Sometimes inspiration floats in on a paper umbrella. I was lucky enough to meet Nozomi, the wonderful paper automata artist visiting from Tokyo, and we shared a meal while she was in the UK. Tucked into our dessert were whimsical paper cocktail umbrellas—one of which made its way home with me and became something quite different: the mechanical STEAMjunk parasol shown below.
This fun little build combines paper clips, 6mm glass beads and terminal blocks to create a crankable parasol with satisfying movement. I liked the finished piece so much, I rebuilt it from scratch—photographing each step along the way to produce a downloadable set of instructions, shown below.
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After I posted the project video on Instagram, Automata-Fest friend Cara asked if it could still sit on a cocktail. Great idea Cara! For the record, that’s a decoy cocktail, just cold tea doing its best impersonation.
Once the project was finished, I couldn’t resist playing with it a bit—and the movement instantly reminded me of a flying machine. The way the parasol wafts gently up and down made me picture it as the power source for a wonderfully odd steampunk ornithopter. I imagined a character seated in a kind of boat-like contraption, cranking a handle to make the parasol flap overhead. Sounds like the perfect launchpad for a new build...
The cocktail umbrella that kicked this all off was far too small for a flying machine so I decided to make my own slightly larger version as a starting point. I’m releasing this paper-and-card parasol as a standalone project, with the plan to return to the flying machine idea later using this scaled-up parasol as its central feature.
As before, if you're a premium subscriber, you can download the PDF with all the parts and instructions at the bottom of this page, thank you for your support!
Not a member yet? You’re very welcome to join, or you can grab the file from my website for £5 (or your local equivalent).
Thanks so much for reading—whether you've been following from the start or just parachuted in with a paper parasol! I love sharing these playful, mechanical projects with you, and I hope today's build sparks a bit of curiosity. If you'd like to support the newsletter and access downloadable kits as they appear, becoming a premium member helps make future tinkering possible.
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Onward to the next creation!