Paul Spooner makes automata

Mastermind Paul Spooner only lives up the road, yet the first place I recall seeing the name was on a piece of his work, at the science Science museum in London. After a while exploring his collections I started to realise quite how many of them were familiar to me. His fireplace for example, is decorated with two child figureheads; these were cast moulds for a demonstrative piece in Eden Project. I stood in awe as a kid, watching that mechanical ‘plant takeaway’ unfold, until the stage reset and it all went round again. I maybe didn’t realise how much I admired these comedic puppets and their delicately automated displays of bizarre life and blunt humour. What I mean to say of course is that I admire Paul for his genius creations - the machines have characters of their own so I rather think I ought to give them some credit. I thoroughly enjoyed filming this interview and I am ever so looking forward to sharing this episode of Characters of Cornwall. With many thanks to Paul for putting up with