An ever-expanding alphabetical list of contemporary Automata Makers from around the world, with videos and links to their works…
René Ach (France)
René Ach was born in 1940 in Fresnes-sur-Apance. He initially studied as an engineer before turning to industrial design, and then in 1980 beginning his career as a sculptor. René participated in numerous exhibitions and shows until his death in 2006.
Robert Addams (UK)
While lecturing in Art and Design, Robert Addams decided to help enthusiasts, pupils and other teachers by producing and illustrating two books: ‘How to Design and Make Simple Automata
Jonathan Angell (UK)
Jonathan Angell is a creative mechanical innovator who has exhibited around the world. He also designs special effects for film and theatre, including work for the Harry Potter series, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
David Archer (Australia)
David Archer is a contemporary Automata maker from South Australia, influenced by scenes from carnivals and seasides of the Victorian and Edwardian eras.
David Archer videos on Facebook
Steve Armstrong (US)
Steve Armstrong, a native of Kentucky born in 1945, has been making automata since the 1990s. Steve’s work is based in the human figure and realism, though he simplifies his forms. His preferred material is yellow poplar, a local, easily available wood that he likes for its buttery carving qualities and ability to hold incredible detail.
The Art of Steve Armstrong on Flickr
Karen Barkie (USA)
Karen Barkie comes from North Carolina. She doesn’t appear to have a website, but her YouTube channel ‘makesautomata’ contains many wonderful examples of her work.
David Beck (US)
Working in relative obscurity for many years in New York City, David Beck eventually found gallery representation and established a following of enthusiasts who snap up his work as soon as it comes out. His pieces have been shown at the MET, the Smithsonian, the Guggenheim and in some of the world’s most prominent galleries.
David Beck playlist on YouTube and on Vimeo
Patrick Bond (UK)
Patrick Bond was born in Surrey, England in 1955. He settled in Falmouth, Cornwall in 1976. Patrick started making automata as gifts from any old bits of junk, sewing machines to slot machines. He particularly likes using scrap metal, and his work ‘Interplanetary Gears’ uses parts from a bicycle.
Malcolm Brook (Germany)
Malcolm Brook was born in South-West England in 1945. He studied at Goldsmith College of Art in London during the 1960s, and has lived and worked in the Black Forest since 1986.
Undinge-und-Dinge YouTube Channel
Tim Bullock (UK)
Tim Bullock is based in Bristol, where he designs and creates paper automata. His pieces are strongly narrative, each telling a story. One of his more complex creations, entitled ‘The Artist’, even draws pictures of its own!
Bruce Campbell (USA)
Bruce Campbell studied at Syracuse University and Indiana University. In 1990, fascinated with the mechanics of movement, Bruce began experimenting with three dimensional line drawing in wire. He created animals, insects and later simple machines that were joined, bent and twisted into shape.
Bruce Campbell playlist on YouTube
Jean-Pierre Camus (France)
Jean-Pierre Camus creates animated scenes on the themes of carnival, opera, theater, circus and parties. His work matches the tradition and style of 19th century automata.
AUTOMATESCAMUS YouTube Channel
Lucy Casson (UK)
Lucy Casson studied at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts from 1978-1981. She collects materials for her sculptures on the streets around her studio in South London; Lucy combines mysterious plastic objects, tin cans and other found objects with printed sheet metal, wood and wire and her small cartoon-like figures have been fascinating an international public since the late nineties.
Chomick & Meder (USA)
Husband and wife team Chris Chomick and Peter Meder have been working together for thirty-eight years. Inspired by their interests in puppets and animation, Chris and Peter combine the knowledge and strengths of their different art backgrounds to create their own unique form of figurative art and automata.
Giuseppe Civitarese (Italy)
Also known as ‘Pino’, Guiseppe Civitarese is an oceanographer who builds card models and paper automata in his spare time. He began modelling in 2000, and as well as paper automata he creates terrestrial and celestial globes from digital replicas of antique maps.
Al Conquergood (Canada)
For Al Conquergood, designing and building automata perfectly blends his engineering and artistic interests, and their whimsical nature allows him to employ his wry sense of humour.
Conquergood Creative YouTube Channel
Dominique Corbin (France)
Dominique Corbin is enormously interested in mechanics in the most general sense: he always wants to know how everything works. Dominique makes automatons, toy accessories and puppets for sale in specialist stores or directly to theater companies.
hypoyd YouTube Channel and Dominique Corbin on Vimeo
Robert Coudray (France)
Born in Breton in 1954, Robert Coudray – known as ‘Le Poète Ferrailleur’, the scrap metal poet – uses recycled materials to create aquatic automata and moving musical sculptures. Robert’s imaginary universe inhabits his Museum at La Ville Stéphant, France.
