A Former Teacher Turned a Poem About Books Into a Wooden Bird – and Found His Craft in Mobiles

Jay Rubinstein is a maker of wooden mobiles – moving sculptures from natural wood veneers – based in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, whose pieces are inspired by poems, songs and folktales. He trained as a cabinet maker long ago and worked for many years as a teacher and network manager; when the family moved to Scotland, he retired a little early, and mobiles became his main work.

Jay Rubinstein glues layers of wood veneer over a wooden former in a vacuum press, which holds them in place until the glue sets. The shaped plywood that comes out is then cut and combined into the final mobile. The press is the most essential tool in his workshop; for cutting and shaping the pieces, he has found nothing better than a Stanley knife.

Jay Rubinstein takes commissions and would happily take on more. There is no set format: you email him, he sends an estimate and a time estimate and asks for a deposit, and the timing depends on the piece. “I like to think that I am quite good at being able to estimate how long it will take to get a job done.” He would happily ship abroad, though shipping and paperwork take extra work. Prices range from £90 to £3,500.

Jay Rubinstein finds buyers where they can see his work in person – in commercial galleries and at Spring Fling, the open studios event in Dumfries and Galloway. Once people have seen a mobile, they often come back to him directly: this year about 55% of his sales were direct, about 23% commissions and about 22% through galleries. He sells around 25 mobiles a year.

Jay’s earliest mobile was called Caxtons. It came from a poem by Craig Raine, A Martian Sends a Postcard Home, which describes books as if they were mechanical birds. Jay had the idea of books whose covers would open out to become wings, and he made a series of pieces that started as a book and ended up as “a rather strange bird.” Hanging them as a mobile reinforced the sense of flight, “and everything started from that point.”

He had always worked with wood. He trained as a cabinet maker a long time ago, but for many years he worked as a teacher and a network manager, keeping wood as a hobby. About ten or eleven years ago, he and his family moved to Scotland. He retired a little early from his job as a network manager and could finally spend more time developing his “wooden ideas.” For the last nine years or so he has concentrated on mobiles, gradually developing his craft and his approach to design – today they are his main work.

“I found that, wherever the idea came from, translating it into a moving sculpture made it something new and unpredictable.”

All of Jay’s work is made from wood veneers. He glues them into the shapes he needs over a wooden former in a vacuum press, making a shaped plywood form that can then be cut and combined into the final mobile. For the cutting and shaping, a Stanley knife has proved the best tool he has.

Each piece starts with words. The Invisible Fish grew out of Gerard Manley Hopkins’s poem Pied Beauty, which Jay reads as a celebration of the beauty of diversity and difference – “other interpretations are available”:

Glory be to God for dappled things –
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;

He made a fish out of birds, and the name is a joke: “people often don’t see the fish for a while, others don’t see the birds.” The geese were inspired by a song by the Scottish singer Karine Polwart about how the lead goose eases the way for the geese behind it – and how the flock only works if the others step up and take the strain in turn. The swallows are “a bit of a cheat”: the inspiration is a Ted Hughes poem that is actually about swifts. Swallows and house martins nest around Jay’s house, and each year their return is a moment of celebration.

What keeps him making mobiles rather than still sculpture is that they surprise him. “No matter how much work I put into the design the finished piece can surprise me.” The Mermaid is a perfect example. He knew the tail would undulate like a fish, but when he finished her, “the piece really moves as if the tail is driving the rest of her body.”

Video: Jay Rubinstein

A few of Jay’s mobiles, all made from natural wood veneers. Photos: Jay Rubinstein.

Most of Jay’s sales are more or less local, within about 200 kilometres. The majority go to people buying for their own homes, who find that his work sits well in stairwells, window alcoves and similar spaces – “where they can be seen, where they get enough air currents to move and where people aren’t in danger of walking into the work.”

He has made some commissions and would happily take on more. Prices range from £90 to £3,500.

Jay’s earliest customers came from a local craft exhibition. He then joined a local arts and crafts co-operative group with three shops, and after a while found commercial galleries that took his work.

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Galleries and Spring Fling, the local open studios event, are where people meet Jay’s work. The main places that show his work are the Whitehouse Gallery in Kirkcudbright, the Old Courthouse Gallery in Ambleside and the Old Schoolhouse Gallery in Muker. What he has learned is simple: “My work seems to sell only when people have seen it in physical form.” Once they have, people often come back to him through his website or contact him directly when they want to buy. This year about 55% of his sales were direct, about 23% commissions and about 22% through galleries.

“I lost a lot of time and money attending craft shows up and down the country.” People were very complimentary, but they didn’t come to the shows thinking of buying a mobile. One or two sales came later, but the return never matched the investment. It may have been the economic climate of the time, but he decided to work only on local shows. “I don’t think I’ve thought of quitting!”

The most useful turning point came when Jay was rejected for Spring Fling. The email said, in essence, that the ideas he had sent in weren’t fully realised – but it was detailed and included some very positive comments as well as the rejection itself. “The rejection was important because it challenged me to think more boldly about what I was doing, and to tackle more ambitious ideas.” He has been part of the event ever since.

The piece he made after the rejection was Pied Beauty, named after the Hopkins poem. He had made an earlier, less developed version, but this one was larger and more ambitious than his previous efforts – “my first fully realised” piece, he says, “properly expressing my response to the poem.” Photo: Keith Shaw Buckley Photography.

“I make wooden mobiles, inspired by poems songs and folktales. They have a quiet poetry in their movement and present a constantly changing vision as they do so.”

Who: Jay Rubinstein
What: Wooden mobiles from natural wood veneers, inspired by poems, songs and folktales
Where: Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, UK
Started: May 2016
Audience: About 45 website visits in 25 days
Customers: Around 25 mobiles a year
Price range: £90–£3,500
Custom orders: Yes
Ships: Mostly within the UK; abroad on request
Channels: Word of Mouth & Offline