Wanda Sowry

Wanda started making wooden automata in her final year at university in 1998 while studying craft and design. She was making moving contraptions in steel and wire when a friend gave her a postcard from the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre in London. After visiting the museum she soon started making up characters and story lines, and in her final year she moved into the wood workshop.

Wanda's automata designs are quite simple and light-hearted. She doesn’t paint or varnish them but instead likes to use the different natural colours. Most of the wood she uses is either reclaimed or off-cuts. She use very small pieces of Ebony, Amarillo and Purple Heart to make small details such as wine bottles, colourful cakes and patterned fish.

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