Check out the latest downloadable paper automata from my website! Download the project, print out the parts and make your own purring cat. The cat itself also makes for a really cute stand-alone project to sit on your desk.

The purring sound is generated via a partial toothed wheel, the teeth cover just short of two thirds of the circumference making an intermittent purring sound, just like a real cat! *

The project comes as a downloadable PDF, with all the parts ready to print front and back onto thin card. After the parts, you’ll find a fully illustrated set of step‑by‑step instructions to guide you through the construction.

If you’re a premium subscriber to this newsletter, thank you! You can download the PDF at the foot of this page. Not a premium subscriber yet? You can download the parts for a modest fee from my website, www.robives.com.

I hope you enjoy making this latest model, it’s a lovely little project that I’m really happy to share with you. Thanks so much for reading, and I hope the week ahead treats you kindly. If you’d like to support the newsletter and get access to all the premium projects as they’re released, do think about becoming a premium subscriber. It makes a huge difference and keeps the ideas flowing.

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Clothes Peg Butterflies

This project comes with templates for a variety of different species of butterflies.

Glue the template to a wooden clothes peg. Link the wings to the lower jaw of the peg with the included push-rods. Squeeze the peg to make the butterfly fly!

Find out more…

Tray of Eggs.

Just in time for Easter 2027, Download and make these half-dozen eggs each with lids and a matching tray to hold them all.

Fill each with a different type of candy!

Find out more…

Push-Rod Butterflies

This set features five butterfly types, each on a push‑rod mechanism. Move the slider to make them flap. It also includes a paper vase creating a charming display when everything is assembled.

Find out more…

Garden with Greenhouse

A simple garden to cut out and make complete with tree, shrub, raised beds and a greenhouse.

Find out more…

All of these projects are free for everyone to download from the Brother Creative Center. While you’re there, have a good look around, there are loads of other projects available, including some of mine, and every one of them is free to download.

Thanks for spending a bit of time with me for this quick newsletter. Even though this issue doesn’t come with subscriber extras, I’m always grateful to readers who join as a premium members to help support the newsletter and keep the projects coming. Thank you! Have a great weekend!

If you’re not yet a subscriber, you can download the file here, or sign up to become a premium member and get access to all future projects.

I’ve made other projects that run and leap, going right back to one of my earliest paper animation kits, the Flying Pig. In that model the body was fixed and the legs were hinged, moving up and down via pushrods connected to the top of the box.

For this project I wanted the body to really arch as it moves, so the legs are fixed to the sides of the body and the body itself is split into three hinged sections. As you turn the crank, the front and back sections lift up and down, creating that deep arching motion and raising the legs with it.

The result works well! I’m really pleased with how it has turned out.

The project comes as a downloadable PDF. The parts are designed to be printed on thin card with colour on both sides. Print the front of the parts first, then flip the card and return it to your printer to print the back.

The second half of the PDF contains fully illustrated, step‑by‑step instructions to guide you through making the unicorn and bringing it to life.

I really hope you have fun bringing the Leaping Unicorn to life. Thanks for taking the time to read this issue and have a fantastic weekend. If you’d like to support the newsletter and get every new project as it’s released, please consider subscribing.

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This charming paper automata project brings a touch of playful engineering to your desk.

Print out the parts, cut and assemble the mechanism, then follow the clear step‑by‑step instructions to build your own animated elephant.

The project comes as a downloadable pdf. If you are a premium subscriber to this newsletter you can download the project from the foot of this page for free! The file comes with all the parts, ready to print front and back, as well as a complete set of fully illustrated step by step instruction.

Thanks for reading and for supporting these paper‑engineering adventures. Premium members can grab the Flexi‑Trunk Elephant for free, and if you’d like to join them, a membership unlocks every project I release.

Have a brilliant weekend and happy making.

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If you’re reading this from anywhere other than the field right now, I’m afraid you’ve missed your chance, I’m writing this from a tent in the middle of the camp!

The good news is that the projects we’ll be working on are available to download here, so you can still join in from home.

I’ve brought three main projects for people to choose from, graded in increasing order of difficulty: Clothes Peg Butterfly, Dipper Bird, and a special new one created just for the show, Count Binface.

If you’re a premium subscriber, firstly: thank you. Secondly: you’ll find all the downloadable files waiting for you at the foot of this page.

For the workshop, I wanted to create a complete pack that I could hand out so visitors could work fairly autonomously. I set about making an A6 instruction booklet: four pages of guidance that could be printed onto a single double‑sided A5 sheet.

After a bit of experimenting, I found a layout that lets you print one side, flip the sheet, feed it back into the printer, and print the same file again. That gives you a single A4 sheet you can cut in half to produce two identical A6 leaflets, simple, efficient, and perfect for a busy workshop.

