Dug North Automaton Plans Bootlegged on eBay?

Well, I honestly don't know whether to be flattered or indignant. A good reader of The Automata / Automaton Blog alerted me to the fact that someone on eBay is trying to auction off plans for my Training for Christmas automaton. Above is a screen shot of the listing.

I suppose if someone is willing to sell bootleg plans of my work (at least that's what they seem to be), I've reached a whole new level of fame. Perhaps these are actual pages from the magazine, which may be legit to sell. It's kind of hard to tell.

The plans are from an article I wrote for Woodcraft Magazine's Holiday 2005 issue. The article describes how to make the piece step-by-step with some plan drawings and many color photographs.

If you would like these plans, I would recommend simply buying a back issue of Woodcraft, which includes my article and dozens of other holiday-themed projects.

I may consider republishing the project (with my own images) at a future date. (I need to review my own agreement.)

Here's a link to Woodcraft's site where you can order the Woodcraft Magazine's Holiday 2005 Issue.

Animated Cupid Automaton for Valentine's Day

Want to make an impression on Valentine's Day this year? Forget the card...make an animated paper automaton!

From the Flying Pig Site:
Romance and engineering in perfect harmony. Turn the handle on this delightful new model and cupid flies. Make a model for your one true love!

This is a downloadable kit. Once you purchase the kit, you download it and print it on to heavy paper (or card stock if your printer can handle it). You then just follow the instructions to cut and glue the model together. The time and effort you spend will show you really care.

Check out this and other amazing animated paper kits at Flying Pig.

Laughing Santa Paper Automaton Kit Download

In time for the holidays, here is an paper animation kit you can download, cut-out, and glue together. This comes to us from the fine folks at Flying-Pig.co.uk who offer paper animation kits of every sort.

Each kit comes with instructions and requires you to have Adobe Acrobat (which is free). You can pay the modest price for the kit with Paypal or a credit card. Then download the file, print it on card stock, and you are ready to start building!

Check out the Laughing Santa Paper Animation Kit.

Automaton How-To Article, MAKE Halloween Issue

I am very pleased to announce that I have contributed an article to MAKE Magazine's first-ever special Halloween issue. The article shows the secret behind the trick top hat I designed, so that you can build one for yourself!

You can pre-order MAKE Magazines Special Halloween Issue now. I have a feeling it is going to be a really great issue of MAKE.

Valentine's Day Automaton by Dug North

I realize that this comes about a month too late, but I thought you might like to take a look at another recently completed wood automaton of mine.

The automaton depicts a poor fellow in search of a Valentine's day card. To his dismay, there are many options, but none match the sentiments he feels:

Which card says 'I love you' as much as I really do?

When the crank is rotated the carousel of cards on the right spins to display all sides. The attention-grabbing heart display on the left jumps up and down. Our protagonist is overwhelmed and madly scans the choices by swinging his head back and forth.

See additional picture of The Valentine's Automaton by Dug North