I've always thought it would be cool to put a wind-up motor in one of my pieces instead of using keys to operate the figures. The only motor I believed would be strong enough were Victrola motors, which are pretty hard to come by, and not wanting to take a motor out of a working model, I shelved the idea. It wasn't until 2000 that I found a source for old Victrola motors and I proceeded to try out my idea.
Movie #1 Trio in action 2.43 MB, Quicktime Movie #2 The mechanics of the trio 2.24 MB, Quicktime	"Rachelle, Rocko and Dave" 2006 16 1/2 x 20 x 8 1/2 A mischievous dentist in Ft. Worth wanted this humorous piece about his wife, Rocko their African Grey parrot, and himself. The idea of his figure patting his wife'’s backside was totally his idea and I take no responsibility for any future marital discord. I will admit it is a funny piece. It's powered by another 'old school' 8mm camera motor.
Movie #1 "Grace" curtsies 1.7 MB, Quicktime Movie #2 Close-up of "Grace" 1.78 MB, Quicktime	"Grace" 2006 14 x 21 x 4 This piece, which is powered by another 8mm camera motor, took a while to figure out, lots of trial and error. One special thing I had to do was to hollow out the back of her head to get it to fall forward when she bows. Her movement turned out just as I intended and I couldn't think of a more perfect name.
Movie #1 "James K. Polk" waves his flag 1.4 MB, Quicktime	"James K. Polk" 2005 18 x 37 1/2 x 10 3/4 My friend organized a great gallery show around the music of They Might Be Giants. I chose the song "James K. Polk" because of its obscure subject matter. You know I love all things obscure. Polk is powered by a Victrola motor and is controlled by 4 cams and levers inside. I painted the lyrics to the song on the sides. Waving the stars and stripes, he marches along proudly. This piece was part of the show.
Movie #1 "The Conductor's Music" in action, complete with sound 2.8 MB, Quicktime	"The Conductor's Music" 2005 20 1/2 x 34 1/2 x 13 I've always wanted to make a true musical piece with actual working "instruments." Our hero stands out front conducting in a random pattern thanks to the 4 cams and levers that control his strings. The 7 instruments can be seen when you open the doors in back. This piece makes a great sound, and most people like seeing the back as much as the front.
Movie #1 "Roundabout" in action 2.99 MB, Quicktime   Movie #2 Close-up 3.7 MB, Quicktime	"Roundabout" 2004 15 x 12 x 15 In the fall of 2004, I began experimenting with different materials; before this, I mainly used wood and a little brass. On this piece the figures are old doll heads and the casters were junkshop finds. Inside is a small wind-up Victrola motor geared down so it runs more slowly. The outside is covered with pieces of salvaged tin. This piece makes a very subtle, but very cool, noise as the heads roll around.
Movie #1 "On Our Voyage" in action. 1.37 MB, QuickTime Movie #2 Close-up of "On Our Voyage" working. 1.68 MB, QuickTime Movie #3 Look at the mechanisms, to show how it works. 1.77 MB, QuickTime Movie #4 Close-up mechanism. 1.69 MB, QuickTime	"On Our Voyage" 2004 10 1/2 x 14 x 7 My lovely wife, Paula, suggested a while ago that I make a piece with two people holding hands in a boat. This is not exactly what she had in mind but I took her suggestion as a jumping off point. I originally had the boat down in the water and had the waves moving rather realistically, but it became way too complicated. I decided to raise the boat above the water and have the viewer focus on the people in the boat, instead of the water. This is powered by an 8mm camera motor as well.
Movie #1 "Young Love " in action. 1.8 MB, QuickTime Movie #2 Motor of "Young Love". 1.89 MB, QuickTime Movie #3 Close-up of "Young Love"'s motor. 1.93 MB, QuickTime	"Young Love" 2004 10 1/2 x 14 x 6 1/2 I was going to suggest this idea of a shy, young couple to a fellow artist and thought, "Why don’t I just do it?" I spent a lot of time carving the female figure, getting her arms and bashful posture just right. When you push the button, she swivels her foot and the boy raises his arm to present her with flowers. This piece took approx 100 hours to make and is powered by a 8mm camera motor.
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	"Balinese Dancer" 2004 19 x 33 x 12 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.)
Movie "Mr. Know-It-All" in action 2.6 MB, QuickTime	"Mr. Know-It-All" 2003 8 x 16 x 6 The challenge with this one was how to fit all the mechanisms inside a relatively flat head. This is powered by an old 8-mm camera motor that runs for about 20 seconds. I added a ratchet that makes noise that is synchronized with the opening of the mouth.
