WHY?

It takes a lot of experiences to get to a specific point.

It started with dad who was creative in an engineering way.  He had a garage at home with lots of tools. A son who preferred tinkering to socializing. Mechano sets and balsa model aircraft to express his ideas and the excitement of the space race to fuel the imagination. Then there was electronics and the transistor and integrated circuits. I didn't stand a chance - an engineer it would be.

Growing up in South Africa meant national service, then varsity and the excitement of a state sponsored stay overseas. During this period letters were the only practical form of communication. These eventually ended up illustrated with sketches to a loved one at home.

Returning home provided the space for a few tools and an opportunity to make things again. A close friend had a young son who was about to celebrate another spin around the sun, so I wanted to create something unique for him. I was inspired by local wire art, and decided to make a model car using wire and tin cans. I enjoyed the process, and thought that it was a great local alternative to Mechano sets to demonstrate mechanical concepts (my Mechano set had been left behind and redistributed to my brother when I left home).

My first "3D sketch*", called a monster at that stage, was inspired by a picture created for me by Marie de Villiers (the recipient of my letters with sketches):

Image created by Marie de Villiers :"Moondragon eating daisies on the lawn"

This led to a wire 3D sketch on a Penny-farthing, which pedaled when pushed, flapped its wings and moved its head. The wheel providing the rotary action leading to a kinetic event.

3D Sketch of a dragon on a Penny-farthing

After this the "monsters" evolved. This is another early example, where the wings now have body (sewn leather with copper wire), the monster is pedaling a "trap-kar", moving head and wings and has steerable  wheels. (Trap-kar was enjoyed by engineering varsity students and involved designing and racing pedaled powered vehicles.)

*3D Sketch : a relatively rapidly executed model that is not intended as a finished work. A sketch may serve a number of purposes: it might record something that the artist sees, it might record or develop an idea for later use or it might be used as a quick way of graphically demonstrating an image, idea or principle. (Modified slightly from the Wikipedia definition of a sketch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sketch_(drawing))