Beetle the Rat

This is Beetle, an animatronic rat created during the Puppetry: Basic Animatronic Concepts workshop given by Eric Ball through the Stratford Artists Alliance "Off the Wall".

   In order to accommodate the machinery, he's much larger than my usual rats, measuring 12 1/2 inches long excluding the tail.  He's in a Batik stringy brown mohair with a leatherette tail, Fimo claws and teeth, safety-lock eyes, ultrasuede ears, upholstery fabric inner mouth, horse-hair whiskers, "pillow" nose in a silky fabric, lots of wire and a body filled with servos, metal and batteries!

The workshop was hard but oh-so-much-fun!  Power tools are definitely not my friends (I could too easily see my precious bloody fingers go flying across the room!) but it was worth pushing past fears and trying completely new things.  

Thank you so much, Eric, for your patience!!!

The workshop took place over two weekends in November of 2009.

This was our "class room".

Above on the right,
there's a fellow student creating her "zombie girl"... 

and on the left that's Eric demonstrating how wings could be animated.

Here's Beetle's insides, two servos allowing the mouth to open and close and the head to swing from side to side.

I met some amazing people, there was so much creativity in the room it was palpable!!

To see Beetle in action, check out the video on YouTube! 

(No, he is not up for adoption!)

Photos taken by fellow student Frances Key and me.

Please click on the selection below:

To learn more about the critters and me,
please click on the rat

For prices, availability and adoption details,
please click on the moth

For a show schedule, click here

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These pages created by Karen Waschinski
Questions?  Comments?  Please e-mail me at woosel[at]scratchingatthewindow.com

~~Dà Fhaol Mharbh: A Vampyre's Faerytale by Karen Waschinski (with Debra Yee)~~