Artist · Perth, Western Australia
"Toby stole my heart the moment I placed his sad little eyes and said, 'Oh hello there.'"
I'm Angela Delury — creator of Angie's Bits n Bots. I make robot sculptures from things the world has thrown away. Each one is a character in its own right, with a story already lived inside the materials.
As an emerging artist I am constantly exploring new ways of making art so on my website you will also find my experiments in art-making as I play with a constantly evolving toolkit of mixed media materials. So much fun!!
Meet the Artist
My Story
"Whether on stage, in front of a classroom full of kids, or in my shed, I am driven by the joy of making and the magic of imaginative transformation."
I grew up making things — it was never a career plan, just a compulsion. Performing was a career plan, so in my life as Angela Kelly (maiden name) I trained in Musical Theatre at WAAPA, worked as a professional performer across Australia and internationally, played Minty in the ABC series that earned me a WA Screen Award and AFI nomination, toured nationally with the Gordon Frost Organisation, and starred alongside Jim Henson puppets in Bambaloo — a Logie-nominated ABC/Channel 7 children's TV series.
Then I became Mum and a Music Teacher, and for many years that was where the creativity went — into my sons, my students, and school halls rather than studios and stages.
In late 2024, I gave myself a challenge: fifty robot sculptures from found and recycled materials before I turned 50. A creative dare, as much as anything else. The kind of thing I'd tried before with other projects and hadn't followed through on.
This time was different. In October 2025 I held my first solo exhibition at the Canning Bridge Community Art Space in Mount Pleasant — 50 bots, on the walls and on plinths, every single one named. Twenty-six sold. Two commissions came out of that weekend. And I won the Sculpture Award at the Wanneroo Community Art Prize.
As an emerging artist, my practise is evolving as I explore new materials and ways of composing art… always with the belief that overlooked objects have value and that transformation is always possible… and exciting.
I am thrilled about this next chapter of my creative and spiritual journey in life and hope the things I make will bring joy to many. Making them certainly brings joy to me!
Follow me on Instagram to come along for the ride: @angiesbitsnbots
Angela Delury (nee Kelly)
I'm Angela Delury (nee Kelly) — a WAAPA-trained performer, primary school music teacher, and now a practising assemblage artist based in Perth, Western Australia.
I set out to make one robot… but the pieces kept finding me and the characters were asking to emerge. This was one creative project I HAD to finish!
My work starts with noticing: the objects we discard still have shapes, weight, and histories. A vintage tin becomes a torso. A drawer handle becomes spectacles. A sieve becomes a skirt. Put the right things together and something happens — a personality emerges that wasn't planned for, only found.
This began as a personal challenge — #50botsby50, fifty robot sculptures before my 50th birthday. I completed it. Bot #50, Mele, was finished just five days before the date. Then I kept going.
Portfolio
57 sculptures created from found, reclaimed, and recycled materials. Each one named. Each one someone. Click any image to read the story.
New Work
My kindred spirit — a fellow treasure hunter and tinkerer, built from the very things he loves to find. Assembled from salvaged bicycle brake rotors, biscuit tins, a hand-pump fly sprayer, loaf pans and pram wheels. Full of yes, that's it! moments…
Found tools and mild steel welded together in whimsical play — my second welded artwork, made with guidance from JC at Women on the Tools. Not a character as such, more a collage of beautiful things that belong together…
Exhibitions & Achievements
Canning Bridge Community Art Space, Mount Pleasant · October 18–19, 2025
Fifty assemblage sculptures made from found and recycled materials, coinciding with my 50th birthday. Daily artist talks at 2pm. The response was well beyond what I had expected — from the first hour of the first morning.
Angela is coordinating and exhibiting in a volunteer-run artist collective at 11 Point Street, Fremantle. Open most weekends, August 2026 – January 2027. Click here for more information →
Making Time has been selected as a finalist in the 2026 City of Wanneroo Community Art Awards.
Ôld Couture selected as a finalist — celebrating art made from found and discarded materials.
Lilibot selected as a finalist in the City of Bayswater Art Awards 2026.
Sculpture Award 2025 — won by Toby, Bot #004, built from a vintage Toblerone tin gifted by my dad.
Selected as a finalist with Opie — a found-object art exhibition recognising work made from discarded materials.
Active Commissions 2025–26
Digit (Melville Primary School) · Ben · Dad (figurative, in memory) · Bike Guy (NSW)
Interested in a Commission?
I'm open to commissions — figurative, memorial, institutional, or purely personal.
How the Work Happens
The Find
Every piece starts somewhere unexpected — a skip, a hard-rubbish pile, a Rotary market, a family shed. I'm drawn to objects with evidence of a previous life: worn edges, strange shapes, a patina that took decades to form.
The Sit
I live with materials before I use them. They go into the studio and wait. I'm looking for the right combination — the moment an object stops being a sieve and starts being a skirt, stops being a teapot and starts being a head.
The Build
Assembly is instinctive, not planned. I don't sketch first. I work with what's in front of me, responding to proportion, texture, and balance. The character usually emerges halfway through — and then I'm building toward it.
The Name
Every piece gets a name. Not a title — a name. Because by the time they're finished, they've become someone. Tilly Teabot. Professor Potts. Evelyn. Mele. The name usually arrives before the piece is done.
"There's something that happens when you put two unrelated objects together and one of them becomes an eye. That moment is why I do this."— Angela Delury
From the Studio
The Hunt
A $5 bag from the tip shop. Every single piece a potential character waiting to emerge.
Workshops & Education
Coming Soon
Workshop programs are in development. If you're a school, community organisation, or arts body interested in what this could look like, get in touch.
From the Studio
Behind-the-scenes writing, process notes, and the odd thing I found on the way to school that I probably shouldn't have stopped to pick up. New posts published on Substack — subscribe to get them straight to your inbox.
October 2025
I think the book of my life has had seven main chapters so far — and I'm currently in the first few pages of chapter eight. It began in a noisy, music-filled house in Muswellbrook, ran through WAAPA and a TV series that won me a Screen Award, through Sydney stages and London streets, through teaching and two boys and a move west — and eventually arrived in a shed in Bicton, holding a pair of pliers for the first time.
The spark came from a small tin robot I spotted in a shop in Toodyay. That unmistakable shiver. Heart racing. Mind whirling. That feeling like falling in love with an idea. I made a promise: fifty robots before I turned fifty. I finished Mele — bot #50 — just five days before my 50th birthday. Then I kept going.
Read on Substack →October 2025
I'm not sure what I thought would happen when I finally hung everything on the walls. I'd been so focused on finishing that I hadn't quite prepared myself for how it would feel to see them all together in a room.
Read on Substack →Ongoing
Teaching full-time and making art at the same time means every commute is a scouting mission. A child's violin in a skip. A brass spice bowl on a verge. The studio fills up, and then it empties onto a plinth with a name.
Read on Substack →Whether you're interested in purchasing a piece, discussing a commission, booking a workshop, or exploring an exhibition opportunity — I'd love to hear from you. I'm a real person who replies to her own emails.
Based
Perth, Western Australia
Enquiries welcome for
Exhibitions · Commissions · Sales · Workshops · Artist Talks · Grants & Residencies
