Description
Made in Stithians: a portrait of Paul Spooner at work
Now available to download or rent on vimeo.
You can rent for £2.50 ($2.99) or buy a download to own for £7.50 ($8.99).
Previously available on VHS and DVD, now re-mastered for digital. Watch the trailer below or buy / rent here.
What do artists do all day?
In 1993, the filmmaker Gary Alexander, followed Paul Spooner through the stages of his working process as he attempted to make a new piece of automata in a single day. Nearly 30 years later the video has been remastered for digital and re-released (2022) for a new audience of makers, tinkerers and automata enthusiasts. Some of his other work is also shown. Running time: 35 minutes. Stithians is in Cornwall.
It is a simple but deft piece of carving and joinery, in its balance of skill and thought an example of perfect craftsmanship. Spooner has used just the right amount of technical proficiency. Any more would have been showing off, and the work would have been cluttered. Any less and the effect would have been spoiled because the viewer would be distracted by anxiety about whether it would hold together. As it is I feel confident that what see is what was intended.
– Rosemary Hill, Writing in Crafts magazine.
