This year for Christmas gifts for my mom and my sister I got an idea from one of my Make Magazine articles about an artist (Miami-based sculptor and illustrator Mike Rivamonte) who takes matchbooks and covers a wooden robot frame to assemble an interesting display item.

I knew I wanted mine to have a semi theme for each person i was making it for, so I downloaded many images from the internet to get just the right matchbooks.

Here is my assembly process and finished designs.

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And I bought Poplar for the wood body. Used my old band saw from Ace!

and a drill press to drill all of the peg holes used to attach the head and arms.

I cut each piece and lightly sanded.

The pegs are soaked in stain.

Each one stood about 14 inches tall and both have arms and a head that is movable. if you look carefully at the edges of r the wood block i used a file to rough and cut the matchbook covers to give is a worn look. i left some areas of the wood uncovered and I like the more rustic look.

A quick spray with a poly clear coat to protect and seal, they were wrapped and shipped… just in time for the holidays. These robots where a very fun project and took a total of about 6 hours to complete. You can find these for sale from the original artist here: http://www.rivamonterobots.com/for-sale/

and the location of the make article: http://makezine.com/2016/09/12/these-matchbook-robot-sculptures-put-a-nostalgic-twist-on-sci-fi/

Have fun, be safe and until the next project… make it happen!