I’m now spending my evenings at EMF camp pre‑drilling clothes pegs, folding instruction sheets, and assembling little Clothes Peg Automata packs ready for the workshop. It’s a wonderfully fiddly way to wind down after a day in the field.

Hopefully I’ll see some of you there!

Thanks for reading, and for being part of this little corner of making and tinkering. If you enjoy these projects and want to support more of them, consider signing up for a membership, it helps me keep creating, sharing, and turning odd ideas into workshops like this one. Wishing you a brilliant week ahead, and happy making wherever you are.

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In a standard geared mechanism you can step up or step down the gear ratio by pairing a large gear and a small gear back‑to‑back. In this mechanism I wanted to step up the ratio while keeping everything flat. To do that, I effectively cut two gears, one large and one small, in half and glued them together. The result is that as six teeth pass the small gear, the output moves fifteen teeth. Connect that to an output pinion and watch it spin! The downside is that you can’t do more than half a rotation but, hey, it still makes for a fun project.

I designed the project using my old favourite, the Gear Generator program from Matthias Wandel’s woodgear.ca website. I created a twelve‑tooth and a thirty‑tooth gear with twelve‑millimetre teeth, pasted the parts on top of each other, then drew in the connecting line between the two in pencil. After that, I glued the template to some corrugated card and cut it out.

The lever arm uses a section from a twenty tooth gear, again I pasted onto card and drew in the rest of the lines before cutting it out.

Once I’d established that everything worked as intended I transferred the parts to my computer, printed, pasted and cut them out ready for action.

After which it was the usual path of photography, video, instruction and posting the result to www.robives.com where it is available to download as a pdf.

As always, if you’re a premium subscriber to this newsletter, the project file is waiting for you at the foot of the page ready for you to download and have a go. Thank you for supporting my work and for following along with these little adventures in cardboard and mechanics. I hope you enjoy the project, and I hope the week ahead brings you lots of maker fun. And if you haven’t subscribed yet, do consider signing up, there’s plenty more to come as well as plenty in the back catalogue.

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I had this idea of developing a new collection of poseable earth‑moving machinery. As part of that idea, I wanted to include some paper characters, something a bit like Lego mini-figures, but made from card. To get the size and proportions right, I needed to design the characters first… and here they are!

My latest project is a poseable paper person you can cut out and assemble. The hips and shoulders move, the head rotates, and the finished figure has a satisfying, toy‑like feel.

The project comes as a downloadable PDF with two pages of templates and a full set of illustrated, step‑by‑step instructions.

Print the templates onto coloured card for an instant, vibrant character, or use white card and add your own colours and patterns.

Members of robives.com can download this project — and every other project on the site for free.

Not a member yet? You can sign up, or download this project on its own for £5 or equivalent here.

Of course, if you are a premium subscriber to this newsletter the project is waiting for you to download at the foot of this page. Thank you for subscribing!

The joints in the poseable paper person all work on the same simple but effective principle. Each joint has a central core made from a cylinder of card. Around this core sits a paper strap, wrapped snugly but not glued in place. The strap grips the core just enough to hold its position through friction while still allowing smooth, controlled movement.

I have a feeling these same moveable joints are going to be useful in the earth‑moving models I’ve been sketching out. For example, the arm on the first machine will be able to rotate at both ends, letting the bucket tilt as well as lift up and down. With joints like these, the models should be full of character and movement.

With four core-joints it should be possible to make a fully articulated arm like on the back of a back-hoe digger.

I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into the next stages of these projects. I do hope you’ll subscribe so you don’t miss out on the adventure ahead!

Thank you so much for following along, it’s always a pleasure to share these projects with you. I hope you have a great time crafting your own poseable paper person, and I’d love for you to stay with me for the next stages of the adventure. If you haven’t already, do consider subscribing to the newsletter or joining the website so you never miss a new project or update. Happy crafting, and see you soon!

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Definitely not 2D but not quite 3D, this 2.D project is a quick and fun build.

The project comes as a downloadable PDF file, which you can access here. If you’re a premium subscriber to this newsletter, first of all, thank you! You’ll also find the project available at the foot of this page.

The model uses thick card and split pins/brads to create the moving parts. I’ve used 1.5 mm corrugated card (also known as E‑flute). Since thick card won’t go through my printer, I’ve printed the template parts onto standard printer paper, glued them to the card, and then cut them out with a sharp knife.

I’ve been exploring a few ideas in the 2.5D theme, including this model and the previous two featured in Workshop Notes. Using gears has been a fun and productive direction. I’ve been using Matthias Wandel’s gear‑designer software to create gears of various sizes, and I’ve settled on 12 mm teeth as a good standard. I pasted a whole page of different gears into a PDF and printed out several copies. Premium subscribers will find that document at the foot of the page.

For the dog project, I chose a nine‑tooth gear for the arm and a twenty‑tooth gear for the body. I cut out the gears and glued them to corrugated card with a Pritt Stick, then sketched the shapes of the various parts in pencil. Once everything was cut out and assembled, I was delighted to discover that the gears worked perfectly.

