You can see the dates, times and locations here.
Please click here for more about the Bedford Picturedrome Cinema and why I chose it.
And here is the finished, framed picture:
Monday, 15 August 2016
I finished felting the Picturedrome Cinema
It's just as well I finished it as the exhibitions start in early September!
You can see the dates, times and locations here.
Please click here for more about the Bedford Picturedrome Cinema and why I chose it.
And here is the finished, framed picture:
You can see the dates, times and locations here.
Please click here for more about the Bedford Picturedrome Cinema and why I chose it.
And here is the finished, framed picture:
Tuesday, 2 August 2016
I finally finished my crochet picture...
Saturday, 16 July 2016
The Bedford Picturedrome Cinema
I finished my needle-felted picture of the Britannia Ironworks clock tower and there were still a few months left before the Weaving Narratives exhibitions in September and October. Could I squeeze in another picture?
Well, it was worth a try! I went back through my scrapbook (well, most of it is on my PC and Android phone...) looking for another project. Then I remembered some photos I'd seen of the Bedford Picturedrome Cinema.
Bedford town centre had four cinemas at one time, but now all have been demolished. The last one to be pulled down was the Granada in 1991 and any Bedfordians who spent their youth there are still upset about that 25 years later!
The Picturedrome was the first Bedford Cinema to be built and possibly the first to be demolished, too. It's life span was from 1910 to 1964. When I first saw the pictures I couldn't believe that anyone would knock down such a striking building and replace it with the ugly concrete block now known as the Park Inn Hotel.
Here they are if you'd like to compare:
Park Inn
Picturedrome
And just take a look at this advert!
But according to Bedford Library, The Picturedrome was known in later years as The Fleapit and had problems when the river flooded (someone walked out of the door one night and fell straight in the river!) So maybe the reality wasn't as romantic as the photos suggest.
I couldn't resist attempting to bring it back to life, but could I manage all those details with felt? If I couldn't I could always try embroidery instead.
I used the same technique as the Britannia Clock Tower, I traced a photo emailed to me by Pamela Birch of the Bedfordshire Archives...
....then flipped it over, drew on the back with a fabric transfer pen and ironed it onto felt. I kept the temperature of the iron a little lower than last time as, with the clock tower, I could see the heat was just starting to damage the felt. Unfortunately the pen didn't transfer as well at a lower heat setting, but the image was just about good enough to work with.
Then I got to work with the needle. This is where I'm up to now (I abandoned the embroidery!)...
Well, it was worth a try! I went back through my scrapbook (well, most of it is on my PC and Android phone...) looking for another project. Then I remembered some photos I'd seen of the Bedford Picturedrome Cinema.
Bedford town centre had four cinemas at one time, but now all have been demolished. The last one to be pulled down was the Granada in 1991 and any Bedfordians who spent their youth there are still upset about that 25 years later!
The Picturedrome was the first Bedford Cinema to be built and possibly the first to be demolished, too. It's life span was from 1910 to 1964. When I first saw the pictures I couldn't believe that anyone would knock down such a striking building and replace it with the ugly concrete block now known as the Park Inn Hotel.
Here they are if you'd like to compare:
Park Inn
Picturedrome
And just take a look at this advert!
But according to Bedford Library, The Picturedrome was known in later years as The Fleapit and had problems when the river flooded (someone walked out of the door one night and fell straight in the river!) So maybe the reality wasn't as romantic as the photos suggest.
I couldn't resist attempting to bring it back to life, but could I manage all those details with felt? If I couldn't I could always try embroidery instead.
I used the same technique as the Britannia Clock Tower, I traced a photo emailed to me by Pamela Birch of the Bedfordshire Archives...
....then flipped it over, drew on the back with a fabric transfer pen and ironed it onto felt. I kept the temperature of the iron a little lower than last time as, with the clock tower, I could see the heat was just starting to damage the felt. Unfortunately the pen didn't transfer as well at a lower heat setting, but the image was just about good enough to work with.
Then I got to work with the needle. This is where I'm up to now (I abandoned the embroidery!)...
I'll post another photo soon!
Friday, 10 June 2016
Felting the Britannia Clock Tower, part 2
Continued from part 1
Now I had a felted building it was time to attach the felt trees. Emma had said I could 'borrow' some green wool in a beautiful mix of colours and just by curling it into loops with my fingers I could see it would make much better trees than I made a few weeks earlier.
So I added some new trees onto the backing felt:
Then I sat the felted work next to the sky fabric I'd painted and - yes - the sky looked flat and boring next to the wonderful texture and colour of the felt.
So now I was going to felt the whole thing!
Here it is with some sky and road added, but the clock face removed as I wasn't happy with my first attempt.
