Moka Man

In a market in Padova, Greta and I came across a stall by Think Up, selling small lamps and decorations made from reused objects. We couldn't buy anything at the time, but Greta needed to replace her Moka, and so we decided to turn our old one into a little sculpture.

Photos

We built him around Christmas-time, while visiting my parents, using pieces of junk from around their house. At some point, we will add some more peices to him and install a lamp in his head. I'll put more photos here once that happens, but he's still fun for the time-being.

His head is built from the upturned top half of the Moka, and his body is built from the boiler part of the Moka. They're attached together with some metal rope fasteners, which keep the head tilted upwards in a little pose.

His hair is made from resistors, soldered to a ring of copper in the thread on top of his head, and his eyes are potentiometers with a few extra electronic components soldered to them for decoration.

His hands are self-tapping screw hooks that are tapped directly into the aluminium boiler body. One is driven through the drilled-out safety valve.

His fingers are British BS 1363 plug socket pins, held in place on the hooks by tightening their brass screws. In one hand, he holds a silver spoon, attached by soldering a fuse-holder to it.

One of his feet is the handle that used to go on top of his lid, and the other is the base of a candle stick.