The history and development of Forest Creations and Reson-8

Norman Reay is the owner and creative genius behind Forest Creations and Reson-8.

Norman started making clocks in February 2012, after one of life’s tragedies finally caught up with him. What started as a therapeutic hobby is now a full time occupation.

Norman liked the idea of bringing something that was considered dead, or destined for the log burner, back to life. He knew that he could never make a clock with rigid shapes so he chose to work mostly with roots. He really appreciated the shape and beauty of tree roots and believed that, like people, true beauty lies hidden until exposed by removing many layers.

Roots never come into the workshop clean -almost all contain, soil, bricks, stones, glass, plastic and a host of metals, all of which have to be removed by hand. What amazes is that once removed, the cleaning starts and the beginning of “beauty” starts to show. Whilst he is working, he only ever see the part of the clock that is being worked on as the tools used are extremely dangerous.   Very often he is amazed, at the end of the day, to have the opportunity to look at the whole piece for the first time, often stunned at the picture that has taken shape.

Norman tries to work 5 pieces at one time so as to ensure that he is doing something completely different every time he goes in the workshop. Never resentful of the time spent developing his clocks, Norman truly loves his work – a friend of his in India has supplied a quotation which sums up his ethos, and which is especially relevant to clock making:

‘The greatest gift you can give someone is your time because when you give your time you are giving a portion of your life that you will never get back’. 

In 2018 Norman, as Forest Creations,  was fortunate enough to start exporting, and has sent his clocks to Australia, China, Africa, Germany, Sweden, Canada and the USA, as well as to many hundreds of customers across the British isles.

RESON-8

Two years ago Norman started to add resin art to his clocks – he did this to add his own character to certain wood types that had very little character. He taught himself to mix and use Resin in an art form that was both creative and ascetically appealing. These types of clocks became popular almost immediately upon showing them at events.

Having been  asked by customers on a number of occasions if he could apply resin to customers tables and work tops he undertook training in both vertical and horizontal resin applications. He is  now a certified Resin installer. Following this he started the Reson-8 side of his business, and has, for the past twelve months,  used resin art to turn old or damaged work tops and tables into works of art; the beauty of this is the fact that it is the customers own idea /design or colours that are followed, giving each customer a design which reflects their own moods or desires.