On the afternoon of Wednesday 18 June, 14 curious members of the Nosey Parkers group paid a visit to the home of Rod MacMahon and his wife Rosemary Nightingale, and what an afternoon it turned out to be!
Rod, a retired engineer who once ran his own company in Auckland, and Rosemary, who worked in the film industry, welcomed us warmly. From the moment we arrived, we were captivated – especially by the enormous three-metre clock that Rod had built.
This remarkable creation has four moving faces, each displaying time in a different numbering system: standard, Roman numerals, Runes, and Māori numbers. Made from laser-cut steel, the faces rotate ingeniously every 12 minutes using a clever system of rods and gears, and not a single clock hand in sight!
Next, we were invited into their spacious workshop. Rod showed his CNC (Computer Numerical Control) cutter and amazed us by cutting out a “peace” symbol from plastic right before our eyes. He explained how the machine worked and patiently answered all our many questions.
Then it was on to another of Rod’s ‘toys’ – a 3D printer. He demonstrated how it takes a digital design and transforms it into a real object by layering melted plastic just 0.2 millimetres at a time. We could have watched it for hours!
After that, it was Rosemary’s turn. While she had to be careful about what she shared due to a non-disclosure agreement, we learned about her incredible work dyeing fabrics for major film productions, including projects for the likes of Disney and Amazon. It was fascinating to hear how much time, effort, and creativity went into fabrics that might only appear on screen for a few seconds. She spoke about dyeing, screen-printing, and other textile art techniques, and graciously answered all our questions.
The afternoon gave us a real appreciation for the hidden skills and talents behind both engineering and film-making. A big thank you to Rod and Rosemary for generously opening their home and workshop.
