Mexican Chickens

Carlos Zapata has just finished this colourful one off piece. These South American chickens are taking a break from their usual diet of corn, for something more refreshing. Carlos’ ingenious mechanism evokes the noise of pecking.

Height 34 cm (13 inches)

£1,195 (excl. VAT)

Simon Tait�??s Mews No.13

Suffolk Punch – Part 1
To the Suffolk chapter of the Cabaret club, and a delightful June day with two of the key members, Tim Hunkin and Ron Fuller, makers for whom their workshops are their worlds. Tim first, Ron next time.

Southwold Pier, rescued and restored in 2001 by Chris Iredale and then bought by the present owner, Stephen Bourne, in 2005, is one of the Britain�??s peers of piers, bringing, Stephen Bourne says, three-quarters of a million visitors a year. Each morning Mr Bourne must wake and thank god for Tim Hunkin, one of the reasons why they go. Apart from devising and creating the pier entrance, the open picnic booths, the idiosyncratic water clock and the binoculars at the pier-end, Tim is the creator of the amusement arcade, The Under the Pier Show, so called because of the first amusement was the Bathyscape, devised at the request of Chris Iredale.

The Bathyscape is an epic underwater adventure, offering views of estate agents gazumping, canisters of nuclear waste mating, and the opportunity to track down the last cod �?? reflecting the issues uppermost in 2001 when it was fist installed. Wit and subversive humour is the USP of what Tim calls his four-dimensional cartoons. A new creation is added each year, with last year�??s offering being Whack a Banker �??A truly rewarding banking experience�?? offering �??unrivalled customer satisfaction, 0% VAR guaranteed, no hidden charges�??, in which you are invited to knock five bankers as their heads pop up at random. This year�??s is My Nuke in which you have to delicately feed fuel pellets into your Personal Nuclear Reactor using a remote pincer claw. If you fail, The Earth Moves, the radioactive alarm siren sounds, and you are required to call the National Help Centre at £1 a second; if you succeed, you win a slice of nuclear rock, with the radioactive symbol all the way through. You can go on a Micro-Break, which takes you to the Costa Bollente via a bumpy airline flight and a nightmare taxi ride, and back again within two minutes. If you�??re worried about security you can get yourself rather intimately searched by the Autofrisk; get yourself fit under the tutelage of a Hollywood star through a new aerobics programme which requires you to lie perfectly still on a bed; or you can Test Your Nerve by attempting to break in where a ferocious alsatian awaits with a truly terrifying experience from which you emerge with your courage rather than your person in tatters. And there are dozens more that will unravel the secrets of your DNA, give you a chiropody treatment, invite you to ‘witness an extraordinary rodent experience’ or take home a prescription for all your medical problems. You can even award yourself an honour.

Home is a short drive inland, to a cottage between a secluded woodland and a tranquil lake which has been the Hunkin hideaway for 35 years, a footprint. �??To be honest, I�??m not that interested in the house: this is where I come alive, in the workshop�?? he says. Almost as large as the cottage seems to be the suite of workshops where Tim, for 14 years the author of the Observer�??s Rudiments of Knowledge strip before giving up to make models, builds his four-dimensional cartoons. Outside the statue of Michael Faraday he made for an exhibition, stands watch, alongside a giant clock made for another, an over-sized calculator, an enormous carved fist and his ancient Mercedes, passed on to him by a neighbour. On his bench is a figure from the Southwold Pier clock which has been vandalised by, apparently, some French students, a mercifully rare occurrence. �??I could make a new one, but repairing it sort of adds to the history of the clock, don�??t you think?�?� he muses.

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Highlight of the first Milton Keynes Festival on July 16-25 July will be the Manège Carré Sénart, the Magical Menagerie. It�??s 14 metres tall, covers a 300 metre area and weighs 40 tons, With 18-meter-long sides, an over-300-m area, giving a ride to 49 people on this giant carousel, with three giant buffalos, four climbing insects, ten other insects, three fish heads, and a few jokes. Apart from the enormity and grotesquery, the Menagerie offers one other unique feature: riders can set the whole thing moving themselves. Adults and children can act directly on the elements by activating some parts.

