Carla Sundermann : Finsnickare

I am a joiner who has specialised in set carpentry. During my apprenticeship, I have spent time at the Royal Swedish Opera, SVT’s Julkalender and the Volksbühne Theatre in Berlin. I started building this cuckoo clock while I was on Erasmus in Germany. My grandmother is from the Black Forest region of Germany and we always had cuckoo clocks at home and they fascinated me.

The housing of the clock is made from walnut wood from the year 1957 (I was lucky to receive some from the theatre’s old stores). My goal was to build all of the wooden elements of the clock, however the clockwork itself and the music box were bought. I liked that this project combined many elements of carpentry: strict angles and joints for the housing, free forms, carving, mechanical and decorative elements. I feel it reflects much of what I learned during my apprenticeship working with set carpentry (albeit on a much smaller scale). The clock is displayed on a tree which I later plan to recycle as a coat stand.