Broken Tiled Clock Transformed To Beautiful “Island Memory” Decor

I had tossed the clock mechanism long ago but got busy cleaning the grimy stuff off it. I had put it into my stash and hadn’t thoroughly cleaned it until today. I took it apart and put all pieces into hot sudsy water with Dawn detergent. A good portion of the grime came off easily. The clock face turned out to be a HUGE hurdle to get over! It took about an hour to get it almost cleaned! Talk about a mess! The clock face had dry rotted and the adhesive held it together until I started using a single edged razor blade to lift it off. The flecks were flying everywhere! 🙄 My arms looked like I had white freckles. I still had to use lots of Goo Gone to soften the adhesive. Finally got the front cleaned and then began to work on the back side. It was pitiful too.

I went into my hubby’s workshop and plugged in my Dremel hand tool and sawed off ALL the protruding pieces from the back side. I wanted the back to be completely flat. I sanded it to get the rough spots smooth. I then started getting the gooey labels off. Once accomplished, back it went into the hot sudsy bath to remove any residual grime. I was going to reuse the back of the clock but it was about a half inch deep so I used some cardboard circles cut to fit to fill in the depth I needed so that my transformation would be flat against the glass.

Pre COVID-19 pandemic, I had saved the paper wrappers from Scott tissue until I had enough to make homemade paper. I tore them unto smaller pieces, added water and a drop or two of blue food coloring. Then blended them together in my blender. I then poured the blended pulp onto a Dollar Tree splatter screen minus the handle and pressed out as much water with my palms and then set it outside to dry. The poem, “If Once If You Have Slept On An Island “, by Rachel Lyman Field, I had received when I went on a week long Road Scholar tour several years ago on Campobello Island in Canada. I have kept it because it reminded me of many days and nights spent on St. Simons Island and Jekyll Island here in Georgia. I knew I would use it in some way in a craft one day. Today was that day. (I’m sure some of you Hometalkers have a special island where you spent some magical days and nights too.) I hot glued the St. Simons Island lighthouse print and poem onto my homemade paper and then glued a remnant piece of jute around the outer edge of my homemade paper to finish the edge. I hot glued the two starfish onto the outside of the glass. FYI. I put a cost of $2.00 because it would have cost that to buy the jute rope and splatter screen if I had not already had them at home. All it actually cost me was time. Now onto the next project!

This is the piece on a copper colored easel that I have had for quite some time. I’m very happy with the end result. Let me know what you think. Would love for you Hometalkers to check out my other projects and see what I have done with more unusual items.