This was the first prototype. From there, I took it apart, scanned the pieces, and developed them into the final project. With the gears sheet included, I hope you’ll have a go at designing your own 2.5D creations too.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful week of crafting ahead. If you enjoy these projects, please consider supporting the newsletter by signing up for premium membership. If you sign up for annual premium subscription I will be happy to add a premium membership to www.robives.com giving you access to dozens and dozens and dozens of downloadable projects!

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Slide the tab from side to side and the integrated rack‑and‑pinion mechanism brings this happy little fellow to life.

I’ve been toying with the idea of creating simple slot‑together automata for a while. I wanted to design fun, moving models that could be popped out of sheets of 1400‑micron card and quickly assembled into a lively little character.

There were a couple of details that put the idea on hold. The first was the cutting of the parts. As you’ll know, I like to share my projects online so other people can make them too. For example, if you’re a premium subscriber to this newsletter, you can scroll to the end of the page to download the Flat Cat parts and instructions as a PDF.

I was worried that cutting gear teeth from thick card would be too fiddly. A laser cutter would certainly do the job, but not everyone has access to one. Eventually, during one of the many times I found myself thinking about these models, I decided that instead of wondering whether corrugated card could handle gear teeth, I should simply give it a go. Turns out, no problem at all!

My second challenge was figuring out how to join the parts together. Everything lives in this sort of “two‑and‑a‑half‑dimensional” space, but I still needed a reliable way to attach a front and back cover or align gear pieces. My original plan was to create little dowel pins from the card itself. They worked, but they were fiddly to make accurately and not especially strong.

Then, while I was working on some linkage models, like the seagull from the previous project, it suddenly occurred to me that I could use split pins (or brads, as they’re called in the US). It should have been obvious, but in that way ideas sometimes get boxed into separate compartments, I’d completely overlooked it. When it finally clicked, it felt like one of those delightfully simple revelations.

After a quick visit to eBay, I picked up a selection of split pins in different sizes and colours. I was particularly taken with the bronze ones, so that’s what I’ve used for the Flat Cat project.

I spent a relaxed evening with my sketchbook and pens, roughing out the initial idea for the cat project, along with a possible future design featuring a very contented crab. Both concepts used split pins to hold everything together. With the sketches in place, it was time to try the real thing.

I used Matthias Wandel’s Wood Gears program to create a 22‑tooth gear with 12 mm teeth, exported it as a PDF, then dropped it into Affinity where I added the arms and hands. I did the same for the rack gear, which was also designed in Wood Gears.

I printed the various pieces onto ordinary printer paper, glued them onto card, and then very carefully cut them out.

Final stage of the proof of concept: pin everything together with the gears meshed and the split pin opened out. I gave the rack a gentle pull and the happy little chap sprang to life.

You can see the original version, sans colour, over on my Instagram. You are following me… right?!

I’ve now created a full‑colour version of the Flat Cat project for you to download and make. It comes as a PDF: simply print the parts sheets, stick them onto thin corrugated card, then cut them out and assemble them following the included instructions. It’s a satisfyingly hands‑on process, scissors, a sharp knife, and a small sense of adventure recommended.

You can find it on my website, or, if you’re a premium subscriber to this newsletter, you’ll find the download waiting for you at the foot of the page.

If you sign up for an annual premium membership do let me know and I will be happy to give you full access to all the hundreds of projects at www.robives.com

Thanks so much for following along with this little cardboard adventure. I’ve had a huge amount of fun developing the Flat Cat, and I hope you enjoy making your own just as much. There’s something wonderfully satisfying about turning a few sheets of card, a handful of split pins, and a bit of careful cutting into a character with real personality.

If you do make one, I’d absolutely love to see it, feel free to tag me on Instagram or send a picture my way. Seeing your creations genuinely makes my day.

And as always, thank you for being here, whether you’re a long‑time premium subscriber or just dipping a toe into the world of automata. More projects (including a certain contented crab) are already scribbled in the sketchbook, so stay tuned.

Until next time, happy making!

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The final project from our Netherlands trip was inspired by the noisy, charismatic seagulls of Harlingen. Back in our room one evening, armed with thin corrugated card, split pins (brads), and a pack of acrylic pens, I started experimenting with linkage layouts to bring a cardboard gull to life.

Earlier that day I’d rescued a few promising offcuts from the recycling piles that appear in continental shopping streets at closing time, lovely thin e‑flute card, perfect for tinkering. Snacks acquired, tools spread out, the seagull began to take shape.

The first draft of the seagull wasn’t coloured at all. The priority was getting the mechanics right. Corrugated card was perfect for this stage, I could punch and repunch the holes for the split pins, shifting them around to test different distances and pivot points until the movement felt natural. I wanted the gull to stretch forward as it squawked, with upper and lower beaks moving in opposite directions. My early version used separate linkages for each beak, but after a bit of trial and error I realised the lower beak could open simply by tilting the neck forward. The upper beak, being part of the head, lifted automatically as the head moved back.

