In 1917, Charles Rennie Mackintosh refurbished to the highest possible standard of both design and realisation a house at 78, Derngate – Northampton England for Mr Basset Lowkes a local industrialist. A very stylish property for the Art Lover that Basset Lowkes was.
In 2017 78, Derngate is celebrating a very important anniversary … 100 years old thats a serious landmark. Some celebrations are underway. I will be taking part this week end.
I will be giving a heritage talk on Friday night the 24th of February at 7pm about the “Making of Mackintosh” schemes, the challenges of recreating heritage stencil schemes from The House for an Art Lover to the 78, Derngate scheme, I have been working on Mackintosh recreations for the past 25 years. If you would like to come and listen details are here
Saturday the 25th of February and again on the 29th of April we are offering a full day workshop in stencilling with details here . This will be an opportunity to practise your stencilling skills on some of Mackintosh’s traditional rose designs as well as on some more recent schemes full of yellow triangles.
Sunday morning I will run a full session for teachers and tutors with details here in a long morning session, I will teach the basic anyone needs to run a stencilling project for children or and adults.
As well as learning to stencil this week end is an opportunity to visit 78, Derngate and the terrific exhibition which has specifically been put up for the Centenary events.
In my Etsy shop This month there is a new addition, its a new stencil inspired by the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. This time though no roses, no stylised Art Nouveau foliage, this is later work, very much Art Deco.
I had the chance to recreate the 1920 border for the Centenary exhibition at 78, Derngate this month. This border was inspired by the scheme. Its very contemporary yet very Art Deco. Its striking yet has a heritage feel. All over its a great design. You can purchase it directly on my Etsy shop and recreate for yourself a great scheme.
Up-cycling has been very popular for a good number of years and I have found memories of the paint effects classes I used to run a few years ago… Nowadays its called upcycling and although the idea is to make up something old and tired looking into something very trendy again over the past few years the aim of Up-cycling seems to have changed.
When I up-cycled in the early 1990’s the aim was to achieve a lot with little. The fun was into making the crackling varnish work even if using a hair dryer was the key to the challenge…
Nowadays you have to up-cycle using some big name specialised paint and before you know it, the little cupboard you bought from the Shelter shop for £5 cost you over £50 in specialised paint and brushes … surely that is wrong this is not what up-cycling is about.
My up-cycling is about finding out how things work… the difference between oil and waterbased paints and what they both do… what cheap brush you can get from the garage and cut the end of to make a huge waxing brush etc… I want the material cost of your project to be as low as possible and I want to show you how to achieve a enormous load… with very little. A bit like when you make this wonderful quiche out of the scraps of food from the fridge… Same idea !
So I will be running this one day class in my very own workshop on the 14th of May to teach you how to up-cycle/revamp/transform or whatever you want to call it your kitchen cupboards/furniture etc… with not very much.
It will be great fun and you will leave so full of new techniques…
We will start the day with one my well loved home made scones and break at lunch time for a cup of home made soup. You will work during the day on flat boards size of a kitchen cupboard door. You will go home with your achievement and loads of notes on what you like in the day.
I only run those with small groups so you can grab my attention but also feed from one another. Only 6 spaces available. Early bookings get a special price… So if you want to book or more details about the day… click below.
At number 78 Derngate in Northampton there is a small house which is celebrating this year the 100th anniversary of its refurbishment by a very famous architect. Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
I had the great privilege to work with the exhibition team and my role was to recreate two of the heritage stencilled scheme… Not seen for many years they are bright and bold again welcoming the exhibition visitor adorning the original furniture …
I have created a stencil available on My Etsy shop from this border. Its a simplified yet striking border, very much an Art Deco border. Its stunning.
I will be running one day stencilling workshops in Northampton during the Centenary exhibition on the 29th of April. If you would like to take part please contact 78, Derngate to book see here .
In 1917 its owner Mr Bassett Lowkes commissioned Charles Rennie Mackintosh a young promising architect to refurbish his newly bought house before moving in with his young bride. The scheme was daring and exciting…. Today 78, Derngate is ran as a charity and opened to the public. The original scheme was refurbished in the early 2000 and an exhibition of Bassett Lowkes’s entrepreneurial life is there to inform the public about local life.
