I hope you find my site fun and interesting. I built my site to promote the restoration services that I offer. I restore mechanical toys, whistling figures, bird cages, bird boxes and automata. I also am very happy to build custom pieces to a customers specs. I also hope to get other people who are involved with making automata to share what they have built and maybe figure a way to expand this web site to include their creations. I consider myself very lucky to be involved in that which I truly enjoy. On a sad note, I believe it to be a dying craft. I hope that I can inspire other people to do what they can to promote the craftsmen out there to continue creating works of art.

On this site, I'm going to talk about my own skill or hobby. I'll give a bit of history on the subject itself, as well as some background on how I got involved in it. I might also include some instructions on how to perform my hobby, as well as any tips or tricks I've acquired through the years. And, of course, I'll include lots of pictures of the results of my hobby or of me enjoying myself doing it.

Please sign my guestbook and let me know what you think of this site. Also feel free to contribute to this site with your own tips.

This is a picture of a Singing Bird Bush that I was lucky to have the opportunity to restore. The bird on the top flaps his wings. There is a hummingbird that jumps from branch to branch. On the ground there is a bird who bobs to take a drink of water. The waterfall is simulated by a turning rough cut glass rod. The bird sounds are so realistic that if you close your eyes you would believe that you are listening to a tree full of birds at feeding time. Most of these are French and made in the 1800's.