I’ve been toying with the idea of a snail automata for a while, I really fancied a big gear reduction and some really slow movement!

I always got stuck on the shell though, never really came up with a way of making snail shells that looked good. Then I had one of those 2am epiphanies, use a snail shell! They look good! So out with the sketchbook then back to sleep…

I didn’t dream of an automata mechanism but I did think I would put together a non-working model to see how it went. So, here on my Instagram feed I present…

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Quick idea for a snail automata using an actual empty snail shell, I'm still not sure what movement I would add, maybe moving eyestalks? Anyway, this is a sort of 3d sketch of where I might take it! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #sketchbook #snail #automata #character #maker #cork #paperclip #junkautomata

A post shared by Rob Ives (@robivescom) on Jun 18, 2020 at 10:00am PDT

To bring the snail to life I thought I’d have a go with paperclip wire cranks…

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Prototype of possible Junk Automata Snail using a double crank to drive the snail eye stalks. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Googly eyes make everything better, what do you reckon? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #googlyEyes #snail #automata #junkautomata #prototype #maker #STEM #STEAM⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Find out more: Link in profile

A post shared by Rob Ives (@robivescom) on Jun 19, 2020 at 12:00pm PDT

Keep coming back here or on Insta and see what is next!