The breakthrough came when I adjusted the spacing of the brads. As you’ll see in the animation above, the brads on the head sit much closer together than those on the body. That tighter spacing created a wonderfully exaggerated head movement, exactly the characterful motion I was hoping for.

Once the movement felt right, I dismantled the prototype and traced around each piece, now riddled with test holes from all the experimenting. I refined the outlines, cut out clean new versions, and added only the pivot holes that the final mechanism required. With the clean pieces ready, I grabbed the acrylic pens and gave the seagull some colour before assembling everything. Once it was put together, I filmed a quick clip and posted it to Instagram.

Once we were back in the UK, I dismantled the whole project again, scanned the pieces, printed fresh copies, and rebuilt it step by step while photographing the process. That’s the version I’m sharing with you today. I hope you enjoy it and have fun making your own. Premium subscribers can download the finished file complete with step-by-step instructions at the bottom of this page, and everyone else can either sign up or visit my website to grab the file for a small fee.

Thanks so much for reading, and I hope this little project brings a bit of making‑joy to your week. If you’d like early access to projects, or downloadable files, consider joining the newsletter or becoming a premium subscriber. And of course, there’s always plenty more to explore over on the website. Wishing you a creative and curious week ahead.

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Travelling has a way of loosening the knots, doesn’t it? Long train rides, quiet compartments, and unfamiliar streets seem to shake ideas loose. I’ve been sketching in cafés, cutting tiny prototypes at apartment tables, and testing little mechanisms made from scraps and offcuts. And with good company beside me, someone to share the small discoveries, the odd cafés, the “look at this” moments, the whole process feels even more alive.

Travelling out of a rucksack means I don’t have my full workshop with me. No camera, just my phone, no printer, though I do have my small laptop and a pencil case stuffed with pens, pencils, scissors, and various other bits and pieces. Sometimes those limitations, the pared‑back tools, the scarcity of materials, can create exactly the right kind of creative tension. I’d had an idea for a flapping‑wing mechanism that I’d sketched on the train to Alkmaar, our first stop in the Netherlands. And really, what better material than a pair of train tickets to build the first model from.

I cut out the various “bones” from the train‑ticket card and set about joining them with small split pins. These ones are 4.5 mm in diameter with 8 mm legs, tiny but perfect for this sort of thing. I’d bought a pack on eBay before the start of our trip, though I’ve seen the same kind in craft and hobby shops too.

As is so often the case, things went off in a different direction. What I’d imagined the movement would be was nothing like what actually appeared in the cardboard version. The result was this rather strange thing, almost like a lopsided beak. But there was something about the action of it that I really liked, so I made a small phone video with the help of my travel companion and posted it to my Instagram.

I liked the crossed‑over bones in the main part of the four‑bar linkage and kept playing around with it, eventually ending up with these two little animations, a pecking bird and a dancing character. I reckon there’s more to come from this layout of parts.

We’ve been out on the train again today so you can expect some more of these quick mechanisms soon.

While we’re away, the column I write for Automata Magazine comes due, so it’s always ticking away at the back of my mind. My chosen subject for the upcoming issue is mechanisms that work by sliding a sleeve along a square‑section tube. I’ve got a few projects lined up to talk about, the paper umbrella on my site, plus some moving flowers and butterflies I made for Brother. But I wanted a fresh example too, something made on the road, so I’ve turned to this goose project as a freehand paper automaton.

I gathered together whatever materials I could find, the inside‑out box from a pack of Nespresso capsules, a few tourist‑info leaflets printed on heavy paper, a couple of pages from my sketchbook, and set about making the #STEAMjunk goose. It took a couple of evenings, but I reckon it was time well spent. The only problem now is transporting it. It’s delicate, there’s no room in my rucksack, and with ten more days of travel ahead of us I don’t rate its chances of survival. So I think I’ll take plenty of photos and video, then leave it here for the apartment owners. I hope they like it. There’s something satisfying about that too, leaving a small piece of making in the place where it was born. A tiny mechanical footprint. It feels a bit like planting a seed you’ll never see grow, but knowing it might raise a smile or spark a bit of curiosity long after you’ve moved on.

I hope you’ve enjoyed sharing in my travel‑making adventures, and thank you so much for taking the time to read.

Normally at this point in the newsletter there would be a free project for premium members to download and make, but I hope you’ll understand if I skip it this time. It just isn’t practical to turn either the goose or the four‑bar linkages into a proper kit without access to a printer. There’ll be more downloads soon, but in the meantime do have a look through the back catalogue there’s plenty there to try.

If you can, please consider becoming a premium member. It helps me enormously, and if you choose the annual option you’ll also get free access to all the hundreds of projects on my website, www.robives.com.