Movie See it in action! 1.16 MB, QuickTime	"Heart in Hand" 2003 8 x 6 1/4 x 14 For a while now, I've been trying to think of a small wind-up motor that could be used for a power source. I had this funky old 8 mm movie camera sitting around the studio for years, but it wasn't until I found another, cooler-looking camera in a thrift store, that I thought of taking the ugly one apart and using the motor. The challenge here was figuring out the joint at the elbow, once I made a prototype that worked smoothly, I knew this piece was going to turn out great. I added a button, attached to the shutter control, that activates the motor when pushed. The motor runs one complete cycle, then stops, until the button is pushed again.
Movie #1 Long clip showing complete movement. 3.08 MB, QuickTime Movie #2 Short clip 1.22 MB, QuickTime Movie #3 Close-up of mechanics. 1.54 MB, QuickTime	"Combo II" 2003 22 x 12 x 33 1/2 This piece was a commission for a man whose daughter saw the original, Combo, on Saturday and brought him back on Sunday to see it. I had taken the piece out of the booth to give it a rest and because it was sold. Inquiring about the piece, I took him behind the booth and showed it to him. He commissioned me on the spot, even without seeing it run. On this version I had some extra room for an additional cam, so I added a string for the dancer's leg, and what a difference one string can make. Also, the drummers are playing bongos instead of drums with drumsticks.
Movie #1 "Combo" in action, front 1.3 MB, MPG Movie #2 Gears in action 445K, MPG	"Combo" 2002 22 x 32 x 11 Sometimes at shows, people would look at my "Marathon" piece and say, "Where's the music?" That started me thinking. I thought, "I'm going to create a piece that makes it's own music." The only real change from concept to final piece is that, originally, I wanted the drummers to be sitting on the floor, but the movement of their arms and the height of the drums sort of prevented this. One question I had was how to make miniature drums sound like drums and not blocks of wood. The answer was to glue a thick piece of wood on top of the barrel part, and then slice off as much as possible on the table saw, leaving a very thin "skin" remaining. The results are real drums. For the female figure, I wanted a girl who is really "shakin' her hips", and is also, a little bit sexy; something I've never attempted before. I think it succeeds at both nicely; (the working title for this piece was "Hoochie Mama.") The real challenge on this piece was fabricating the 14 cams and levers that move all the strings. As the photos show, this piece, (well, all of my pieces), required a lot of trial and error work. I would fabricate a cam, install it, crank up the motor, turn it on, observe resulting movement, change cam, reinstall it, crank it up, turn it on, observe resulting movement and repeat as often as necessary. The rhythm was actually worked out on my computer using a MIDI music program. Once I worked out a good groove, I printed out the notes, and enlarged the printout to the length of the circumference of my 5" diameter cams, then I marked out the beats on the cams. From there everything fell into place. My favorite figure has to be the bell ringer; he just sits there patiently waiting for his turn to play; the female comes in a close second. This piece will run for about eleven minutes on a full winding, but I added a run/stop switch for shorter runs. This piece took home the "Best of Show" award at the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts, in Tampa, FL in March of 2002.
Movie #1 Medium-close 928K, MPG Movie #2 Wide 922K, MPG Movie #3 Close-up of gears from back 925K, MPG Movie #4 Extreme close-up of gears from back 447K, MPG	"Marathon" 2001 17 x 30 x 10 1/4 An obvious choice for a true automaton is a couple dancing. The real challenge in this piece was to make the figures look like they were really dancing and not just jumping around wildly.After about three weeks of work, having finished all the carving, assembling of the stage, painting and aging everything, I was ready to tackle the mechanics of how to make them dance. The first thing was how to make them turn. After attaching the string to the apparatus the figures hang from, I added a spring to make it return. I cranked up the motor and found out the friction caused by the spring, forced the motor to stop, then I thought, "Great, I just wasted three weeks on a piece that won't operate." After much pondering, I decided to remove the spring and add a second cam and lever to return the figure. This worked great; one cam would pull the figure left and, alternately, the other cam would pull them right. From there it was fairly smooth sailing. The footwork is actually the 2nd version I came up with, and I found a small movement on the girl's arm really adds to the dancing motion. Initially, this piece had to be fully wound, in order to overcome the static friction, but once it started, it would run for about 8 or 9 minutes. Recently I added a run/stop switch, (not shown in photo), which means you can run it for much shorter periods of time, stopping and starting whenever. I added a number to the guy's back, and named the piece Marathon because they dance seemingly forever, and towards the end they go slower and slower until they finally stop. This was my first attempt at carving a female figure, and making the dress, and her legs operate, was quite challenging.