A Centenary celebration is on between 1st February till the end of April 2017. An exhibition about Mackintosh’s work, Talks about the refurbishment of the house, stencilling workshop, talks about stencilling recreation.
I had the great pleasure to be involved in the making of the celebrations. Recreating two of the original schemes was a great pleasure and I am looking forward to see the scheme in situ next week. I hope you will have the chance to visit the exhibition while it is on. But in case you don’t here are some images of the work I did there.
In 1917 the house was fitted with a very striking scheme of bright triangles and squares on a black background very ahead of its time. Story tells that Bassett Lowkes was colour blind and Mackintosh in an experimental phase.
However only a few years later, a new design slightly calmed down replaced it. Very geometrical still but on a pale grey background it was designed again by Mackintosh. With the recreation of the 1920 Hall Lounge the centenary exhibition will give visitors the unique opportunity to see what Mackintosh designed in the 1920’s for Basset Lowkes.
Key to a good recreation is the quality of the archival elements available. In the case of the 1920 scheme there was a plethora of sketches by Mackintosh’s hand available in the archives of the Hunterian Art Gallery in Glasgow, in the RIBA in London as well as being fully documented with black and white photographs, an period article as well as being fully documented in Roger Billcliffe’s “The Complete Furniture, furniture drawing and interior design”.
A copy of the original stencil plates were available to view in the RIBA, and finally photos of the scheme on the wall discovered about 15 years ago gave a good clue about colours.
After 6 months of research, and 50 hours of work to prepare the stencils I travelled to Northampton on the 10th of January to stencil it again on panels in 78 Derngate using household paint. Each panel takes 9 stencil plates, careful lining of each plate takes time and careful planing.
The stencilled panels are being used to display original furniture from 78, Derngate. I hope you get to see the exhibition.
During the Mackintosh Festival in Glasgow, I will be running a number of Free drop in “Banner making” events , you dont need bookings for those… just turn up ! There you will be able to have a go at stencilling while make a small contribution to the making of a communal banner
26th September – private event @ The Mack Club Helensburgh with the pupils from Hermitage Academy
1st October 12.30 to 4.30 @Dysart St Clair Church in Fife (suitable for families) read about it here
7th October 11 to 4pm @ The Lighthouse in Glasgow
17th October 12 to 4pm @ Scotland Street School Museums
18th October 11.30 to 4pm @ Kelvingrove Museum
19th October 12.00 to 4pm @ The Hunterian in Kelvinhall
28th October 11.30 to 4pm @ Kelvingrove Museum
I will be running two paid workshops where you will learn out to design a stencil and stencil it to a tote bag. (Cost £25.00 for day with tea and coffee).
14th October 12 to 4pm @ Kelvingrove-Museum (Book here)
22nd October 12 to 4pm @ Scotland Street school Museum (Book Here)
2016 #thebigrose
2016 saw #thebigroseproject ! For celebrating the 20th anniversary of The House for an Art Lover I outreached to “people” anyone from anywhere to stencil a bright pink Mackintosh outdoors. It was much fun and so accelerating to see tens of participants take to the ground with a large stencil and a brush…
This year will be as exciting with my Big Banner project ! It is based on a linen banner I found in the archives of the Glasgow based Hunterian Art Galleries, It was designed by Mackintosh, its over a 100 years old and it is stunning, a tall elegant lady head in a bunch of roses on a silver background… designed for The Willow Tea rooms which off course is in full refurbishment this year having been rescued by The Willow Tea Rooms Trust and in the hands of a Trust and a team of experts to be reopened next year for the big 2018 celebration to everything #Mackintosh.
I have enlisted a good number of Glasgow Mackintosh venues in Glasgow and elsewhere to take part, together we will outreach to the public once again to recreate banners. Many banners… using stencilling, recycling, mixed media and others… I will run workshops like the one for the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum but also some drops in days… Free events where you can just have a go during the month of October 2017.
