Despite the unfortunate name, Etsy isn’t all popsicle-stick sculptures and kitten sweaters. Enter: Debunking Etsy, a bimonthly column profiling all the wonderfully talented craftsmen who use the site to peddle well-built, hard-wearing and handsome goods for your home and person.
It took me a long time to learn to tell time. I remember lessons on the subject in elementary school, wedged between units on counting change and building safari dioramas.
Turns out those hours spent learning the anatomy of analog clocks have far less real-world application today than my first-grade teacher had imagined. Other than the tiny watch faces that hang out — largely decoratively — on our wrists, how often do we encounter hour and minute hands? In dentist waiting rooms? Banks? Back to the Future?
And that, folks, is exactly why you should buy one. Digital detoxing has its practical benefits (switching to an analog alarm clock will earn you a better night’s sleep), but we’d just as soon recommend a real, breathing, ticking clock for the simple aesthetic pleasure of channeling decades past.
In most kitchens, the time flashes in green or blue across the oven, microwave and fridge. And there’s always going to be a phone in your pocket. So if you’re adding a clock to the wall, it doesn’t necessarily need to tell time; it should make you inspired or happy, elicit dinner-party compliments and buck up your living room with a dose of unexpected chutzpah.
One of the best options for achieving all there? Etsy’s own ClockLight and its assortment of irregular time-tellers, ranging from bicycle wheels outfitted with clock hands to hanging silver steampunk dials. The owner, Anastasija, launched the shop with her husband four years ago, hoping that a switch from a full-time gig to crafting handmade items might allow her to spend more time with her newborn son. She had experience making clocks for friends in the past, and they debuted the shop with nine editions, hoping to offload one or two monthly. They sold out in 15 days later.
ClockLight is also a business built on sustainability: most of the source materials are sourced at yard sales, and might otherwise end up in a landfill. But when beautified (hard work that requires a good deal of grease removal) and paired with the gears of a clock (a process that can take anywhere from 3-12 hours) they breathe life anew. The hard drives are made of aluminum, the circuit boards from epoxy and copper resin, and the bike parts from various alloys; all capably fulfill Anastasija’s vision of creating objects that look like they rolled out of an old sci-fi flick.
Below, check out a few of our favorites from the shop.
Bicycle Wheel Clock — $115-120
Hard Drive Clock — $44
Hanging Steampunk Clock — $70
Circuit Board Clock — $49
Bike Gear Desk Clock — $46
Nota bene: If you buy through these links, InsideHook may earn a small share of the profits on some items
All images courtesy of ClockLight
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