Create a Time is Money hour glass in photoshop
In this tutorial we will learn how to create an hourglass.

This tutorial is for intermediate users. Beginners may find little difficult to follow.
Open a new document 500 x 500 pix.
Create a new layer. Fill it with a dark color. Preferably black.
Select the Ellipse tool (U). Go to the Custom shape tool and click the Geometry Options. Enter the values as below.

Click on the canvas. Place it at little above bottom, center. Goto the Filters > Render >Fiber.
Select the background color to #c38140 and foreground color to #804426.
Press the randomize button to get exact result.

From the transform menu, Rotate 90 degree. The wood material is now horizontal.
Set the vertical scale to 16%.
We have now created the first ellipse, will make some modification and create a second ellipse.
Change the ellipse diameter to 245. Select the layer and duplicate it 15 times.
Tip: Press Alt and use the up arrow key 15 times. Release the Alt key. Select these duplicated 15 layers and merge it (clrl+E).
Place it in between the white ellipses as below.

Apply the same fiber texture, which will be vertical.(center part)
To make it like a disc, apply some depth. Apply gradient fill as below.

And apply the drop shadow as below.

Duplicating the base or start making with ellipse as we did for the base layers.

Apply bevel settings.

The result for the duplicated layer will be like this.

Now duplicate all layer and mirror it. Change the settings of the gradient depth to reverse in the gradient settings panel.

Next lets make a pipe. and apply gold color to it.


We have not applied a strong shiny color here. If you wish to make it more shiny you can do it by adjusting the above gold gradient colors.

Add some rings and bend it as shown below. Select the shape > Transform > Warp > Select Arc from the drop down menu.
Change the settings to 20 |10 |0 |-10|-20 respectively.

On the rod put on either side, giving equal distance from the end.

To make the glass shape. Start with 1/4 design as below. Then add the remaining by duplicating it. Merge all the layers. name it glass.

Select the glass shape. From the Select Menu on top > got to Modify > Contract. Give value around 15 – 20.
Apply feather around 25px. Hit delete. If you are not happy with the transparency hit the delete button, keeping the same selection on.
Next make a shape for glass reflection. ( Refer previous tutorial )

Apply Gaussian blur around 4. Adjust to get a fine result by using preview.

Lets create some sand inside the glass. Draw a shape as below and fill it with color – #e1d2b1.
Apply sandstone texture from the filters menu. Again make a similar layer and change the hue.

Select the brush tool and make some spray using white and yellow color.
Add some gold coin image and give outer glow element around 50 px. ( Refer previous tutorial )

Final result.

Hour Glass














DUDE!!! Nice one!
thank you for this creative tut..
nice tut, superb work. Thanks
nice tut, but i want more creative design and can i get PSD file of this tutotial. thanks
Nice tutorial.
Added to http://www.tutorialand.com
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interesting tutorial. Thanks
Hi I think your post – a Time is Money hour glass in photoshop | PSD Guides – Design Tutorials and Inspirations? it?s really great. Hope some another good post to read on this blog in the future. Take care.
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it’s funtastic…thanks
Thanks, nice tutorial!
thanks for the great tut!
This tutorial is so amazing ! Thanks a lot, this is really well done !
please email me, i am wondering if you could make me an hourglass for our scrabble league. we want the sand to match our letters.
Great job!
[...] 70. Create a Time is Money hour glass in photoshop [...]
I get stuck in this part Change the ellipse diameter to 245. Were can I change the diameter ? And I dont know If im changing the rotations or vertical right. Im following the steps but it looks wrong ? Help
Please refer the first step where we used 250px to create ellipse.
In the same way create another ellipse with 245px.
Hope this will solve your problem