Best wishes for a creative week ahead.

This dragon started life as a quick prototype for a larger 3D project, but the mechanism had such charm that it deserved a moment in the spotlight. There’s a lovely immediacy to it: a few cuts, a couple of split pins, a bit of gentle tinkering, and suddenly the head dips, the jaw snaps, and the whole head feels alive in your hands. It’s the kind of build that reminds me why I love working with simple materials: they invite experimentation, happy accidents, and that quiet little spark when everything finally clicks.

After making a rough version and posting a quick video on Instagram, I decided it deserved a proper, finished project. I took the prototype apart, easy enough, thanks to the split‑pin construction, laid out the pieces on my cutting mat, and snapped a photo.

Because the cutting mat grid gives me a reliable scale, I can drop the image straight into my software, trace the shapes accurately, and tidy everything up. Once traced, I enlarged the parts to 125% to make the final build a little more forgiving. Then it was simply a case of printing the templates, transferring them to corrugated card, and cutting everything out. Happily, it all came together without any drama.

With the assembly photographed, I put the instructions together and added the whole project to the website. Job done!

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know I’ve recently stepped away from Adobe and into the world of open‑source tools, GIMP for image work and Inkscape for parts and layouts. As I get to know them, I’m really starting to appreciate their rhythm. I’m spending far less time hunting for how‑tos, and so far I haven’t run into any show‑stoppers at all.

The project is now live on my site and ready for you to download. If you’re a premium member of this newsletter, you’ll find the PDF waiting for you at the foot of this page, thank you so much for your support. It genuinely makes these experiments, prototypes, and playful detours possible.

If you’re not yet subscribed, this is a lovely moment to join in. You’ll get access to this project, the full archive of builds, and all the new things I’m tinkering with each month.

Thanks for reading, and best wishes for whatever you’re making this week, may your card cut cleanly, your linkages behave, and your dragons roar.

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Blimey, it’s the 11th already. So much for releasing a Valentine project in plenty of time. I had grand plans to launch this one with at least a week to spare, but here we are: I’ll be putting out a half‑complete project in the morning and saving the rest for next year. Happy Valentine’s Day! Sorry, let me explain…

This paper‑engineering project features a simple four‑frame animation of a fluttering heart, brought to life by a neat little set of paper gears.

Although I’ve designed a lovely new base with the paper gear on full display, I haven’t yet had time to finish all the instructions and photography that go with it. But don’t worry, the spinner itself is finished, and you can use the base from the earlier 1‑to‑1 Mesh Gear project as a perfect swap-in.

If you’re a premium subscriber to this newsletter, you’ll find downloads for both projects at the bottom of this page.
If you’re not a member, you can still download the files from the website, where I’ve added the new heart spinner.

So, a bit of back story about how I ended up here. I’ve been using Adobe software for a couple of decades now. Photoshop and Illustrator are second nature to me, so it’s been with growing disappointment that I’ve slowly fallen out of love with Adobe.

They seem determined to push AI in ways I’m not comfortable with, and at one point there was even talk of scraping artwork created in their apps to train their models. The prices keep creeping up, you never truly own the tools you rely on, and they’ve threatened to stop supporting software I still use regularly. All of that added up to a general unease I just couldn’t shake.

So when renewal time rolled around recently, I decided to take the plunge and move over to open‑source software instead.

The whole philosophy of open‑source software sits much closer to my own maker instincts. These tools are built by communities, not shareholders, no stock market to appease, no quarterly targets shaping the direction of the work. Sometimes the software isn’t quite as polished as the big commercial packages, but overall I’ve been genuinely delighted (and a bit surprised) by just how capable it all is.

That said, it has meant learning whole new pieces of software from scratch, and the learning curve has been… noticeable. There’s plenty of online support, thankfully, but I’ve had to look things up rather than relying on years of muscle memory. I’m getting there, slowly but surely, but it has slowed things down a little. Hopefully, as I settle in and the news tools become second nature, I’ll be back up to my usual pace.

Here’s the new software I’m using in place of the Adobe suite:

Adobe Illustrator → Inkscape
A fantastic bit of software that I’m really starting to enjoy.

Adobe Photoshop → GIMP
I’m finding this one harder to love, but it’s certainly capable. Also, cards on the table, I’m not a fan of the name.

Adobe Lightroom → Darktable
I’ve only just begun exploring this, but it’s looking very promising.

Adobe Animate → Blender
An absolute behemoth of a program, and one I’m genuinely excited to get to grips with.

Anyway, thank you for your patience while I get to grips with these new tools. I do hope you, and your true love, enjoy the Heartbeat project.

Thanks so much for sticking with me while I find my feet with this new toolkit. It means a lot. If you’ve enjoyed this project, or you’d like to support more of these little mechanical adventures, please do consider subscribing. It helps keep the workshop lights on and the ideas flowing.

