Rocking scooter

Plywood rocking scooter and drawings by Rob Elliott. Shanghai Scooters, Niagara Artists Centre, August 2011.

I built a plywood rocking scooter to accompany my drawing show Shanghai Scooters, mostly for the challenge. After months of controlled studio work, I had an urge to get down to my basement workshop and see what I could create with power tools.

I started with a 1950s Popular Mechanics template for a “Rocking Lion”, built a paper maquette based on the Chinese scooters featured in many of my drawings, and scaled up the design to be cut out of a single sheet of plywood. Once I had the wood pieces assembled, I sculpted the body with a jigsaw and added stylized headlights and machine parts to give the scooter heft. A lick of house paint and the ride was ready for its debut.

The finished scooter was a hit at the opening reception. It carried the weight of an adult, and despite some vigourous rocking, it never tipped (and nobody lost a toe).

The rocking scooter gets a workout at the opening reception.