And here's the finished picture, although I still need to sort out how I'll frame it. That'll be part 3 I guess!
Now I had a felted building it was time to attach the felt trees. Emma had said I could 'borrow' some green wool in a beautiful mix of colours and just by curling it into loops with my fingers I could see it would make much better trees than I made a few weeks earlier.
So I added some new trees onto the backing felt:
Then I sat the felted work next to the sky fabric I'd painted and - yes - the sky looked flat and boring next to the wonderful texture and colour of the felt.
So now I was going to felt the whole thing!
Here it is with some sky and road added, but the clock face removed as I wasn't happy with my first attempt.
And here's the finished picture, although I still need to sort out how I'll frame it. That'll be part 3 I guess!
By the way, I added a new clock face and sewed the hands on using gold thread. It was too fine to do with felt, which is why my previous attempt hadn't worked.
Felting the Britannia Clock Tower, part 1
Remember I said I'd become fascinated by the changes seen by the Britannia Ironworks Clock Tower? (If not, click here!)
I wanted to make a fabric picture and I had been inspired by the book Applique Art by Abigail Mill. So Crafty 8 Year Old and I painted a sky using fabric paint on calico and some sponges:
At that time, Emma of the Crafty Mrs Noah group introduced me to needle felting, which is where you use a barbed needle to make roving (unspun wool) into felt by stabbing it repeatedly. I didn't even know that was possible until that point, but I had a go and thought I could make some very effective trees to add to my applique.
The problem was that the woolly trees were so effective that the applique building looked flat and boring in comparison. What if I felted the building, too?
I needed to transfer the outline of the building onto my backing felt, so I used a transfer pen designed for embroidery on the back of some tracing paper. I didn't know if the pen would work on felt, but it did!
I couldn't quite believe how well it worked, actually:
Then it was a question of 'colouring in' the building using wool fibres. I mixed orange and brown felt together to create the sides of the building in the shadows, and fluffy trim to make the decorative parts of the building:
I'll tell you about the rest of this project in part 2.
I wanted to make a fabric picture and I had been inspired by the book Applique Art by Abigail Mill. So Crafty 8 Year Old and I painted a sky using fabric paint on calico and some sponges:
At that time, Emma of the Crafty Mrs Noah group introduced me to needle felting, which is where you use a barbed needle to make roving (unspun wool) into felt by stabbing it repeatedly. I didn't even know that was possible until that point, but I had a go and thought I could make some very effective trees to add to my applique.
The problem was that the woolly trees were so effective that the applique building looked flat and boring in comparison. What if I felted the building, too?
I needed to transfer the outline of the building onto my backing felt, so I used a transfer pen designed for embroidery on the back of some tracing paper. I didn't know if the pen would work on felt, but it did!
I couldn't quite believe how well it worked, actually:
Then it was a question of 'colouring in' the building using wool fibres. I mixed orange and brown felt together to create the sides of the building in the shadows, and fluffy trim to make the decorative parts of the building:
I'll tell you about the rest of this project in part 2.
Thursday, 9 June 2016
Metal crochet. Kind of.
(You might like to read this post first)
As I was looking through the old pumps, turbines and engines that used to be made at the Queen's Engineering Works in Bedford, I wondered if I could make a picture of them in crochet.
I started off with one 'pipe' then added the fluted bit at the end, then the wheel used for opening and closing the valve. Yes, I think this might actually work!
I carried on like this, adding bits and pieces, rearranging them, fitting them together until I had something like a pump and turbine. I tried to make a fairly faithful replica of the pictures I found in the catalogues at Bedfordshire Archives - here's an example of the kind of pump and turbine I was working on.
And here's my work in progress:
The picture was taking shape but I wanted to show what the machinery actually did. Could I crochet water? Let's see...
Yes, it looked like I could!
I've almost finished my this piece now, I just need to sew it to backing fabric and then mount that on a frame of some kind so it can be hung on a wall. I'll post a photo when it's finished.
Update: here's the finished item.
As I was looking through the old pumps, turbines and engines that used to be made at the Queen's Engineering Works in Bedford, I wondered if I could make a picture of them in crochet.
I started off with one 'pipe' then added the fluted bit at the end, then the wheel used for opening and closing the valve. Yes, I think this might actually work!
I carried on like this, adding bits and pieces, rearranging them, fitting them together until I had something like a pump and turbine. I tried to make a fairly faithful replica of the pictures I found in the catalogues at Bedfordshire Archives - here's an example of the kind of pump and turbine I was working on.
And here's my work in progress:
The picture was taking shape but I wanted to show what the machinery actually did. Could I crochet water? Let's see...
Yes, it looked like I could!
