Inside the Doll
Motors
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In the heart of a mechanical doll is a winding spring motor. Unfortunately, it is exceptionally difficult to acquire such a motor today. Some masters use large, cumbersome motors from old phonographs for their automata, but that involves a compromise: such motors were made for a different purpose - to maintain a stable speed during the long, slow rotation of the axis, which is essential in playing records.
Other masters prefer not to use a motor at all. Their dolls are put into action through a handle, which has to be turned constantly during the performance. In that case, however, the doll is no longer an automaton.
For his automata, Anatoly designs and constructs his own motors (with the invaluable help of his engineer brother, Leo Zayaruzny). The photographs show variations of motors: from small and compact ones to powerful ones with up to 45 lb in torque.
Usually the motor is hidden in a box that makes the base of the automaton, but sometimes the artist puts it into the doll's body. In Rosalinda on a Tree he hid the motor in the tree's trunk.
Heads
There are many movements a doll's head can do. Apart from the head turning side to side and nodding up and down, very often the eyes, eyelids, and mouth also move.
The mechanism hidden in the doll's head is the smallest, most accurate, and most complicated of its kind. Some of these photographs show it inside the doll's open "skull."