The Spinning Heart Machine by Martin Smith

Martin Smith is co-founder the design label Laikingland. He creates kinetic devices that explore a variety of themes. Shown here is the latest in a series of kinetic objects that celebrate love. As the handle is turned, two pairs of bevel gears cause the heart to flip and rotate simultaneously.

Materials: Steel, brass and plastic.
Dimensions: Height 33cm / 13”
Power: Hand operated.
Edition: 25
Color: Red, brass and patinated steel.

You can see more kinetic objects by Martin Smith on his web site.

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Music Video by Birdsong At Morning features automaton by Dug North

This new music video is a song titled "Never to Part" by the group Birdsong At Morning. My automaton Mekanikos vs. The Minotaur makes an appearance!

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More fine examples of ramp-walker toys by Roberto Lou Ma

Check out this great variety of ramp-walking wooden toys designed and created by Roberto Lou Ma. If you would like to make one of your own check out the free plans for a walking rhino toy he was kind enough to allow us to offer right here on The Automata Blog a while back. Enjoy!

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Photos and drawings of life-size Trumpeter automaton from 1810

Check out this fascinating trumpet-playing automaton that is featured on Cyberneticzoo.com. This life size clockwork-driven trumpeter was build by a German man named Freidrich Kaufmann in 1810.

Check out more photos, drawings and history in the full blog article located here.

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A Waste of Time - a kinetic sculpture by Randall Cleaver

Here is a fun kinetic piece by Randall Cleaver that features posable artist's hands playing with the classic Slinky toy.

From the video description:

This is my newest found object clock. It is called "A Waste of Time". I used an Arduino micro controller to activate a stepper motor that will turn the sand glasses once a minute. The case is an old gas heater I found at Community Forklift in Maryland.

See more fascinating kinetic works on Randall Cleaver's YouTube Channel.

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Cutting wooden gears with a jigsaw and a simple homemade setup

The ever industrious Matthias Wandel has uploaded a great video showing how to cut wooden gears with a jigsaw mounted in an easy-to-make fixture. Admittedly, a band saw or scroll saw is a bit better suited to this task because they can cut curves so well. Nevertheless, he achieves good results with the jig saw and his homemade setup.

Here is the page in his web site with detailed photos showing the process of cutting wood gears with a jigsaw.

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Amazing wrist-worn kinetic sculptures: not your average wristwatches!

Сюжет на японском телеканале NHK

Я и Thomas Prescher

Posted by Valerii Danevych on Tuesday, June 30, 2015

I can't understand much of what is said in this video, but it hardly matters because there are some amazing works of wrist-worn kinetic art. The first half shows what looks to be wristwatches made largely of wood and perhaps bone. The second half focuses on a maker of high-end watches featuring unique uses of the tourbillon. The final products are quite different, but equally amazing.

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