Simon Tait’s Mews No.15

Beastly time
You know about Chronophage, the weird and wonderful clock/creature created by John Taylor that has adorned the corner of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, for the last couple of years, but you don’t know its younger brother yet. These monsters are multiplying. Read more

Simon Tait’s Mews No.14

Ron, the village toymaker
We’ve been to Suffolk to visit the workshop of, first, Tim Hunkin, about whom more news later. But a few miles nearer the border with Norfolk in the village of Laxfield is another workshop belonging to another of Cabaret’s presiding geniuses, perhaps the first: Tim’s friend Ron Fuller. Read more

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. Read more

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. Read more

Simon Tait’s Mews No.11

Why are you so good?

So what is the secret, then, of this success? Exhibitions all over the world, rich people falling over themselves to buy, interviewed celebs casually dropping that they’ve got automata at home. But why? I thought I’d better ask a couple of individuals who would know. Read more

Simon Tait’s Mews No.10

Keith incorporated

It’s Keith’s birthday so he goes to the computer centre to sort out a programme, pops in to the overall shop for a new pair, answers the phone to me… the things you have to do which you like doing but don’t usually have to time for. Thing about Keith Newstead is that even his most complex pieces, the £1,750 Catcopter for instance, take no more than a week to finish. The little astronaut he made as a Christmas present for the real astronaut, Richard Garriott, took him an hour. ‘My palette is simple: brass beads, brass sheets, wood, plastic. Keep it as uncomplicated as you can is my motto’.
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Simon Tait’s Mews No.9

Miami icebreaker
Miami has never seen anything like it before. It’s not me saying that, it’s Dr Andrew R Hirschl, respected dentist of that parish, and he’s talking about the exhibition, which opened at the Miami Science Museum last weekend, an exhibition that runs all the way to September. ‘Amazing, amusing machines combine art and science’ says the billboard, and they are, of course, the amazing machines of Cabaret. Read more

Simon Tait’s Mews No.8

Tim’s little shop of chuckles

Ever realised there was a product you absolutely needed but that didn’t exist? The kind of thing that chaps used to send new apprentices off to the stores for, like a jar of elbow grease or a bag of shoulder chips – only seriously? Read more

Simon Tait’s Mews No.7

Yule mewscasting

HQ CMT is a secret central London location known only to a few thousand cognoscenti, and they all seemed to be there for the Christmas spell casting. This is where making magic is serious fun, and the CMT Christmas gathering is the summit meeting for devoted funsters. I’m not talking about magic tricks, sleight of hand and now-you-see-now-you-don’t; this is about pure ingenuity, Magic Circle rules do not apply. Read more

Simon Tait’s Mews No.6

Wanna tell you a story…

If you’ve been following the Magic of Cabaret day by day you’ve got some idea of the range of what CMT does, and elsewhere on the site there’s a bit of history, but I think you ought to know the real story about how the whole thing came about, and that’s Sue Jackson’s story. I warn you, though; it’s a breathless roller coaster we’re boarding. Read more