Robert Coudray playlist on YouTube
Bernhard Deutsch (Germany)
After a technical high school diploma in 1979 and a few years studying philosophy and sociology, Bernhard Deutsch has been making automata for over three decades. A retrospective, ’35 Years of Art-Machines’, was held in Summer 2013 at the Hällisch-Franconian Museum, at which Bernhard auctioned 101 of his machines.
Bernhard Deutsch playlist on YouTube
Edmund Dohnert (USA)
Edmund Dohnert
Edmund Dohnert YouTube Channel
Melina Domenella (Argentina)
Melina Domenella is a follower of Pablo Lavezzari. Working in materials such as wood and bronze she creates wonderfully detailed crank-powered automata.
Melina Domenella YouTube Channel
Rowland Emett (UK)
English cartoonist and constructor of whimsical kinetic sculpture, Rowland Emett was born in New Southgate, London in 1906. The son of a businessman and amateur inventor, and the grandson of Queen Victoria’s engraver, Rowland turned in later life to designing and supervising the building of what he called his “things”.
Rowland Emett playlist on YouTube
Emily Firmin & Justin Mitchell (UK)
Total Pap was formed in 1990 by Emily Firmin and Justin Mitchell. Based in Kent for the past 20-odd years, Emily and Justin make papier mâché automata, often in the form of wall pictures.
Justin Mitchell YouTube Channel
Chris Fitch (USA)
Chris Fitch is a sculptor and inventor who lives and works in the Boston area. Beyond sculpture, Chris has worked in stop motion animation, on science museum exhibits, and designed teaching tools for science and math education.
Michel Fleau (France)
Michel Fleau creates wooden automata in his workshop in Charente Maritime.
He manufactures them in limited series, mainly in linden and beech wood.
automatesenbois YouTube Channel
Ron Fuller (UK)
Ron Fuller was born in 1937 and went to Art School in Plymouth and Falmouth before studying Art and Theatre Design at the Royal College of Art. After a career in teaching he began making wooden toys for a living in 1972. Ron’s toys lie somewhere between turn of the century German mechanical tin-toys and the painted wooden craft of Sam Smith.
Ron Fuller playlist on YouTube
Steve Gerberich (USA)
Gerb-O-Matic is the quirky world of Steve Gerberich, who turns everyday objects into wonderfully bizarre mechanical creations. A self-proclaimed lover of hand tools or any useful invention without a power cord, Gerberich turns discarded labor-saving devices into a wealth of fantastical sculptures.
Gavin Glover (UK)
Gavin Glover formed PotatoRoom productions in 2011 to create challenging theatrical works that explore the mixture of puppets, acting, clowning, video, movement and dance. Gavin was one of the founder members of the Faulty Optic Theatre of Animation who toured their surreal and unique puppet shows around the world.
Nemo Gould (USA)
Nemo Gould was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1975. He studied Fine Arts at Kansas City Art Institute and U.C. Berkeley. Nemo’s work attempts to reconcile the innocent wonder of youth with the dull complexity of the adult experience.
Nick Grey (UK)
Paul Gugelmann (Switzerland)
Paul Gugelmann, born in 1929, is a Swiss artist who became famous for primarily for his “poetic machines”. The majority of these machines are owned by a foundation and can be seen in the Paul Gugelmann Museum in Schönenwerd, Switzerland.
Paul Gugelmann playlist on YouTube
Richard Hackney (UK)
Richard Hackney studied Contemporary Crafts at University College Falmouth, where he developed skills in fine metal and automata construction. He discovers, hordes and transforms things into new objects of desire and intrigue.
Richard Hackney YouTube Channel
Dave Hall (UK)
Dave Hall of ‘Happiness is Horizontal’ makes automata using a variety of techniques largely requiring no workshop, as he doesn’t have one. Dave’s brain insists he make them, even though he doesn’t really have the time.
Tom Haney (USA)
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1962, Tom Haney has always been fascinated by mechanical movement. Tom has been creating figurative kinetic pieces operated by keys, cranks, weights, wind-up and electric motors since 1994.
Kazuaki Harada (Japan)
Born in Japan in 1974, Kazuaki ‘Kazu’ Harada studied art history and worked as an IT specialist. In 2006 he made a pilgrimage to Falmouth to get to know the big names in the automaton scene there. He jobbed at the Fourteen Balls Toy Co., where he developed his own style.
