Help preserve our future
West Dean is part of a registered charity and relies on the support of generous donors, friends, legacies to help us deliver world-class education in conservation and the creative arts and maintain our award-winning gardens.
Fi Henshall
Fi Henshall took a sculpture degree at Falmouth College of Arts
graduating in 2004. She taught herself to carve marionettes, but
found the idea of figures which could be made to perform and act
out a scene by anyone even more appealing, and made her first
automaton in 2009.
She now makes automata from wood, metal, broken machinery, old tins
and odd objects, working largely in recycled materials. She borrows
techniques from any discipline she can pick up (carving, soldering,
engineering, painting, modelling, jewellery making and more) to
illustrate stories about strange characters and creatures. Fi is
currently she is working on pieces for Cabaret Mechanical Theatre's
new touring exhibition.