Celestial Mechanical Calendar by Dave Lee

Celestial Mechanical Calendar by Dave Lee

Dave emails:  "Hi Clayton,

How are you, I hope you are well in your part of the world.

I received plans for the Celestial Calendar from you in March and I have finally finished the project. I know it has taken me a while to do but I made it my lunch time project at work so was limited to spending a maximum of one hour per day for 5 days a week. But at least it gave me something to do in my lunch breaks lol.

I've attached some photos for you to show you my interpretation of your master piece. I hope you like it.

Celestial Mechanical Calendar by Dave Lee

When I first saw a picture of the calendar my thoughts went straight to Victorian engineering. Big gears, crank wheels, levers etc. Well coming from England it's part of our heritage. So my calendar hopefully reflects that. You'll also notice I changed it from being a mechanical calendar and orrery to more of an astrological calendar. Planets moving in retrograde motion did not interest me so much (until I saw your calendar I didn't even know about retrograde motion lol). So I omitted the planet gears and added leap year and Chinese zodiac year wheels. I have made some other changes as I'm sure you will notice. I also made some of my own labels and indicators to correspond with the Victorian look. I added a little bit of Steam-punk too.

 

Celestial Mechanical Calendar by Dave Lee

Well it now sits in my dining room at home in prime position on the wall. My good lady loves it, especially the moon phase ball.

Celestial Mechanical Calendar by Dave Lee

 All creative and constructive criticism is welcome.

Take care and thank you very much for a brilliant set of well designed plans, you are The Man. 

Cheers,

Dave"

Aloha Dave, it was a real joy looking through the pictures of your unique and beautiful CMCO.  I always enjoy seeing the creativity that other artists add to personalize their projects and make them their own.

I noticed right away the moon ball with a personality, the beautiful lettering, the addition of a leap year wheel, and the Chinese Year calendar wheel.  Kudos to you and all are Very nice, but what I REALLY loved seeing is how you pulled all those together and really Steampunked your mechanism up!  That is a genre of art that I love, and your CMCO perfectly captures the essence of Steampunk.  Congratulation on your artistry.

I absolutely love getting pictures like these that show such excellent craftsmanship and innovative artistry. 

Thank you for doing the Celestial Mechanical Calendar Orrery plans so proud.

Aloha.  Clayton

Update 9/4/13-Dave sent us a video link to his CMCO:

Thanks, Dave!!  So cool to be able to see it in action!