With most of the decorative gears cut for the automata the next stage would be housing them in some sort of framing structure and then finding something for them to do. The carved lettering had a planned purpose, simply to be the graphic banner title on my website. The idea of using it as part of an automata was also a simple one, just to add an interesting kinetic element and to try out a dormant interest in automata.
The finished automata, I thought, could also attract some interest at shows and get a gig on YouTube a few times, providing me with with a bit of elementary video making experience. I have been hoping to use video to provide learning material for small scale woodcarving, using knives and Palm tools, particularly in the context of lovespoon carving.
From this point on in the automata project, simple ideas were collected. They were then fashioned, mostly from wood, into material form. And then a searched-for place was sought for them, somewhere in the growing train of mechanical devices.
The objects that found their way into the assemblage were:
Movevements I thought interesting to watch - and makeable.
A resigned, slightly resentful human-like and character to do the winding drudgery.
A Cheshire Cat, mildly mocking everything. A contented chameleon, an attentive, interested dog and an intruding but industrious spider.
A beetle intended to be the chameleon's main interest couldn't be animated efficiently and I couldn't devise a rapid movement for the chameleon's tongue. So the project reached the finishing, assembly and tweaking stage, facilitated by the one bit of thoughtful design on my part; all removeable screwed and bolted components, with adjustable slightly slotted holes.
I will show and describe the carving and finishing of some of the individual elements of the automata in some following posts.
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