SO KEEP IN TOUCH IF YOU ARE INTERESTED… send me an email if you would like to take part… or volunteer for it @ bettysbeautifullife@gmail.com The project will take place in October 2017 for the Mackintosh Festival but before hand much work has to be done and there are ways to get involved….
But before that… read all about how I connected with this beautiful objet…
In 1903 Glasgow, a lady entrepreneur Miss Kate Cranston commissioned a young promising architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh with the refurbishment of her new tea room in Sauchiehall Street… The Willow Tea Rooms. He was to refurbish it to a hight standard with themed rooms. It was a success… The ground floor back room was called “The Back Saloon”. For it, Mackintosh designed sets of stencilled “banners” … They were linen inserts in the wooden paneling. On each panel, a tall elongated lady on a silver background, her head in large bushy roses. In each panels ladies were facing one another.
Four of those panels together with some black and while photographs are in the archives of The Hunterian Art Gallery I have been researching them over a long period of time. Their history, their making, the technique used, the design, material… They are of great beauty, delicate features of the faces, soft shades of the roses.
I have had the great privilege to work on the recreation of one of those panels recently for display at the Centenary exhibition of 78, Derngate the property Charles Rennie Mackintosh refurbished in 1917 in Northampton, showing the process of recreation to the public I made two panels showing different stages in the process. I used for the test panels linen fabric and hand stencilling as the original shows. I worked to the highest standard of recreation. I researched extensively before deciding on which method and which paint to use. I used period painting and decorating manuals which would have been available when Mackintosh created this piece. Those are the photos of my very first sample. Hand cut stencil of oiled manilla card… a mix of paint but mainly acrylic (instead of the oil used at the turn of the century), beautiful full quality of Linen fabric. completely done by hand including the stencil cutting.
The back saloon, The Willow Tea room period image
Period illustration the banners in site
Upper section of the banner, photo The Lansdowne House of Stencils 2017
Banner, photo The Lansdowne House of Stencils 2017
Banner, Photo The Lansdowne House of Stencils 2017
To recreate the stencil, I used a tracing of the original on tracing paper before transferring on oiled manilla card and hand cutting it.
I tried a good number of paints on linen to check on technique and aspect… will the paint cover the fibres of the fabric? is the colour matching the original? Will it be colour fast? Does the colour run? Is it flat or shady.
A small video shows how I used natural pigments mixed with an acrylic medium to recreate the rose petals. Photographs of the original banners are not of a high quality enough to show the original colour and shading but give an indication. Out of the 4 original panels in the archives of the Hunterian each of the 8 figures shows different shades of pink. A decision will have to be made before the panels are recreated for the Willow Tea-rooms.
The result is a cluster of roses with delicate shades of pink and a lovely shading creating by the pigment mixing with the medium. Painters manuals from the period shows this medium being used for stencilling on fabric.
Time to unveil the result and by peeling up the stencil you access the beautiful cluster of roses for that willow tea room banner
Only a delicate face is missing for the lady to be complete but this is another project, the drawing of the faces will only appear once I am completely happy with the rest of the banner. But this will be for another day.
These samples of the banner were displayed at 78, Derngate within the Centenary exhibition until the 29th April 2017.
Best wishes…
Betty xx
(all photos in this article are copyright The Lansdowne House of Stencils 2017)
When you write about niche subjects it’s always a bit of a gamble on whether you will find readers but I guess this month STENCILLING has become main stream !
Did you know that Mackintosh designed a house in England ? In Northampton and it’s opened to the public ? At 78 Derngate its the most jazzy interior I have seen… despite being a Mackintosh building … not a rose in site … triangles and bright colours as in the stencilled scheme … dark scheme reminiscent of the 20´s another side of Mackintosh to be discovered.
Well i hear there might be celebrations ahead as the house will be a whole 100 years old next year and I might just be taking part !!! How exciting.
So plop yourself on their website Here tomorrow morning to discover the program …
And come back here if you want to hear my version.
Learning a new skill is a good way to … pass the time during cold winter weekends but also make friends and giving yourself the tools to tackle home improvement !