I've almost finished my this piece now, I just need to sew it to backing fabric and then mount that on a frame of some kind so it can be hung on a wall. I'll post a photo when it's finished.
Update: here's the finished item.
Soft fabric and heavy metal, part 2
(This continues from part 1.)
So I'd decided that I wasn't freaked out enough by the thought of exhibiting my (currently non-existent) artwork to pull out of the exhibition. And that I was going to do something on Bedford's engineering history. What now?
I had an idea of doing some kind of big collage and stuck down a few ideas...
I really hadn't a clue how to do a collage so it 'hung together' properly as a whole, so I started to Google industrial art and fabric collage to get some ideas.
I discovered Grayson Perry's tapestries (click here for examples) and thought they were fantastic. I'd heard of Grayson - hasn't everyone? - but had no idea of his work, so this was a great find. Aside from the work itself, I love the way he's doing something you don't usually see in textiles - modern, political, angry in places. I'm used to textiles being practical or decorative and this was something different.
It also hit me that I didn't really have the skill or experience to pull off a decent collage and I'd be better zooming in on one aspect instead of trying to cover a lot of ideas in one go.
During my Googling it became apparent that I needed to decide what I wanted to say and then remove anything that distracted from that. To decide my goal, in other words. This made things much easier as I dropped the 'what the hell am I doing I'm not an artist' mindset and thought about what I wanted to say and achieve instead. Here's what I came up with:
- I want to show people a snapshot of Bedford's proud industrial past, which is actually surprisingly recent but all-but forgotten.
- I want to try some new techniques, learn some new things, meet some new people.
That made it seem much more doable.
After that I tinkered around with my paper collage and found there were two things that attracted me:
- The machinery in the old photos of the Queen's Engineering Works. Could I 'do' this hard metal in a soft fabric?
- The Britannia Iron Works Clock Tower. It's one of the very few signs of Bedford's engineering past that's still visible. I believe it narrowly escaped being demolished a few years ago and it's now crumbling in places. What did it look like when i was first built? And what had it seen in the years since then?
I mentioned to Kathryn and Rachel at the Beds Archives that I was looking at WH Allen and the Britannia Ironworks and they said I might like to take a look at one of their blogs on Bedfordshire at war, where I found this photo of the Britannia clock tower taken in 1865. What struck me is that the clock tower has hardly changed in 150 years, but everything around it has changed dramatically. It was an industrial time-traveller. I could definitely do something with this.
So now I was feeling much less overwhelmed and I had a plan. Time to start work!
So I'd decided that I wasn't freaked out enough by the thought of exhibiting my (currently non-existent) artwork to pull out of the exhibition. And that I was going to do something on Bedford's engineering history. What now?
I had an idea of doing some kind of big collage and stuck down a few ideas...
I really hadn't a clue how to do a collage so it 'hung together' properly as a whole, so I started to Google industrial art and fabric collage to get some ideas.
I discovered Grayson Perry's tapestries (click here for examples) and thought they were fantastic. I'd heard of Grayson - hasn't everyone? - but had no idea of his work, so this was a great find. Aside from the work itself, I love the way he's doing something you don't usually see in textiles - modern, political, angry in places. I'm used to textiles being practical or decorative and this was something different.
It also hit me that I didn't really have the skill or experience to pull off a decent collage and I'd be better zooming in on one aspect instead of trying to cover a lot of ideas in one go.
During my Googling it became apparent that I needed to decide what I wanted to say and then remove anything that distracted from that. To decide my goal, in other words. This made things much easier as I dropped the 'what the hell am I doing I'm not an artist' mindset and thought about what I wanted to say and achieve instead. Here's what I came up with:
- I want to show people a snapshot of Bedford's proud industrial past, which is actually surprisingly recent but all-but forgotten.
- I want to try some new techniques, learn some new things, meet some new people.
That made it seem much more doable.
After that I tinkered around with my paper collage and found there were two things that attracted me:
- The machinery in the old photos of the Queen's Engineering Works. Could I 'do' this hard metal in a soft fabric?
- The Britannia Iron Works Clock Tower. It's one of the very few signs of Bedford's engineering past that's still visible. I believe it narrowly escaped being demolished a few years ago and it's now crumbling in places. What did it look like when i was first built? And what had it seen in the years since then?
I mentioned to Kathryn and Rachel at the Beds Archives that I was looking at WH Allen and the Britannia Ironworks and they said I might like to take a look at one of their blogs on Bedfordshire at war, where I found this photo of the Britannia clock tower taken in 1865. What struck me is that the clock tower has hardly changed in 150 years, but everything around it has changed dramatically. It was an industrial time-traveller. I could definitely do something with this.
So now I was feeling much less overwhelmed and I had a plan. Time to start work!
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