I've had the idea for this piece knocking around in my head for a few years now. Since I've been making only one large Victrola-powered piece a year, it took a while, but her time had finally come.

She turned out just how I hoped; she moves slow, fluid, and deliberate; sort of like Tai Chi. In the original concept, her wrist pivoted, but I eliminated this movement because things would have become much more complicated than they already were. She runs for approx. 8 minutes on a full winding. She has 6 cams and levers that operate the 8 strings on her body, and 2 cams and levers that operate the 2 sliders mounted in the roof, that enable her arms to move left and right. Oh yeah, and around the base I added dominoes that are embossed with a Chinese dragon motif. (I almost never add things on that I don't personally create, but these were too perfect.)

This piece took about 250+ hours from start to finish. The figure alone took 37 hours to carve and put together, not including the paint job. The word for her movement is — mesmerizing. (Sorry the movie files are large and take a while to download, but it's well worth the wait. I promise.)

Multimedia Movie #1 Close up of dancing action. 3.15 MB, QuickTime Movie #2 Another close up on dancing action.. 2.45 MB, QuickTime Movie #3 Close up of dancer. 2.5 MB, QuickTime Movie #4 The complex gear system. 2.14 MB, QuickTime Need the plugin?

Additional Pictures

Body under construction Close-up of the dancer's face Levers used in the movement system