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If you go down to the woods around Beaulieu Abbey anytime between now and August, you�??re likely to come across more than a few moth-eaten teddy bears. There�??ll be this monstrous recreation of a legendary automaton for a start. Tippu�??s Tiger was made for the Sultan of Mysore, a serious thorn in the side of John Company 200 years ago. It depicts a soldier of the East India Company being mauled by a tiger, with the animal�??s roars ands the man�??s pathetic cries reproduced by an organ inside the bopdy of the tiger. It�??s in the V&A. This one has been created by the Gilbert Whyman from welded car parts, and it�??s one of 80 pieces in the Surrey Sculptures exhibition there.

The Clockwork Automataumbrella

Keith Newstead and Gonzo artist Ralph Steadman have created this incredible new machine, ‘The Clockwork Automataumbrella’. It forms the centrepiece at the Clockwork and Automata Exhibition (18th June to 22nd August 2010).
Having collaborated on the critically acclaimed Terry Gilliam commissioned piece ‘Mad God Universe’ Ralph and Keith have teamed up again.

In this new exhibition Ralph Steadman takes on the soft and wonky world of Clockwork. Inspired by the comedy of Jacques Tati, the random and awkward movement of old clockwork toys and a genuine affection for things that just seem a little bit wrong.
‘Clockwork is hard and precise – let’s do soft and wonky’.

Pushing the boundaries of the traditional materials generally found in the world of clockwork and automata making – Ralph is pushing latex, paper and water to the limits with the help of genius maker Keith Newstead.

Water drips from the large umbrella into funnels, and partly powers the unlikely clockwork mechanism, via a series of tubes and waterwheels. Keith’s vibrant mechanics feature giant flowers and Ralph’s crazy drawings. Finally, an unfortunate rabbit dispenses drinks in an unlikely way. A real conversation piece for parties!

Here are some extracts from Keith’s blog on the process of making the machine with Ralph Steadman.

‘In Ralph’s photo he had some drawings of circles behind the umbrella. He told me he would like one of these to be the sun. We decided that they should form part of some crazy clockwork. A few days later I found some gardening mats that were shaped like sunflowers. The edge of the petals formed perfect gear teeth. I tried to get them to mesh but unfortunately they were not perfectly circular and would not work as gear wheels ( Although they did come tantalisingly close). Undaunted, I used the profile of the petals as the teeth of my own ply gear wheels. I am hoping that Mr Steadman will provide some lovely sun flower art work for the large wheel.’

‘I have always been fasinated with the idea of making a machine that could produce a completely random sound or movement. This is a doomed mission, the reason being that as time and space are infinite, at some point, in some place, all the necessary components will come together to produce me typing this again.
So at some point, my random machine won’t be very random any more.’

‘The Automataumbrella is up and running. The water is dripping into the funnels, the sad soft toy is gushing wine from it’s willy, the clockwork is grumbling and grinding. So now it’s just painting and sticking on Ralphs glorious graphics to finish.’

The exhibit is for sale, and can be shipped at the end of August when the exhibition closes.
£17,550 (Excl. VAT)

Please contact us for more information.

Frustrated Felines

This free download contains Paul Spooner�??s plans for an automata called �??Frustrated Felines�??.

The detailed plans give an insight into how the automata was constructed, (a small edition was made and sold at CMT in the 1980�??s). It makes a challenging project for an automata enthusiast!

You can find more plans and insights into automata making in the downloads section of our store.

14 page PDF (6.8 MB) – FREE

Simon Tait�??s Mews No.12

The girls are here

As an aficionado of this column you could be excused for thinking that automaton model-makers are a pretty exclusive coterie of ancient boffins shut away in workshops with their tools, bits of wire and perspex and their over active imaginations. Well, I�??m sorry if I�??ve encouraged that perception because it�??s quite wrong.

For instance, there�??s Pascale Michalski known as Zuzi �?? and you�??ll have to wait until we meet to hear about why she�??s called Zuzi, much too funny a story for this serious stick. Zuzi was born in Luxembourg 26 years ago, studied fine art and went into film production.