Neil Hardy (UK)
Neil Hardy decided to leave architecture and pursue automata making full time in 1992 and became a member of the British Toymakers Guild in 1993. Since then, his work has been exhibited around the world, including at the 2005 World Karakuri competition in Japan.
fabulousanimals YouTube Channel
Andy Hazell (UK)
Andy Hazell was born “in the dull vacuum of suburban Manchester, which gave me the impetus to leave and look over the horizon”. Making small wobbly figures out of tin and wire led to residencies in schools, hospitals, colleges, factories and museums. Andy’s tin creations were used in adverts, on book covers and featured on TV.
Fi Henshall (UK)
Born in Fishguard in South Wales in 1981, Fi Henshall studied sculpture at Falmouth College of Arts, graduating in 2004. Fi works mainly in wood, old tins and small items of the sort found at the back of sheds, nad has a fascination with the use to which beautifully made but now often obsolete things may be put.
Fi Henshall playlist on YouTube
Daniel HERTHEL & Maria LEITE
Rob Higgs (UK)
Rob Higgs is a sculptor, automata maker and inventor. He makes mechanical sculptures, contraptions and eccentric machines using found materials such as old gears, wheels, chains and mechanical items found on old farmsteads, in boatyards and on scrapheaps.
Marc Horovitz (USA)
Marc Horovitz stumbled upon Cabaret Mechanical Theatre, then located in Covent Garden in London, where he discovered the weird, wonderful and fascinating world of automata. It wasn’t until a few years later that Marc tried his hand at making automata himself. He was soon hooked, and has made several since then.
Stephan von Huene (Germany)
Stephan von Huene, 1932-2000, was an American artist of German origin. In the mid-1960s Stephan turned to sculpture and began creating surrealist objects. His earliest sculptures were made from traditional materials like wood and leather, and he eventually began including mechanical elements that brought sound and movement to his pieces.
Stephan von Huene playlist on YouTube
Tim Hunkin (UK)
Tim Hunkin, born in 1950, trained as an engineer but became a cartoonist for The Observer where he drew a strip called ‘The Rudiments of Wisdom’ for fourteen years, which he later developed into the TV series, ‘The Secret Life of Machines‘. Tim built coin-operated machines intermittently since he was a child and in 2001 he set up his own arcade on Southwold pier called ‘The Under the pier show‘.
TimHunkin1 & Tim Hunkin’s machines YouTube Channels
Rob Ives (UK)
Rob Ives was born in Harrogate in 1962. After ten years teaching maths, Rob began designing models made from cardboard. He was asked by a publisher if he could create a book of models for them – that book ‘Paper Automata
Kelley C. Jones (USA)
Kelley C. Jones sometimes refers to her work as as three-dimensional comics. A fascination for kinetics and automata led Kelley to add moving features whenever possible.
François Junod (Switzerland)
Born in Ste-Croix in 1959, François Junod studied micro-mechanics at the Ecole Technique. While studying sculpture and drawing degree at the Lausanne Art School he also worked as an apprentice automaton-restoring technician with Michel Bertrand in Bullet. François came back to Ste-Croix in 1984 where he designs and builds automatons in the traditional way. He is considered a master in this endangered art and craft.
François Junod playlist on YouTube
Serge Jupin (France/UK)
Serge Jupin lives and works between France and London. His kinetic sculptures are fashioned from found objects and recycled vintage materials. It’s only on close inspection that each robot’s humble origins are revealed, lending wit and poetry to every piece of junk.
Gina Kamentsky (USA)
Living and working in Fort Point, South Boston in 1986, Gina Kamentsky began picking up odds and ends; pieces from abandoned vehicles, scrap that had fallen off trucks and parts found in the street. She started making small figures and vehicles and later became interested in creating lamps and motorized pieces.
GeeGeeVindaloo YouTube Channel
Pat Keck (USA)
Pat Keck makes painted wooden figures inspired in part by puppets, dummies, scarecrows and automatons. Some are animated by cranks, levers or motors.
Szymon Klimek (Poland)
Szymon Klimek combines art and model engineering in a unique blend, producing artistic engines that defy categorisation. Born in Poznań, Poland in 1954, Szymon works in very thin sheet brass which he hand-shapes then glues together to create the final machine.
