A new corner
Posted by Peter
May 1, 2009
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Hello, I’m Peter and I’ve been invited to become another corner to broaden membership and hopefully provide some interesting bon mots on crafty-things. A bit of background – I live in Edinburgh and I’m studying for a PhD (in my final year, writing up). I probably won’t post that often as I don’t have time for a lot of crafting – I promised one of the other corners a hand-sewn draught excluder a couple of years back for their birthday in the middle of the year. Suffice to say, they eventually got it by Christmas. But I do cook quite a bit, so expect posts about that
I thought I’d start off with some information about why and how I got into craft. I’m nowhere near as serious about it as some of the other corners, but I will readily turn my hand and make things if I’m in the mood. I’ve made homemade Christmas cards for the past two years for a start.
I was thinking about this at the weekend, and realised that for the years when I was about 11-17 I had a model railway (not at all as good as the one pictured). As I moved to my later teens and got a part time job, my wee Hornby set grew to be a model town, 8′ by 8′, which I christened “Havinge”.
I took it very seriously – I didn’t just buy the stuff ready-made from Hornby. Oh no, I was all about making stuff from scratch from card and plastic kits. My bedroom was a world of polystyrene cement and PVA glue.
I recall I once bought a pack of 100 little (about 2cm tall) plastic people you had to paint yourself. I set too with my paintbrush with one bristle left on it. After a few women and men in civilian clothes, carefully painting individual blouses and jackets, I got very bored and realised there were a lot of uniformed men in the set. Dunking their bodies in khaki paint, dunking their heads in flesh paint and then dunking them in khaki for their caps was a lot easiery. It was then that Havinge started preparing for war! I got so confident in building things that I’d adapt shop-bought kits. I got a buffet and restaurant car set, and since the LNER used to run articulated rakes of coaches, I articulated these two carriages on one bogey (train speak, don’t worry) all by little ol’ self (although they struggled to take corners at speed). I was most proud when I made my own railway station building and signal box based on the clean lines of 1930s modernism, like the De La Warr Pavillion or Midland Hotel in Morecambe. As I was at school at the time, a woodwork teacher gave me some scraps of wood veneer which I used to line the inside of the station building, constructing little ticket windows and chairs and tables with it.
I think doing all this, although it was a bit odd for a teenage man to be sat in his bedroom playing with tiny trains, has given me the confidence these days just to dive into to crafty things and do them – the chances are they’ll look alright. And it’s the process of making, more than anything, that’s enjoyable about craft. Oh, and I’m brilliant at papier mache. So long as you want a tiny hill or a railway cutting…
5 comments Categories: about us, craft
May 6th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
You’re right about the confidence thing. If you can learn early on that its safe to have a go, you’re sorted, I think.
Happy new corner!
May 6th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Hey, hey! Welcome to the hex/sept/octagon!
May 9th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
I’ve always loved model railways, doll’s houses and miniatures. Havinge sounds like heaven.
May 16th, 2009 at 1:16 am
I sort of DO want a little hill.
May 17th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Nice site an interesting post. A lot of your content would fit in well on my site.