Until next time, I hope you have a joyful, quietly satisfying maker‑week, full of small victories, curious moments, and things that click together just right.

Enjoy the Heartbeat project. ❤️

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I made the original by sketching the parts straight onto corrugated card, cutting them out, and linking everything together with tiny brass fasteners, I think they’re called brads in the US. I used the smallest I could find, about 4.5 mm × 8 mm, which worked nicely at this scale.

Sharing a design made from corrugated card is a bit of a challenge. In the end, I decided to trace out the parts so they can be printed onto paper. You’ll find the file at the bottom of this newsletter. Print it onto ordinary paper, then glue it to a suitable piece of corrugated card, something like a Pritt Stick works well as it avoids soaking the paper and warping the card. Once done, cut out the pieces and make holes in the card where the small circles are.

Start with the body piece. Use the split pins to connect the head, front leg and rear leg.

Glue the leg spacer to the end of the rear leg. Connect the leg linkage to the hole in the rear leg back.

Join the head to the front leg with the head linkage.

Join the end of the leg linkage to the head linkage.

Finally glue the foot end of the rear leg back to the rear leg spacer I used some dress making clips a friend lent me to hold everything together as the glue dried

Keeping the front leg still, lift the body. As you do, the rear leg will kick out and the head will lift, a simple little moment of motion that still makes me smile. I hope you have fun with this quick project. And if you feel like experimenting, why not see if you can adapt the mechanism using different materials or even different characters?

If you’ve enjoyed this build, do take a look at the other automata projects on my website. And if you choose to become an annual premium subscriber to this newsletter, I’ll happily set you up with free membership to the main site, where you can download hundreds of other projects to try at home.

I’ll be back soon with more progress on the full Logic Goat model, it’s shaping up nicely.

Thanks for reading, and happy making!

You can download the pdf of the goat parts here…

Goat

10.3KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

My original idea was to swap the gates for goats. Logic Goats instead of logic gates. You can see a full herd, And-goat, Or-goat, Not-goat and XOr Goat here.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, the spark finally arrived. Someone on Instagram shared a little video of a paper model she’d made, inspired by my old cork horse project. Suddenly the long‑dormant notion of Logic Goats and the memory of that kicking horse snapped together in a very satisfying way.

Maybe it was time for a new Logic Goat — one with a proper kicking motion rather than the polite little nod of the original.

The video at the top shows the first draft of a mechanism to bring the kicking Logic Goat to life. It’s built around two four‑bar linkages: the front legs will be fixed to the top of the box, the logic mechanism lifts the body, the rear legs kick out, and the head and neck stretch forward in a lovely, slightly chaotic way.

Looking promising, I reckon.

If you’re a premium subscriber, you’ll find an OG AND‑Goat project waiting for you, ready to print, cut, and make, just to whet your appetite.

Thank you, as always, for your support. It genuinely makes these odd little adventures possible.

If you’d like to follow the Logic Goat saga as it develops, kicks, quirks, linkages and all, do consider signing up for this newsletter. It’s the easiest way to stay in the loop, and it genuinely helps me keep making these odd little creatures.

Thanks so much for reading, and happy model‑making wherever you are; may your glue dry clear and your cams turn smoothly.

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This isn’t my first Geneva drive, you might remember the Bunny Vision project from the back catalogue of these newsletters. This new version works a little differently. Instead of a single drive pin, it uses two, one on each side of the drive wheel. That means every turn of the crank advances the index wheel twice, giving you two neat quarter‑turn steps per rotation.

The project comes as a downloadable PDF, ready for you to print at home. If you’re a premium subscriber, the file is waiting for you at the foot of this page, thank you, as always, for your support. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can still join the fun by downloading the project from www.robives.com for £5 or equivalent.

There are plenty of other variations of the Geneva drive worth exploring, and I’m sure I’ll return to them before too long. By changing the relative sizes of the drive wheel and the index wheel, you can alter the number of steps the mechanism produces. A ten‑slot wheel, for example, could be the starting point for a multi‑digit counter, and that sounds like a fun project to me.

It might also be interesting to play with the angle between the two drive pins. Shift them to ninety degrees apart instead of one‑eighty and the index wheel gives you two quick movements followed by a longer pause, a different rhythm, a different kind of breath in the mechanism. Little changes like that can completely alter the feel of the motion, which is part of the joy of these explorations.

In the end, this mechanism isn’t a final destination so much as a waypoint, a starting point on a longer mechanical journey, an invitation to see how far paper can move when you give it the chance.

Just one more thing before I wrap up. I’d originally planned to create an animated GIF of the Geneva mechanism, but the video turned out to be clear enough on its own. The real challenge, though, was that I’m trying to ease myself away from Adobe software. They once felt like a company led by artists building tools for artists; now they feel more like a corporate behemoth determined to extract every last ounce of value from their users. So I’ve stepped away from Illustrator and Photoshop in favour of the Affinity suite — and I may well take another step toward Inkscape and GIMP. There’s something appealing about working entirely with open‑source tools, especially for a project rooted in curiosity and shared making.

