I’m not quite finished with the interactive sculpture I blogged about in my post on February 3rd, but I’m close. In that post, you saw a great white shark, meticulously crafted to scale in 16 gauge wire with tin fins, a jointed wooden man and his partially completed head, as pictured above.

In the photo below, I’ve remounted the chair to a temporary base the same width as the final base (shown above), to work out the placement of the crank and guide supports. The articulated shark is attached to the headless man’s arms, and I’ve removed his left leg so I can work on the cranking mechanism. The man’s head and partially completed jaws are visible at top right.

In the photo above, I’ve painted the man’s head, tongue and upper and lower jaws, and added coat-hanger mounting wires down the back of the head and out through the neck opening. I’ve since adhered the hinged jaws to the head over the exposed wire area with Golden Heavy Molding Paste and am waiting for it to dry. This rather thick application of the paste will add strength to the head and mounting wires and hold them securely in place when the head eventually bobs back and forth on the completed sculpture.

I fabricated this tin baseball cap yesterday, and now have all my components, though I have more sculpting to do where the head meets the jaws. Once I complete that, I will finish assembling my automata sculpture and post images. Stay tuned.