to paint the details. Larger areas of color are filled in layer by layer.
Antique clocks often were highlighted with gold leaf, silver or bronze.
She's trained herself to apply these embellishments, too, although she contracts out resilvering - calling the process too toxic.
Carefully unscrewing the lid of a small glass jar, Kokenge reveals contents of a fine silver-colored dust.
"It's bronzing powder," she said in a whisper, fearful of disturbing the air over the particles. "When I work with this stuff it gets everywhere. I have to clean the entire basement after I use it."
The silver powder is bronze and turns that color through a chemical process.
From the elaborate, highly illustrative tablets to "simple" jobs of applying black paint to faded Roman numerals on an original clock face, Kokenge marvels at the diversity and artistry of each part.
"I've worked on pieces from Australia and England," she said. "I've been surprised at every arrival."
Sometimes faces were printed on paper or wood; others were fired in porcelain.
Each material requires a different approach, and Kokenge is a master of many skills.
Gears are metal, often bronze, which doesn't rust, and they must be stripped, sanded and polished before being painted.
"Diversification has been my saving grace," she said. "There is a phenomenal amount of variety in the clocks."
Kokenge photographs the finished piece for her portfolio and informs the client the work is done.
She has rarely had a payment problem because the owners have discovered, as their ancestors before them, that the clocks are something they just can't do without. [[In-content Ad]]