DaVinci Resolve has already replaced Premiere for my video editing, but that still left a gap where Adobe Animate used to sit, the tool I’d reach for when I needed a simple mechanism animation for the newsletter or the website. I think I may have found a new path, though. This Geneva drive animation was created in Blender, that remarkable open‑source powerhouse more often associated with 3D modelling. And you know what? It worked beautifully. It feels like I might be onto something, another small step in this ongoing journey to make things with tools that feel aligned with the spirit of the work.

Thanks, as always, for reading. I hope you’ve found this little exploration of the Geneva drive as interesting and enjoyable as I did while making it. If you’d like to dive deeper into projects like this, most newsletters come with a downloadable build for premium members, and if you choose the annual option rather than the monthly, you’ll also receive free full membership on robives.com. It’s a lovely way to support the work and unlock a whole library of paper‑powered curiosities.

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It’s late in the day, so rather than posting a full downloadable project I hope you don’t mind if I simply share a few photos and chat about what I made. With any luck, if the mood takes you, there’ll still be enough here for you to follow along.

My partner has a delightful habit of collecting all sorts of nature’s detritus, so just before she headed off on a First Aid course this morning she dug out these hairy acorns from one of her boxes of bits.

Two of them glued back‑to‑back made a wonderful Running Haggis body. I used a solvent‑based glue rather than my usual PVA, and the result was good and solid.

I wasn’t sure about the best way to make the iconic Tam O’Shanter hat, but after a bit of experimenting I found that I could squash down a craft pom‑pom so it took on the shape of a floppy hat

The addition of a tiny pom‑pom finished off the effect nicely.

I had originally planned on using a cork base, as you can see in the sketch above, but in the end realised it was probably going to be a little small. I did think about using a small jar, as I have with some other STEAMjunk projects, but eventually opted to try out a new technique. I took a long strip of corrugated card, with the corrugations running at right angles to the length of the strip. I pre‑curled it over the edge of the desk, then rolled it round, glued it up, and wrapped an elastic band around it while it dried. The perfect base!

The running mechanism uses a tried‑and‑tested bead‑and‑wire design that I’ve used on previous projects. I straightened out three paper clips, made the double crank from one, and the two axle stands from the other two. The crank was folded so that the width of the crank section was close to the width of the base.

I used a zip tie to hold the axle stands to the side of the base so that the crank mechanism sat just clear of it. I then added a second zip tie at the back of the base; this acted as a springy stand to mount the haggis body in place.

I made a pair of legs and joined them to the body, along with the end of the zip‑tie spring. All these parts were quite tricky to fix together, organic material, paper, and plastic don’t seem to want to cooperate. In the end I used solvent‑based glue. I’d been baking bread, so the oven was still warm. I gently clamped the parts together and put them in the open oven while I made myself a coffee and waited for the glue to dry.

For the final stage I added a third zip tie around the base and tightened everything up.

And to finish off the character, I glued on the Tam O’Shanter hat, added googly eyes, and wrapped a strip of tartan around the base. The sprigs of gypsophila add to the effect of the haggis running wild across the moors. So there it is: the Running Haggis, ready to take round to our friend for Burns Night. I hope they like it, and I do hope you’ve enjoyed following along. Happy Burns Night to you!

Thanks so much for reading and for sharing a little of this impromptu making adventure with me. If you’d like more project rambles, oddball creations, and behind‑the‑bench moments, you’re very welcome to subscribe and come along for the ride. Until next time, I hope your own making endeavours bring you joy, surprises, and the occasional happy accident.

The reindeer’s feet are linked directly to the crank, while a wire connects the back of its body to the base, letting it sway gently as it runs. Turn the handle and watch the legs spring into motion.

The arms are driven by crossed paper linkages, so that when the left leg lifts, the right arm rises, and vice versa. This criss‑cross creates a delightfully enthusiastic running motion, full of character and festive cheer.

The base is crafted from straightened paperclip wires, bent neatly into shape and joined with a small piece from a terminal block. The crank slots into a pair of wire loops, while two glass beads hold it centred and turning smoothly in position.

Before starting the build, I spent some time sketching out different ideas for the base, you can see a few of those explorations in my notebook pages above. In the end, I returned to the tried‑and‑tested bead‑and‑wire mechanism. Past experience told me it would work reliably, and with Christmas fast approaching I wanted to be sure the project would be finished in time.

The Running Reindeer comes as a downloadable PDF with full step‑by‑step instructions. Premium subscribers can download it directly from the foot of this page, and it’s also available from my website for £5 (or equivalent).

