Cat scratching solution

I thought it might be a good idea to make some instructions on the wheel handles to explain simply what each handle does so I made some lettering files in Adobe Illustrator and cut them out on a laser cutter. I also realised that people using the automata should see an instruction when the roll runs out so that they don't keep rolling and tear the wallpaper entirely, so added in a little instruction when you get to the end of the paper roll.

I felt fitting to base the cat on the automata on the cat that popped in to the library at the same time I met Pauline, so I started to paint its black and white splodges. To make the cat look furry I used pva glue, flocking and a static machine to apply the strands of fibre so that they stand upright on their ends.

It was great to meet Pauline and chat a bit more about the idea behind her invention, how it was based on a cat she used to have which would scratch and peel off wallpaper from particular areas of the house. It was lovely to hear how inspired she was the Joy Lab challenge, with the brief being a bit of permission to let your mind and imagination wander. I explained where I had got to with the make so far and we were even visited by local feline celebrity Boris the cat who clearly wanted to hear all about the idea too!

I attached the tissue to the wall very carefully with double sided tape and then cut out a big long strip so the tissue so that could wind around the rollers on the inside of the box. I wanted to make sure that that colour of the moving wallpaper lined up properly with the tissue applied to the wall.

Once we had got the cat working I started to build up the body shape more but needed to keep checking that I hadn't created spots that the rods for the arms would catch on the body and get stuck, so sometimes needed to sand a bit away again. The body is made of foam and milliput , a type of epoxy.

I got my dad Brian involved to make the box for the wallpaper to run through. We found the paper needed a few rollers to help guide it. We set about working out how to make the cats paws move too, the arms are attached to rods which turn using the handle on the side of the box. We tried quite a few lengths of the rod and positions of the pivot as it was quite tricky to get the cat to actually scratch the wallpaper - too close and it would tear too much way or get stuck and too far away and it wouldn't interact with the paper. The paws have nails on them so they are a little sharp to scratch the paper. I looked at wallpapers but they were very thick, so to make it easier for the cat to scratch I thought that tissue might work. I found a lovely roll of multicoloured tissue in an art shop which looked like it might work well, it needed to be on a roll so that there was enough of a strip of the paper so that more could be rolled down, and it would take a while to run out before it needed to be replenished.

I used the full size drawing to trace off the sizes of the body parts of the cat so that I could cut them out in plywood, some of the pieces like the paws were too small to cut on a bandsaw so I cut those out on a laser cutter.

Now that I had a bit of an idea of how it might work I drew out the box and cat to the full size of what it would be so that I could work from the drawing.

I thought this was such a good idea by Pauline, practical for both the home owner and the cat! An automata would be a good way of showing how this idea would work, so I created a quick cardboard version to work out how to make a crankie-style rolling paper and accompanying scratching cat. It is so roughly made, but it helped me to visualise what I was trying to make. I thought that the rolling wallpaper could be controlled by some sort of handle, and the cat could move using a similar method.