Description
‘Hen Mound’
Wooden Automata
Collect from gallery £145
Including UK delivery £160
H 22 x ∅ at base 6 cm
A unique automata, turn the handle and the hen turns around trying to catch the fly! Colours may vary.
For the chicken lover in your family!
Ian creates automata and mechanical toys for adults.- in British hardwood’s and found objects.
Also in stock is Ian’s new nautical range of wire and driftwood pieces including harbours scenes with sailing and fishing boats with lighthouses or buoys.
“Everyone has toys, everyone plays. My mantra is ‘play every day’. Life is very serious and I think it’s good to have a bit of light relief. Children use play to find out how the world works, while adults use it as more of a distraction. It’s interesting watching how people react to my pieces. Most of them want to have a go and the experience of playing with them is quite liberating, it acts as a kind of escape.”
Ian worked in a range of fields including ceramics, metalwork and furniture-making, before making automata, and these various experiences explain his technical skill and obvious pleasure in working with different materials. He is proud to be labelled a toymaker and his approach to his work is refreshingly unpretentious: he says his beautifully constructed, frequently quirky and always eye-catching automata are ‘just something I make’.
