Mr. Cranky

After you’ve made what George Lucas called his favorite Star Wars parody, how do you keep turning culture on its ear? Retired filmmaker Ernie Fosselius (Hardware Wars) has been cranking out a wonderful menagerie of mechanical woodcarvings.

Like his hit 1977 movie spoof, which turned eggbeaters into spaceships and crusty rolls into Princess Leia’s braids, Fosselius’ sculptures poke fun with quick, broad strokes. The face of Bi-Polar Bear changes from happy to sad with the turn of a crank; when you turn the crank on The Politician, the smirking statuette does … nothing.

Photography by Mark Frauenfelder

Part of the joy is watching the clever mechanisms Fosselius puts in plain sight, like the spinning drill bit that simulates a stream of coffee. “I like to be the magician who reveals all his secrets, so you want to go home and try it yourself,” he explains.

He takes that same exploratory approach as a maker. “I just keep myself open to what [a piece] wants to do,” he says. “I never have a blueprint, only a rough cartoon. It’s really that process of building and tinkering and refining that’s the most interesting,

rewarding, and fun part. Finishing is anticlimactic.”

Fosselius crafts his characters out of basswood, doing the initial shaping on a band saw and then whittling them down with a pocketknife, a carving knife, and palm gouges. “If you look closely at the boxes and bases, you’ll see that I’m not much of a woodworker,” he claims. “I don’t like rulers. And I hate to sand. If you can put the joke over in the simplest way, why bother? Use that time to make another piece.

“I feel that I’m still making movies. I’m creating little characters, situations, and stories that hopefully make people laugh. But it’s direct entertainment. Unlike films, I get to be there when people experience it.”

—David Battino

Read an interview with Ernie Fosselius at makezine.com/08/made_fossel

>>Ernie Fosselius: contraptions@msn.com en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Fosselius

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