I think I've found a perfect project, such that it's become the 'Never-ending Clock Project'.  

What it is/was is a 'motion' clock from MasterCrafters which had a waterfall scene that, once illuminated by a back light and with the slow spinning of a painted cylinder, would cause the water to appear to flow and bubble.  It did none of those things, nor did it have a working clock.  Basically, it was a clock case with some gears, a picture, a cylinder, a socket and switch.  After taking things apart, and rewiring, I was able to get the light socket to work.  So I have decided to make it whatever I want it to be.  

  
After taking it all apart, cleaning it up, applying a coat of satin varnish over the outside of the case (it was such that it made my skin crawl to touch it due to the finish being damaged from age), I set about finding/making a new scene to display.  After a lot of searching and A LOT of playing around with printing techniques, different types of paper, altering pictures myself, etc, I finally got a winner.  It's comprised of two printings of the same scene, but one is all in blue (with part of it removed by an erasure to prevent the blue from interfering) which sits behind one of normal coloring.  In this way it combines the two moods and creates the scene I wanted, and which looked the nicest with the light shining thru it.  To reflect the light better, and because it came without a back plate, I've taken a tobacco canister that has an aluminum-type finish on the interior, cut it in half, and placed it behind the bulb.  I've since purchased a back plate that someone was selling on eBay for this same clock, but I'm keeping the canister piece in place as well.

The next thing to tackle was the clock.  And to be honest, I'm still working on it, hence the 'Never-ending Clock Project' title it's been given.  I purchased a quartz movement, which there were issues with as well since none of the hands fit, and had to be modified.  But the most difficult hand to work out was the secondhand.  Aside from wanting to make it into an axe or hatchet that ticked along, the piece to attach it to was too small, and even worse, it was recessed inside the shaft, making it impossible to attach it to anything!  It took a day or two of trying different things before the idea of a needle suddenly popped into my head.  Long story short, after modifying the needle and replacing the existing shaft with it, I got it to work.  Thankfully, it didn't cause any issues with workings of the clock itself.  

During this time I worked on making a clock face.  First, I wanted a typeface that would be in keeping with the log cabin feel, and found this one called 'Rustic Cabin' (I think?), which I paid a few dollars to download and use.  I'm almost ashamed to say how much paper I've wasted trying to work this out the clock face design, not to mention how much time and how many iterations it's had.  But last night, I think I finally got the one I prefer in the quality and style/colors that I want (don't hold me to this, but I do think I'm finished with clock face design and such).  Now I have to wait for a glass cover to arrive in the mail and hope that it's the right size.  It had a plastic one, but I cracked it when I was taking it off, and I'd have to buy another clock like this one to get a 'new' plastic cover.  The problem I will be facing (no pun intended) is how to get the glass cover attached in such a way as to be able to remove it whenever necessary.  I sort of have an idea how to make it work, but I won't know for sure until I get the piece in the mail, which should be later today.  

  
There are quite a few smaller things I've done to it but aren't worth mentioning, so I think that's mostly what I have to say about it for now. There will be more I'm sure, because I also want to make a sort of lamp out of it as well.  I haven't ordered the parts for that yet, but I have them in the cart waiting until I'm certain I've thought of everything I'll need.

  
Thanks for indulging me!

I'm sure y'all've been wondering what I've been working on lately, right? Right? It's this broken clock that I got off eBay because I wanted to see what I could do with it.  As soon as it arrived I started taking it apart to see what might still work and see what sort of funstration I was in for...