The Zoo of Tranquillity

While clearing our his grandparents' attic, a friend of mine unearthed a copy of "Spooner's Moving Animals" and passed it on to me.

This 1986 book is out of print now, although there seem to be plenty of reasonably-priced secondhand copies online. The book contains instructions – and pieces – to make seven automata. The book also delves into why each automaton works the way it does and Paul Spooner has designed the models with different mechanisms in order to teach the reader a range of automaton techniques.

The copy I have is missing pieces for three of the models (the Goat, the Lion and the Wedding Cake), but I intend to try to make the other four over the coming months. They are:

• the Woodpecker
• the Lawnmowers
• the Horse
• the Anteater

Tower Bridge

Based on a true story!

This is from the same series as the Battling Knights and the Executioner. The pieces for this required cutting out by hand, but a lot of it uses a relatively thin card so cutting them was fairly easy. It took me a while to figure out how the mechanism fitted together though.

Process photos after the cut.

Weaving

Recently I impulsively bought myself an Ashford Knitter's Loom. James, possibly fearing an evening spent helping to set the thing up, wisely suggested that perhaps I should start by learning from someone, rather than just having a stab at it on my own. And to this end he very sweetly arranged for me to have a lesson with Ali Holloway, who has been weaving for 25 years.

This is the result of my first two hours of weaving (before washing):