John W. Lewman Toy Designer www.toymakerpress.com
Publishers of fun to make wood toy projects and plans.
To assemble a Timberkit is to step into a fascinating world of delightful moving models and scenes. Automata is an art form in which you can learn about and appreciate the magic of mechanical action. It is an engaging and rewarding hobby. Read More.
John W. Lewman Toy Designer www.toymakerpress.com
Publishers of fun to make wood toy projects and plans.
The Howard Bros. Circus, complete with eight main tents, 152 wagons, 1,300 circus performers and workers, more than 800 animals and a 57-car train, is on permanent display in the Ringling Circus Museum’s Tibbals Learning Center. The Howard Bros. Circus is a ¾-inch-to-the-foot scale replica of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus when the tented circus was at its largest (circa 1919-1938), and occupies 3,800 square feet in the 30,600 sq. ft.-Tibbals Learning Center. The “largest miniature circus in the world” was created over a 50-year time span by master model builder and philanthropist Howard C. Tibbals of Tennessee and Florida. Below is a guerrilla video of the Howard Bros. Circus Model at Sarasota’s famous Ringling Museum, shot from a child’s perspective. Read More.
![TIBBALS[1]](http://toywizard.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/TIBBALS1.jpg "TIBBALS[1]")
Emily DeCola, is a freelance designer, performer and director working all over the world with puppetry and masks on stage and in television and film. She has received a Jim Henson Foundation Grant. Toymakers and toy designers often get inspiration from puppet artists. Emily is one of the best. http://www.emilydecola.com/
Filmmaker: Paul Muller
John W. Lewman Toy Designer www.toymakerpress.com
Publishers of fun to make wood toy projects and plans.
Check out all the fun and excitement at this year’s Maker Faire in San Mateo, California. It is the world’s largest do-it-yourself celebration. People from all over the world came to experience this amazing event. Take a look at some of the highlights.
Timberkits started as a small craft based enterprise in Wales, U.K. in 1993. Originally only a few mechanical model kit designs were available. The collection of automata was an entirely new novelty and were an instant success. The Internet now helps to bring all the fun of Timberkits models to homes anywhere in the world. Explore their website and learn all about Timberkits, Automata and more. http://www.timberkitsus.com/
John W. Lewman toy designer www.toymakerpress.com
Publishers of fun to make wood toy projects and plans.
Jerrold comments on his work: I was exposed later in life to dolls and automatons at shows and this started my interest in the dolls and how they were assembled. People started realizing my ability to put dolls together and restore them and began giving me work. From this, I became curious to see what I could create from beginning to end. I love working with wood, the planning and the gratification you get when something is completed, and I began carving my first dolls of wood. Most of my dolls are comic or cartoon type characters as that is what I am familiar with from childhood.
I was always fascinated with automatons and started carving them in wood but found them much easier to do with papier mache because of weight and access to the hollow body to insert rods, etc. It is a challenge to work on the moving parts of an automaton, working the gearing, cams, moving body parts but when they all work correctly it is very gratifying. It was also a challenge learning to do my own metal tooling for the automatons. Some will get to the bitter end and never work well. These I put on a shelf until I figure out the correct way to get all parts working correctly. It is a step by step learning process and I have done it the way I’ve accomplished everything else in life – trial and error. http://www.odaca.org/bios/reilly.php
John W. Lewman toy designer www.toymakerpress.com
Publishers of fun to make wood toy projects and plans.
In the 60’s the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang galvanized my desire to be a toy designer. This sequence had a great influence on convincing me that toys are to be entertaining, fun, exciting, nostalgic and inspirational. Enjoy!
John W. Lewman toy designer www.toymakerpress.com
Publishers of fun to make wood toy projects and plans.
Artist Theo Jansen demonstrates the amazingly lifelike kinetic toys that he constructs from plastic tubes and lemonade bottles. His creatures are designed to move and even survive on a windy beach.
John W. Lewman toy designer www.toymakerpress.com
Publishers of fun to make wood toy projects and plans.
This video kept me engaged to the end. The automata featured is of the highest quality and creativity. There is a universe of inspiration for the toymaker in this fascinating museum in in Montopoli di Sabina, Rieti, Italy. The Museum website is www.modernautomatamuseum.com .
Posted by John Lewman, toy designer www.toymakerpress.com
Publishers of fun to make toy projects and plans.
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Keith’s Toy Shop and Flying Pig are a celebration of toymaking. He proves again that toymaking is alive as a dynamic and engaging art form. The little toy shop captures the imagination and at the same time offers a challenge to toymakers everywhere to let loose the creative fire in us and start building our dream toys. Keith also shows us that pigs really do fly. And check out his terrified cat.
Posted by John Lewman, toy designer www.toymakerpress.com
Publishers of fun to make toy projects and plans.