🎁 Looking for the perfect present for a crafty friend?
Don’t forget, I offer gift memberships on my website! A membership unlocks hundreds of downloadable projects to make and enjoy, guaranteed to keep creative hands busy (and happy) all year long.

Thank you so much for following along with this project, I hope you enjoy bringing your Running Reindeer to life as much as I enjoyed designing it. May it add a dash of festive cheer to your making, whether it’s gifted to a friend or proudly displayed on your desk. Wishing you joyful tinkering and a very merry Christmas!

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Turning the crank sets in motion a pair of pinions, each reduced to just five surviving teeth. These pinions are mounted opposite one another, 180 degrees apart on the axle.

Above them sits a twelve‑tooth gear, firmly fixed to the vertical shaft. As the crank rotates, the first pinion engages with the gear, driving the shaft in one direction. Continuing the turn, the second pinion comes into play, reversing the motion.

The effect is a gentle oscillation: the vertical shaft twists back and forth, completing roughly one‑third of a full revolution each way with each cycle of the crank.

All of the gears and pinions are enclosed neatly within a box. From this housing, the vertical shaft emerges through a hole, ready to twist back and forth, while the crank axle extends from the side for easy turning.

This compact arrangement forms an Essential Mechanism: a self‑contained unit that demonstrates the pure delight of motion. It can be enjoyed as an exercise in mechanism alone, or serve as the foundation for your own character‑based paper automata project.

Download and Make Your Own:

The Twister Mechanism is available as a downloadable project from my website. It comes in two PDF files:

• Parts + Instructions – includes all the pieces along with clear, step‑by‑step guidance.

• Parts Only – a simplified sheet of components, perfect if you’d like to add your own colours or adjust the shapes and sizes before building.

This flexibility makes it easy to adapt the mechanism into your own creative project.

If you are a premium subscriber to this newsletter, you can download the files for free at the foot of this page. Thank you so much for your support, it makes projects like this possible!

If you’d like to become a premium subscriber, you’ll gain access to this project along with dozens of others from previous newsletters. Simply click here to join and start exploring the full library of automata kits and mechanisms.

Ideas to Try

Once built, the Twister Mechanism is a springboard for imagination. Here are a few playful directions you might explore:

• 🐶 A dog twisting its head from side to side

• 🎿 A rabbit skiing gracefully down a slope

• 🐟 A shoal of fish linked together, moving in unison

• 💃 A dancer performing the twist

Of course, these are just starting points, the only limit is your imagination. See what characters or scenes you can bring to life!

Making is at its heart an act of curiosity and joy, each mechanism a doorway to new ideas, each project an invitation to play. I hope the Twister Mechanism sparks your imagination and leads you to create something uniquely yours.

If you’re already a premium subscriber, thank you for helping keep this workshop turning and these projects flowing, I literally couldn’t do it without your support. And if you’d like to join, becoming a premium member gives you access to this project and dozens more, while helping sustain the community of makers who delight in bringing paper and motion to life.

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So crank the handle, let the gears dance, and see where your creativity takes you.

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The project began with a chat with the Brother International Creative Center team. I suggested that a Santa Express might make a fun festive build, and they agreed. I sketched out the idea and sent over this page from my sketchbook as the starting point.

With their approval in hand, I set about building the first draft of the train. At this stage I used different coloured card, focusing mainly on the shape and scale of the design. My original plan was to include rotating wheels and axles, but with ten sets of wheels that would have meant cutting twenty circular holes, an ambitious task even for a seasoned paper modeller! In the end I fixed the wheels in place instead. Don’t worry, the Santa Express runs perfectly well with static wheels.

I made several adjustments to the draft model: shortening the cab, narrowing the sleigh, and redesigning the windows in the rear carriage, along with a few other fine‑tuning tweaks. After assembling another version in coloured card, I moved to the computer to add colour and festive decorations to the final parts layout. I’m really pleased with how the finished design came together, I feel it captures the cheerful spirit I’d hoped for and feels ready to roll out for the season.

The final stage was photographing a complete step‑by‑step build and adding the instructions to the file. Because Brother is an international company, the instructions are purely visual, pictures with numbered parts. You can visit their site, download the file, and give it a try. Does this picture‑led approach feel clear and easy to follow? I hope so! If you try it, I’d love to hear what worked and what could be clearer.

As mentioned, the complete Santa Express project is available to download from the Brother website, free for everyone. I hope you’ll give it a go!

Also on the Brother site (and I admit this one comes a little late for this year), I created an Advent chest of drawers.

Each drawer in the Christmas countdown is just the right size to hide a festive treat. Perhaps you could make one now and have it ready for next December?

Thank you so much for reading and for joining me on this festive journey. If you’ve enjoyed following along, I’d love for you to become part of the newsletter community, sign up to receive future projects, stories, and seasonal makes straight to your inbox. It’s a gentle way to stay connected and keep the creativity rolling all year round.

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