Student response – Sharmin Nessa

Sketchbook drawings of worn wallpaper in dolls house

After being inspired by the 1850s doll house form the Mary Greg collection at Manchester Gallery, I was eager to develop a body of drawing which I could translate into the specialism of weave.  I was particularly fascinated by the 19th century wallpapers in the miniature houses, which was the starting point to my drawing development. The gestural marks and textures expressed in my drawings were the characteristics I intended to capture in my weave samples. I feel I have represented the marks in my drawings by using textured yarns and creating weft base samples. I envisage the woven samples being developed for domestic interiors.

Sketchbook drawing

Woven textile sample responding to drawings

Weave sample

Tom Bevan/Interactive Arts

Cardboard houses with large model of one of Mary Greg's keys

“For the Mary Greg Project, Philippa Watkin and I collaborated on a project that aimed to bring the Mary Greg collection alive. We aimed to do this by creating a doll house replica of Platt Hall, noting it’s striking resemblance to doll houses of the Victorian Period, and in this doll house replica placing pieces of the Mary Greg collection. The aim was to have visitors peer through the windows of the doll house, seeing into Platt Hall from all angles, and noticing the collection items. Then they would walk around the real Platt Hall where the would find super sized versions of the collection in the same place as they were featured in the doll house. This was with the hope that visitors would feel that they had been transported into the doll house and create a sense of magic and surrealism that would capture the imagination of adults and, more importantly children, as in Mary Greg’s letters to Mr Batho she spoke of her passion for reinvigorating children’s interest in museums. We would also like to incorporate Mary Greg into the project by having a small Mary Greg figure appear throughout the doll house, through lighting patterns, as we feel she is such a big part of the project she should have some kind of feature. To visualise our idea we have created doll house versions of our own houses, made from cardboard and various other materials just to show how we would like to go about the project. We also made a replica of a key from the collection to show how we wanted to play with scale”

Tom Bevan

Tom Ferguson/Interactive Arts

Nana in her wedding dress

“A few weeks after the Platt Hall visit, where I got my first chance to witness some of Mary Greg’s collection, I was helping my Nana sort out a spare bedroom where lots of her old things had be stored, sort of like her own personal Mary Greg like collection. In her collection I found her old wedding dress and I knew that I wanted to use it as a costume as well as the basis of a narrative plot in a short film.

My plan was to make the film include different ideas behind the Mary Greg Collection, such as: Letter writing, collection, interaction between different generations, Then and Now, Etc.

As Mary’s collection is filled with lots of little things, I wanted to use Doll’s house furniture in shots but never revealing it is dolls house furniture. My plan was to start my own collection of doll’s house furniture but it was quickly suggested that I use Mary’s own collection. I think this will be good in bringing my project back to Mary and will be a good way of showing off one small part of her collection.

Here is a quick storyboard edit of the film, for the final film I will reshoot all of the footage to a higher quality and use the doll’s house furniture for the shots where I have used my drawings.”

:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S53aoKzRejw

Tom Ferguson

Grace Harvey /Interactive Arts

Details of the interior of the bird house.

Bird house/Dolls house

Grace Harvey created a wonderful Bird House  for the Platt Hall project ,which contains a number of  bird puns and references such as “Tweetabix” (click on the photo to enlarge and find them yourself) , also note the attic full of boxes reminiscent of  Platt Hall’s  wonderful attic store room. Hazel

“The sense of discovery I had when exploring the collection at Platt Hall was extremely inspiring. The bird house is a response to both this and the two items that completely fascinated me from Mary’s collection – her beautiful dolls house and the whimsical frog diorama that sits alongside it at Manchester Art Gallery. I have designed and brought life to a miniature house that I already owned, where by opening up the doors uncovers a family of birds inside, just going about normal day-to-day life.”

Grace Harvey

Liz Milner – Student Response

The initial objects of inspiration from the Mary Greg collection were the doll’s house items within the Craft and Design Gallery. These inspired me as they are objects that have transcended hundreds of years, and maintained their relevance as toys and collectors items in their own right. I developed this idea by exploring the potential narrative of these miniaturized objects, and how the viewer interacts with handmade pieces on a small scale. The aesthetic is developed as found and made objects are forced to interact. Traditional needlework skills and Victorian imagery are re-contextualised as I apply them to my ecological concept of miniature textiles. Digital print and hand embroidery on a small-scale give rich detail and a sense of preciousness, evoking the delicate tactility and intimacy relating to the handling of the collection.