Fast Making #9 - Hopping Wood Rabbit Automata

This was definitely my least favorite to make. I’d never sculpted wood before, but some of my ideas for my MA project involves sculpted pieces, so I needed to start somewhere.

Using the cheapest wood & whittling knife I could buy, I drew what I hoped would be a simple shape for me to carve out.

At this point I wasn’t thinking of turning it into an automata project, but I later decided to make this brief harder for myself and make this 1 object instead of 2.

You may be able to tell why I took an overnight break.

I managed to carve out the rest of the body without slicing myself again. Sans sandpaper, I tried scraping off imperfections by scratching them off with the knife. I don’t think sandpaper could smooth it out as much as it needed, but at this point I’m finished handling knives…

I don’t know why I thought paint would make it look better.

After searching videos of up-and-down automata, I fudged up this box, and I think it’s easy to see how I set it up from the picture.

It works (or it started to work once I put the cardboard base under the bunny; it was flopping around before), but it won’t last long, and I’m not sure automata interests me much. The other project I’m working on, a sewing project, makes me happy to see it coming along, but this one was pretty frustrating. Of course I wouldn’t quit after the first try, but at the moment I don’t see a use for it in a major project.