Bliss Kolb (USA)
Bliss Kolb…
Aaron Kramer (USA)
As a child, Aaron Kramer fell in love with contraptions, coin-operated amusements and marionettes. The clack and clatter of machinery and the visual “eye candy” of mechanisms all gave him a thrill, and Aaron has always wanted to make things that moved or implied some hidden mechanical purpose.
Thomas Kuntz (USA)
Thomas Kuntz was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1965. His father, a surgeon, and his mother, a folk artist and doll maker, provided both the necessary gene pool and a stimulating environment in which to grow up. Thomas has been working as a professional artist since 1986, and his projects tend to feature the mysterious, uncanny, sometimes darkly horrific and bittersweet sad aspects of human nature.
Rachel LARKINS Made, Not Born
Pablo Lavezzari (Argentina)
As a child Pablo Lavezzari studied at the Puppeteer’s School in Tucumán, Argentina. After working as a camera technician for several years, in 1998 he began creating art objects that he calls “medieval robotics” using what he had learned about mechanics and robotics.
Pablo Lavezzari playlist on YouTube
Hansjörg Leible (Germany)
Hansjörg Leible and his team design and build charming barrel and pneumatic organs with movable figurines. The machines with mechanical figures that move in accompaniment to the music can be coin-operated behind glass or used as a hand organ.
Peter Lennertz (UK)
A plumber by trade, Peter Lennertz has always loved woodworking. While working in Covent Garden in the late 1980s, he discovered Cabaret Mechanical Theatre and began making his own humourous automata in wood. Peter was voted toy maker of the year in 2007 by the British Toymakers Guild.
Tim Lewis (UK)
Tim Lewis was born in 1961 and graduated from the Royal College of Art in London in 1987. He has exhibited internationally and his work is in public collections including the Arts Council of Great Britain, the British Council, and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.
Philip Lockwood (UK)
Philip Lowndes (UK)
Philip Lowndes make wooden artworks, automata and animatronics in his workshop near Cambridge, England. Most of his work is made from solid european hardwood bought by the rough sawn plank then sawn and planed to size in his workshop.
Philip Lowndes YouTube Channel
Dean Lucker and Ann Wood (US)
Woodlucker is a visual partnership and studio founded by Dean Lucker and Ann Wood in 1987, after they graduated from Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Dean Lucker and Ann Wood playlist on YouTube
John Lumbus (UK)
John Lumbus studied Industrial Design at Cardiff Institute of Higher Education, graduating in 1995. He spent the next 5 years as maintenance man at Cabaret Mechanical Theatre in London’s Covent Garden before moving to Yorkshire, where he designs and makes simple mechanical toys and automata in his home workshop.
Roberto Lou Ma (Guatemala)
Roberto Lou Ma is a retired civil engineer, cartoonist and toy maker. He creates wooden automata and has published plans for building several of his ramp-walking toys.
Peter Markey (UK)
Peter Markey (1930-2016) studied painting at Swansea Art College and taught art for 25 years before leaving teaching in 1980. Peter began making simple wooden automata after someone innocently suggested he try making his footballer sculptures move. His work is known for its simplicity of design and use of bright colours. Peter made little attempt at realistic representation and never carved the wood he used.
Peter Markey playlist on YouTube
John MALTBY
Tony MANN
Pierre Mayer (France)
Born in 1935, Pierre Mayer started performing magic tricks at the age of 5, influenced by his father’s magic store. He subsequently owned a chain of 5 electronic stores in Paris, and his varied hobbies included collecting mechanical music, vintage toys and automata. In late life, Pierre created wooden Magic Automata that perform tricks when the handles are turned.
Ian McKAY
Pascale Michalski (UK)
Pascale Michalski was born in 1983 in Luxembourg. She studied at London South Bank University where she begun making automata.
Pascale Michalski YouTube Channel
Charles Morgan (Switzerland)
Charles Morgan was born in 1951 near London. He has lived and worked in Switzerland since 1964.
Charles Morgan videos on Facebook
Virginio Moutinho (Portugal)
Born in 1952, Virginio Moutinho is a talented Portuguese architect, toy collector and mechanical sculptor. Some of his moving sculptures are on adult themes.
Virginio Moutinho YouTube Channel
Sophie Catherine Naylor (UK)
Sophie Naylor graduated from Loughborough University in 2009. Her automatas depict Britishness in an eccentric, quirky, humorous way.
Frank Nelson (UK)
Frank Nelson started to carve and create automata in the early 1970s. For over 35 years he concentrated exclusively on automata with his own distinct figurative style using carved and painted wood. Over the years Frank has exhibited in many major galleries and art centres and was a guest lecturer in a number of Universities.
