The Basics chapter is a comprehensive introduction to the many and varied devices used to build mechanical movement. Not only does it explain each device, in logical order, but it shows how they function together to create all kinds of expressive and beautiful movements. These devices are introduced with clear explanatory drawings and text, and plenty of examples from puppets and automata which use them. Added to this chapter is a lengthy section on workspaces, tools and materials, which covers areas as diverse as fabrication of antique clockwork automata and modern automata and puppetry using the most up-to-date materials and technology.
     Images in the Basics Page, photos left to right, top to bottom: Three-Headed Dragon, 5' long puppet by Ellen Rixford. Illuminated Shells made as super-thin resin casts. Japanese Bunraku puppet of the maiden Kiyohime transformed into a monster, with a technical drawing showing how her face mechanically changes. Series of small puppets created by Jim Kroupa. Mermaid -- a life-sized cast of the author's body in very light. thin and strong papier mache and composition glue, by the author. Velvet Laambmore, a life-sized performance puppet designed by puppeteer Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, and custom-built for her for Jim Kroupa. A series of caricatures by Bill Nelson, and a series of ventriloquist puppets by Bill Nelson, who did the sculpting, and Dan Lavender, who built the superb mechanical movements.
     Drawings on the Basics Page, left to right, top to bottom: Cams of varying shapes. Complex cam with eight levels for La Joueuse de Tympanon by David Roentgen and Peter Kintzing. Friction drives of varying complexity. Various gears. Various kinds of pulleys. These drawings all done by the author.
     Icon at start of text box: One of the 3 heads of the Dragon.