Jodie Davis Cuckoo Clock Artist

04/29/2025

Happy Gotcha Day Miss Ally!

07/26/2024

Yes, as a matter of fact, I am making a skeleton for a cuckoo clock.

04/04/2024

The bellows and the cuckoo kitty are in The Rx for Liberty Cuckoo Clock. Ready to be hooked up and set to running.

01/03/2024

Yes, the latter part of 2023 I’ve been scarce here. I’ve spent some time on my clocks, but not much. Life has been full of LIFE. In a very, VERY good way.

Every time I’ve started to kick myself for not having my nose to the grindstone, I’ve added up what’s gone on in the past months. Wow.

The best way I can say it is 2023 bore the fruits of holding space in every area of my life, years of it. My horse mentor says it this way: “You set it up, be what you want the horse to be, feel what you want her to feel, then wait. Let Delight find you. And then, when she falls out of balance again, ask her, ‘Here, isn’t it better here?’”

2024 is sure set up squarely of all fours, with feel, freedom and impulsion. Thank you 2023!

11/15/2023

I am flagged down all the time in the cuckoo van asking about repair. The closest clock doc just retired. Now the closest that I know of is over an hour away.

OKEECHOBEE — We live in a world where most of the things we use are consumable and disposable, and some trades are no longer as in-demand as they once were. In years gone by, shoes weren’t just …

11/15/2023

I've been published!

Such an honor to have been asked to write a small piece for Automata Magazine.

A regular section of the magazine, the purpose of "a PART of the story" is to show how to do something related to making automata, to egg readers on to make great stuff. This little article is about how simple it is to scan for 3D printing.

Honestly, I don't recall when I anticipated and devoured a quilting magazine like I do Automata. For sure way back in the early years of Quilters Newsletter when there was lotsa meat in its pages. Automata today is like that. I learn a ton in every issue. Much is not applicable directly to cuckoo clocks (has to do with the timing of the coo and coo) but the content always stretches my brain with insight into how these maestros pull off their magic and gives me paths to explore.

It's only $5 an issue for the digital issues. Beautifully put together too. Oh, and I believe you can download a sample issue for free. Have fun!

Automata Magazine Einscan

10/17/2023

"Still life with scroll saw cut bird and scroll saw and power carved cow."

Oh, what a difference great tools make! I sound like an ad, but it's deserved.

First, I design in Corel Draw, which I've been using since the early 90s for designing patterns for my mamy how-to books.

My critters take shape thanks to WEN scroll saw, which at just over $100 is a bargain.

The hanging Dremel is so much easier to maneuver than the handheld, and the foot pedal is great.

My new Saburrtooth bits are a huge improvement over anything else I've used. As in night and daym In fact, when I first tried power carving with the supplied bits, I didn't get what the hoorah was about. Now I do.

Chiming in big time are my lungs. The Dust Deputy is everything I read. My woodworking shop used to be a fog of dust. No more!





artist

10/16/2023

Doesn't every log cabin porch need a lady in a rocking chair with a kitty in her lap?

Well then of course, so does a Log Cabin Cuckoo Clock. Better yet, this lady rocks!

One of the challenges with cuckoo clock animation is the timing of the cuckoos. The intervals between the cuc and the koo are borderline for being at all workable for the rocking chair. But it does in fact work. And is oh-so-cute.

09/26/2023

A cuckoo clock joke for you.

Mick, from Dublin, appeared on 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' and towards the end of the program had already won 500,000 euros.

"You've done very well so far," said Chris Tarrant, the show's presenter, "but for a million euros, you've only got one life-line left, phone a friend. Everything is riding on this question. Will you go for it?"

"Sure," said Mick. "I'll have a go!"

"Which of the following birds does NOT build its own nest?

a) Sparrow

b) Thrush,

c) Magpie,

d) Cuckoo?"

"I haven't got a clue." said Mick, ''So I'll use the last lifeline and phone my friend Paddy back home in Dublin .."

Mick called up his mate, and told him the circumstances and repeated the question to him.

"Fookin hell, Mick!" cried Paddy. "Dat's simple it's a cuckoo."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm fookin sure."

Mick hung up the phone and told Chris, "I'll go with cuckoo as my answer."

"Is that your final answer?" asked Chris.

"Dat it is."

There was a long, long pause and then the presenter screamed, "Cuckoo is the correct answer! Mick, you've won 1 million euros!"

The next night, Mick went round to Paddy's to buy him a drink.

"Tell me, Paddy? How in Heaven's name did you know it was da Cuckoo that doesn't build its own nest?"

"Because he lives in a Fookin clock!"

09/25/2023

Look where I am, the mecca of folk art!

If you didn't make it this year, next year is a must. What a happy place!

09/20/2023

The owl for my Hickory Flat Cuckoo Clock before and after painting.

This little guy started out bigger. I shrank him. How? Digitally!

First I sculpted him from Monster Clay, then scanned him, and 3D printed him in a wood PLA filament. He's so small I would never be able to get the detail if I carved him or sculpted him that size.

While my clocks are traditional weight-driven cuckoo clocks, sometimes a bit of modern-day technology helps to achieve my vision. 🙂

Monster Clay

09/18/2023

I love serendipitous solutions!

We made stands for the cuckoo clocks that work great once they are put together, at the running stage, which are lined up on a long table in my workshop. I stand there and work on the clocks at just the right height, the ability to turn the stands and therefore the clocks, and room for the weights to travel.

But before that, when the case is constructed (and brought back from my woodworking shop) and I'm adding things, including the movement and bellows and animation and trim etc. , I want the clock on the table where I sit.

I was about to make mini stands when...

One day one of these storage boxes was sitting nearby. I had the thought of using it to store the parts for the clock I was working on. When I did so, I looked at the clock, looked at the box, and thought, "I wonder if it could be a clock stand?" Sure enough, it is perfect! now I have a stand plus everything is together.

I don't think of myself as a highly organized person, but visitors to my workshop remark about its tidiness. I don't clean everything up each evening. But I do make effort to keep things organized, There's enough moving parts and clocks in progress to keep me on my toes without having to look for things. Which, inevitably, happens anyway.

Where are those owls.... 😁