Frank Nelson playlist on YouTube
Keith Newstead (UK)
Keith Newstead, born 1956, studied at Barking College of Art and Technology. After short-lived careers on a paper round in Finland and as a graphic designer, he became a motorcycle despatch rider in London for 10 years. Keith made and sold jewellery during this period, and began making automata after seeing a TV programme about them.
Keith Newstead YouTube Channel
Aquio Nishida (Japan)
Aquio Nishida, born in 1946, made automata notable for their graceful lines, beautiful gears and their all-wood construction, which included even the linkages and fasteners. He not only made automata but also wrote his own book on the subject, and was the Director of the Contemporary Toy Museum of Japan. Aquio Nishida died in 2009.
Aquio Nishida playlist on YouTube
Dug North (USA)
Maker of original contemporary automata, Dug North likes to use wood and a bit of brass to create humorous scenes. He also enjoys the challenge of creating automata that perform surprising tricks.
Rodney Peppe (UK)
Rodney Peppé is a British author and illustrator of children’s fiction and crafts. He wrote and illustrated more than 80 children’s books, publishing his first one in 1968, and his craft books teach how to build mechanical toys and automata. Rodney does not sell his creations, but his works have been on display in various museums and exhibitions.
Jos Peters (Belgium)
Jos Peters…
Andy Plant (UK)
Combining a background of sculpture – Andy graduated with a degree in Fine Art from Wolverhampton in 1977 – engineering and large transforming theatre sets, Andy Plant has been making interactive mechanical sculpture for over 25 years.
Robert Race (UK)
Robert Race has been a full-time toymaker for nearly thirty years. Starting with dolls’ houses and miniature furniture he subsequently concentrated on moving toys and simple automata, which have been widely exhibited in Britain, Europe and beyond. His book, ‘Making Simple Automata
Robert Race gallery at White Space Art
Geoff Rayner (UK)
A freelance paper engineer and designer, Geoff Rayner makes a range of ‘Magnificent Machines’ in card that come flat and are then slotted together without the need of glue.
Totally Glueless YouTube Channel
Nick Regan
Maxime Rioux (Canada)
Montreal-based performance artist Maxime Rioux creates one-off musical instruments using a technique he calls “Système Ki”, where the devices are mechanically linked to a woofer driven by an inaudible, extremely low frequency electrical signal.
Kenneth Ronney (Canada)
Kenneth Ronney is a retired physicist and engineer who has been working with stone and jewellery for 30 years. He has created a variety of freeform pieces, including a complex kinetic stone sculpture entitled ‘Epicyclic’.
Walter Ruffler (Germany)
Walter Ruffler was born in 1949 near Hannover, Germany. While working as a teacher, he became fascinated by kinetic sculptures and began designing his own. Walter’s book, ‘Paper Models That Move: 14 Ingenious Automata and More
Walter Ruffler playlist on YouTube
Jane RYAN – trades as OPI
Keisuke Saka (Japan)
Keisuke Saka is a paper engineer and graphic designer based in Japan. He has exhibited his paper models in a number of museums and has published many automata kits. Keisuke is the author of ‘Karakuri: How to Make Mechanical Paper Models That Move
Keisuke Saka playlist on YouTube
Norman Sanders (UK)
Dunja Schandin (Germany)
Dunja Schandin lives in Mannheim. She loves automatons and simple mechanics, from old fashy jukeboxes to tiny tin toys, clockwork and everything moving. So, it’s no surprise she makes her papier-mâché figures move.
Dunja Schandin YouTube Channel
Johan Scherft (Netherlands)
Johan Scherft was born in 1970 in Leiden. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague in 1993, and he currently works in a studio just one hundred yards away from the house where Rembrandt was born.
Martin Smith (UK)
Martin Smith studied at Herefordshire College of Art from 1991-1993. He undertakes large architectural commissions that interact with their given space and the viewer through movement. Alongside these works Martin also makes kinetic architectural maquettes investigatign themes of repetition, precision and rules.
Matt Smith (UK)
Matt Smith was born in 1965 in Leicestershire. Matt began making Automata in 1980 and in 1986 he founded The Fourteen Balls Toy Co. in collaboration with Paul Spooner, who designs the majority of the automata. Matt produces the automata, as well as designing his own pieces and his wife – Sarah Smith, a talented painter – adds the final colours.
