Lindisfarne Stones: assembly

With all the stitched sections finished, it's time to put it all together.

I cut pieces of mount board, to form the 'box':

The top of the box needs to have a hole cut in it to frame the carved stone; to do this, I first traced the shape and stuck it to one of the larger pieces of mount board:

I roughly cut as much of the central section away as I could, then cut slits up to the line, and very carefully cut away each section:

You can see I've made a start round the left dog's nose.

Fully cut:

And tidied up a bit:

The stitched panels were cut out, leaving a margin:

The side panels were attached to the board sections, and stitched together at the sides.  I have to confess: I used PVA glue to attached the margins (not the stitched area) to the board.  I know from past experience that trying to lace skinny and awkward shapes is next to impossible, so I decided at the start that I'd glue them.

There was a problem, though - the heavy stitching had drawn the felt shapes I was stitching over in a bit.  These felt shapes had been cut exactly to size, so this meant that they were now slightly too small.  Just a couple of millimetres, but enough to be obvious.  If I was making a box I'd just have made it slightly smaller, but that wasn't an option here as they're a snug fit around the stone anyway, so some way of disguising the seam was needed.

Red ribbon!

The sides slotted over the stone very nicely:

The base was covered with red velvet, and ladder stitched to the sides:

Here's a last look at the top of the stonework, sitting in its box:

And with the top, attached to the cut board, added, leaving the carved design showing through:

More red ribbon covering the seams:

And finished!

I'll take some photos in better light, to show it off.

Lindisfarne Stones: a note on the design

Before I get onto the assembly of the final piece, I wanted to point something out about the design.  It is of course a grid pattern, based on one used in the Lindisfarne Gospels and on contemporary stone crosses.  On the top of the piece, I did my best to keep this as accurate as possible, conforming to the grid closely:

However, I didn't want the sides to be that formal.  Unusually for me, as I usually have things very precisely planned before I start work, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do, and changed my mind at the last moment.

Initially, when I was drawing up the designs, I'd pictured the sides with the same grid, but less of it:

I wasn't happy with this, though - it didn't cover the area as I wanted - so I redrew it using the grid to cover all the space:

Even this wasn't quite right, though.  When I started work I realised that what I wanted was the same grid, but loose, as though it was falling apart.  Drawing a deliberately 'loose' grid and sticking to it rigidly seemed to be missing the point, however, so I marked up the background with the design, and then as I stitched deliberately didn't stick to it, but just used it as a guide to the overall pattern.  This felt an odd thing to do, and wasn't as easy as it sounds, believe me!

It did however give me the effect I wanted:

You can see that the angles are slightly off and things don't quite align: the grid, but not quite the grid.  The intention is that when it's assembled, the grid will fall over the edge and start to break down.  We'll see how well that works as I put it together!

100% silk velvet

A quick post to ask for help: can anyone recommend a supplier of 100% silk velvet (i.e. not silk/rayon mix)?  Ideally I'd like a supplier in the UK, but someone who can ship here would be fine too.

This is with an eye on a future project which may or may not happen, but it would be good to know regardless!

Lindisfarne Stones: pointy bits

Just the last little bits of sewing to do on it now, with the various pointy bits that were left behind to finish off.

First (and with apologies for the rather murky photos throughout), the bits on the left:

And then on the right:

And finally the section between the dogs' faces:

Then neatened up, with all the ends taken through to the back and fastened off:

Finished!  Well, the sewing, anyway.  I now have to assemble the piece and incorporate the stonework.

Lindisfarne Stones: left hand side (continued)

Very nearly there now!  I've been putting in the hours and have finished the left had side.

Here's part of it, to the top of the dog's ear:

And the rest, joining up with the strip along the top:

It seems to be catching the light slightly differently in the photo - I suppose I must have been stitching at a slightly different angle or something.  It looks OK in real life, anyway.

Just the pointy bits to do now, then the sewing is finished.

Maker Faire UK 2013

This weekend is the UK Maker Faire, held at the Centre for Life in Newcastle upon Tyne.  This is the second time I've been (I went to the last one, in 2011), and it's great!  There's loads to see and do, and what I've got to show here is just a fraction, but I hope will give you a flavour of the day.

Starting outside the building, there was the fire breathing robot dragon back again:

This time accompanied by a robot horse, complete with (living) jockey:

There was the Noisy Toys tent:

It may not look much, but it was LOUD!

Action painting (i.e. firing paint at a screen out of a small cannon):

Laser cut dinosaurs:

And I have no idea what this is or what it's meant to do as I missed the advertised shows:

Indoors, there were of course the Daleks:

It wouldn't seem right without them!

There was a lot of 3D printing this year, but this was a bit different - a 3D printer made from Lego and printing pancakes:

Neon artist Sarah Blood was demonstrating shaping glass tubes:

And alongside other works, had a neon tube baked in a cake:

There were a lot of robots this year too, including, rather dodgily, some robot pole dancers:

As my sister pointed out, this manages to demean women and robots simultaneously, which is quite a feat.

Moving on, textile crafts were represented too, with a quilting group present:

And another robot, this time knitting:

Knitted innards:

And more robots:

This is a musical instrument, the AlphaSphere:

I'd expected it to be a sort of drum machine but it isn't - it sounds like a synthesiser.  The chap giving the demonstration was playing some pretty impressive tunes with it.

This on the large National Museum of Computing stand took me back:

The BBC Micro.  Anyone in the UK of a certain age and of a geeky turn of mind (such as me) will remember the Beeb fondly.  In the real world I have a Masters degree in computer based information systems and job in web development and management, and it all started learning to code one of these in the 1980s.

With apologies for the blurry photo, the Raspberry Pi:

The hope is that this will inspire a new generation to learn to love computers, the way the BBC Micro did for so many of us.

Before I get too misty-eyed, a range of terrific 3D-printed bits and bobs from Shapeways:

If you're wondering, the thing at the front is a miniature Strandbeest; I want one!

Another robot, and despite the work that's clearly been put into it, I found it really creepy:

A big challenge for the makers of robots is going to be to get us to accept them, I think.

And finally, an overview of just part of the Faire:

It was enormously good fun, and I can thoroughly recommend going to any held in your area.  I'm looking forward to the next UK one already!

Lindisfarne Stones: left hand side

Or part of it, anyway.  To the bottom of the first bump:

Then to the base of the ear:

And to the top of the bottom of the ear:

There doesn't look like far to go, but there are a lot of hours of work in that...