Simon Tait’s Mews No.17

More on the immortal Mrs Jackson
I’ve been reminded that I never finished the Sue story, which seems to suggest that there will ever be an end to the odyssey of the immortal Mrs J, CMT founder and queen of us all. Where did I leave it last time? I was going to tell you about how she was becoming a chess Grand Master, the Japanese gamblers who changed Cabaret’s course, and about her running off into the desert with a novelist. Let’s start with that.
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Simon Taitâ??s Mews No.16

A moving science story
Thereâ??s a symbiosis about Cabaret and this little outfit behind the railway line at Acton with the national impact and the global connections that makes you think they must have been joined at the hip, but this is their first project together. Steve Pizzeyâ??s Science Projects are creating CMTâ??s long-wished-for travelling education show, on the market next month and ready for the road at Easter. Read more

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 donâ??t know its younger brother yet. These monsters are multiplying. Read more

Simon Taitâ??s Mews No.14

Ron, the village toymaker
Weâ??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 Cabaretâ??s presiding geniuses, perhaps the first: Timâ??s friend Ron Fuller. Read more

Simon Taitâ??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 Taitâ??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, Iâ??m sorry if Iâ??ve encouraged that perception because itâ??s quite wrong. Read more

Simon Taitâ??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 theyâ??ve got automata at home. But why? I thought Iâ??d better ask a couple of individuals who would know. Read more

Simon Tait’s Mews No.10

Keith incorporated

Itâ??s Keithâ??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 meâ?¦ the things you have to do which you like doing but donâ??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. â??My palette is simple: brass beads, brass sheets, wood, plastic. Keep it as uncomplicated as you can is my mottoâ??.
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Simon Tait’s Mews No.9

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

Simon Tait’s Mews No.8

Timâ??s little shop of chuckles

Ever realised there was a product you absolutely needed but that didnâ??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