Fourteen Balls YouTube Channel
Jeff SOAN
Blair Somerville (New Zealand)
“Organic mechanic” Blair Somerville owns and operates the Lost Gypsy Gallery. Located on New Zealand’s South Island, the sprawling menagerie of kinetic sculptures and automata has become Blair’s life work, a testament to his artistic ingenuity, and an offbeat tourist attraction where visitors can experience his interactive “Fine Acts of Junk”.
Wanda Sowry (UK)
Wanda Sowry’s designs are simple and light-hearted. She like to use the different colours of natural wood, and most of the wood she uses is either reclaimed or small off-cuts. Wanda makes private commissions and automata for various galleries and exhibitions in the UK.
Wanda Sowry’s Automata on Flickr
Paul Spooner (UK)
Paul Spooner was born in Preston, Lancashire in 1948 and had mechanical interests from an early age. Paul’s work combines humour and an obsessive attention to detail with delightful and intriguing mechanisms, some of which can be seen at Cabaret Mechanical Theatre’s virtual exhibition in celebration of his 60th birthday.
Paul Spooner playlist on YouTube
Michael and Maria Start (UK)
Michael and Maria Start run The House of Automata, a specialist automata company based in Scotland. They buy and sell as well as restore, advise on and make automata to commission. Over the last 25 years, Michael and Maria have gained expertise in most types of antique and modern automata.
Laurence and Angela St. Leger (UK)
Laurence and Angela St Leger are well-known for their witty, beautifully crafted miniature automata, which delight not only dolls-house enthusiasts but also have a large following in their own right.
Laurence and Angela St Leger playlist on YouTube
Kristine Suhr (Denmark)
Kristine Suhr was born in Copenhagen in 1963. She started to construct and paint “mechanical paintings” in 2003, and has exhibited them widely across Europe since then.
Melanie TOMLINSON
Dan Torpey (USA)
Dan Torpey founded Barking Dogs Automata LLC in 2001 after coming across paper automata while perusing the internet. These moveable creations sparked Dan’s interest and began his journey to becoming an automata maker.
Jean-Louis Trinquier (France)
Jean-Louis Trinquier has worked in cinema and special effects, creating animatronics for films including “The Crimson Rivers” and “Les Visiteurs 2”. Jean-Louis also runs a virtual Museum of Automata to present his animated creatures which he refers to as animated sculptures or robots.
Jean-Louis Trinquier playlist on YouTube
Mary TURNER
Ron Varga (USA)
Ron Varga was born in 1954, and has lived and worked in Michigan most of his life. He retired in 2010 and, with a lot of time on his hands and the fear of starving somewhat eased, Ron decided to pursue his love of art by making automata.
Simon VENUS
Liz Walker (UK)
Liz Walker trained in the 1980s as a puppeteer. Her interest in kinetic sculpture, 3D animation, dance and all things bizarre and surreal combined with her training to create a unique form of puppetry for adults. Liz was a founding partner and joint artistic director of Faulty Optic from 1988 – 2008 and now creates and performs as Invisible Thread.
Roger Weber (Switzerland)
Roger Weber works as a goldsmith in his workshop in Lenzburg. Under his label name ‘Rotsch-o-mat’, Roger creates trinkets, moving figures, cheeky machines and poetic machines.
Charlie Whittuck (Belgium)
Charlie Whittuck…
Charlie Whittuck YouTube Channel
Eric Williamson (UK)
Eric Williamson trained as a fine art painter in the 1960s. He started out making rocking horses, then finely carved marionettes. Next he began thinking about puppets without strings, which fuelled his interest in automata. Eric founded Timberkits, initially manufacturing kits based on his neighbour Peter Markey’s designs.
Eric Williamson playlist and Timberkits YouTube Channel
Douglas Wilson
Vicky Wood (UK)
Jan Zalud (UK)
Jan Zalud was born in Czechoslovakia in 1955, but has worked in England as an artist since the early 1980s. He discovered the exciting world of Cabaret Mechanical Theatre and was inspired by other automata makers, becoming fascinated by the process of combining the sculptural with the mechanical.
Carlos Zapata (UK)
Born in Colombia in 1963, Carlos Zapata has been making kinetic or mechanical sculptures professionally in his studio in Cornwall since 1999. His influences come from South American, Asian, African and British art and his work is colourful, full of emotion and often carries a political or social comment.
Laura Zelaya (Argentina)
Laura Zelaya is an Argentinean automata and kinetic artist who grew up in Berlin. Born into a family of visual artists, she studied drama and stage design in Argentina. Laura keeps her mechanisms simple, creating evocative movements and animated scenes bursting with poetry and emotion.