I will be running a one day stencilling workshop at The Glasgow City Heritage Trust on the 19th of November.
During that day we will look at stencilling recreation and your own project if you live in a period property and want to renovate or recreate a design that might have been on your walls. It will be a fun but very informative day with a lot of hands on moment and you will cut your own design and learn to apply it.
For information and bookings look Here but if you have any questions come back to me @ bettysbeautifullife@gmail.com
This week saw #Thebigroses back in Helensburgh but this time right in the centre of the town when The Mackintosh Club hosted a masterclass in stencilling in its glorious premises at 40, Sinclair Street, 2 up…
Local ladies arrived at 10am on the dot, two of them were local artists Lesley Carruthers and Mary Batchelor. They had come to support the project and discover The Mack Club a newly opened Art venue in a Mackintosh designed building right in the centre of Helensburgh.
#Thebigroses at The Mackintosh Club is just a very special thing. I met Nicola and Bruce as they had just taken over this building. A dedicated young couple of architects, so very keen about their project of opening in this Mackintosh designed premises a gallery celebrating the work of the Glasgow Four (that would be Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife, her sister and her husband).
Nicola and Bruce Jamieson decided to join The Glasgow Mackintosh Group as The Mackintosh Festival kicked in beginning of October and what a treat it is to be able to work in their gorgeous premises. It was a last minute addition to the program but they put their heart and soul in making this day possible. I am so very grateful to be here.
A great hall, roaring fire, large tables covered with stencils, tubs of paint and brushes and loads of paper, ready to start the day… One of the participants ho ho !!! surprise is Moyra who took part in the first event at The Hill House. Stencilled the first rose on the carpet, probably stencilled the last one on the pavement today. What a great compliment to the project to see someone liking the idea so much as to come back a second time…
I always think its interesting to see how one’s artistic technique can be so different to another one. A fine art painter and an sculptor on top of their game still have to learn the basic steps of stencilling like any other participant… But an artistic mind can take a new technique and turn it on its head and a set design suddenly becomes something else. So we spent two hours stencilling the same roses and tulips again and again until reaching perfection.
Lunch arrived in good time for tired participants. A beautiful bowl of home made soup (what a treat) and rustic bread before fresh brewed coffee and cookies were welcome by the participants and the door bell rang… A local photographer had heard about the party and decided to make his way to take a few snaps… For the local paper… What a treat to read about our day in the local paper the next day… Such a good story to tell…. The Helensburgh Advertiser told the story as it should and even better featured a good deal of photos. What a fun day !
So we stepped outside as the sun was shinning and passers by were on the lookout for something to see. In an organised row, kneeling on cushions … we stencilled roses all the way from The Mack Club to the train station. Great big cabbage roses ready to show the way to the Club to any visitors who would have come from town (Glasgow) by train. 21 in total, one after the other, separated by 2 meters… I even believe that Bruce woke up extra early the next day to stencil the 3 missing ones on the road as the traffic was to frenzy that afternoon. So today 24 roses stand proud in their pink glory… ready to be admired.
This was a #thebigrose private party but as soon as we started as it had happened before the public was just there asking “what are you doing” “can i try?” “is that allowed” “how long before they go away”… We had some children kneeling down and having a go… and by some kind of magic Stuart Robertson, director of the Mackintosh Society arrived with two visitors a good time to inspect the work and give an interview.
What a glorious way to spend a Autumn day, At this stage I count a total of 144 roses and you? a whole of 144 participants who have enjoyed creating fake carpets, loved using good design and handling a brush and paint. Something completely low tech, hand made, convivial and so much fun… Gets you to talk to one another…
I believe our roses will have to be washed out within two weeks if they have not faded said the council man… but I have the feeling that the public will like them so much that they might just stay…
Oh!!! Did I say Lorna, the property manager from The Hill House was passing by as we were stencilling and she smiled knowing she already has one of our carpets in her garden… that up the hill at The Hill House. So when you have seen the roses in Sinclair Street why don’t you make your way up there… The carpet will be there until the 31st.
THE LANSDOWNE HOUSE 