14'' (35cm) cottonwood bark carving of Mechanical Fortress.
This not so traditional whimsical creation took me more than 20 hours to finish:
The main (and probably only) inspiration for the carving was a game Machinarium.
The art team that worked on this amazing game might probably recognize some of the 'stolen' ideas.
But the very first idea to actually create the robotic house came from Matt from Overman, who gave me one of his trademarked antique watch robots to use as I feel.
The Robot is now the supreme controller of this Mechanical Fortress:
Few close ups:
A screen-shot from the game Machinarium:
More on the carving progress:
The carving was done out of a single piece of cottonwood bark, that was cut into half.
The parts were then properly leveled on the back sides so they would attach to each other.
I used a rotary sander to finish this part, I hope the carving itself remains in the 'hand carved' category :)
The pieces were then glued together with a piece of cardboard between them. This is done to be able to create the basic shapes and still be able to rip the pieces apart when it comes to hollowing the inside.
The house windows were created so it was time to 'open' them by hollowing the bark from the back.
The robot can enter his control room now and to be sealed there for the time coming.
At this point the glue was drying and I couldn't carry on with carving for a while but meanwhile...
...he was already controlling the Mechanical Fortress.