She�??d been told that she could do art or science, not both, but she was never told why not and secretly she was making models, and she was still making them when the film jobs brought her to London�?� well, Dartford. The first one I saw was that amazing Gothick house, �??Fort Libellula�?? (or Castle Dragonfly) which she turned into a music box by getting a composer friend to come up with some music which she then pricked onto a pianola disc. Ingenuity, see? Then there were Spook Monkeys, smaller pieces, and the latest is Piano with a pianist whose arms are horns and who plays the keyboard with his feet, which are horses�?? hooves. Surreal, geddit? �??I like ugly things�?� she explains. �??I think there�??s something really beautiful about ugly�??.

And then there�??s Fi Henshall, another free spirit in the realm of mechanical sculpture. Brought up in Pembrokeshire and three years older than Zuzi, Fi went to Falmouth School of Art to study fine art, but it didn�??t offer what she wanted. �??I didn�??t much like it. I was hoping to learn about carving in wood, but they were teaching �??concepts�?�. I�??m not a concept person�?? she explains.

After college she left concepts behind and went to work on an organic farm in Cornwall, but didn�??t much like being an employee either. �??I just wanted to find a way to make stuff, like wood-carving�??, and she began making puppets with a measure of success. She was working for theatre companies and was in some demand, but �??it’s difficult working for theatre people, fitting in with their visions rather than my own to deadlines.

As a child her mother had taken her to, you guessed it, the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre in Covent Garden. �??I thought it was wonderful, but some kind of magic �?? completely impossible to make. So there was no sense of “That�??s what I want to do when I grow up. It never occurred to me that it was possible”. Through an old family friend, Kate Brakspeare, who tinkered with automata, she discovered that it was and found that the mechanics could be quite simple, and what�??s more within her capabilities.

But by now married to a sound artist, Dominic, she found herself not without a studio but without a home, but using her share of small inheritance they joined the boat people of Penryn, living on the waterside and each morning walking a few yards to a former grist mill �?? where brewing malt was crushed �?? which they share with a painter and a someone who does industrial sewing (�??industrial sewer�?? could be misleading). And within a year of embarking on the 30-foot East Wind as their home along came Ella, now three, a constant inspiration.

Another inspiration has been the next boat neighbour, Rob Higgs, creator of large contraptions who, as I may have remarked before, makes the kind of machines Heath Robison could only draw. �??Rob is much more of an engineer, but he�??s been enormously helpful in showing me what is possible, and that�??s half the trick�?? says Fi.

And so she continues to make her exquisitely carved and contrived small jokes, getting bigger with each new idea. The newest is called No 12 West Street, Fi�??s childhood address in Fishguard though the piece, she says firmly, bears no resemblance to that happy family home. This long tin dwelling one has a range of harpies �?? something of a Henshall emblem – along its roof, sex going on inside and a beery old gentleman reading a book. It may have a sound input from Dominic, too. �??I make what seems interesting at the time, and I�??m never sure quite how a piece will turnout. This one�??s nearly finished. I think.�??

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Dumfries and Galloway Festival goes robot �?? well, more gigantic puppet, really, driven by 12 puppeteers rather than machinery – this weekend (May 29) with Big Man. This is an eight metre high blue fellow, created by the Puppet Lab and Puppet Animation Scotland created a giant 8 metre. He will walk through the centre of Dumfries, filming its adoring fans, shaking their hands, wave, and then�?� walking back again.

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Here�??s something you ought to know about that I might have to follow up for a future Mews. Martin �??Taxi Driver�?? Scorsese is directing a film about an automaton. The Invention of Hugo Cabret is about a homeless orphan boy who creates a clockwork pal. It stars Sacha Baron Cohen and Ben Kingsley and is due to be released in December 2011.

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And finally, a glimpse into the home life of our own dear Paul Spooner. �??Made this for Sue�??s (Mrs Spooner�??s) birthday. It�??s a bit elaborate (the swanee whistle mechanism is a sound effect representing the girl�??s screams. My dad thought we�??d got a puppy when I played it over to him over the phone) but I mean to continue the robots being horrible to innocent humans theme. Culminating in the Reformed Robot with dough hook accessory�?��??