Details: |
What materials were used in making this project?
Red cotton, white muslin, yard, crochet hook, sewing materials
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What are the project's measurements?
5x7x8 ft
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What kind of construction methods or techniques were used?
This was a sewing, crochet and fringe creation project.
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Was the project based on a specific time or culture?
The canopy bed curtains and top were based on Jan van Eyck, Birth of John the Baptist, c1422
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Were any modern materials or methods used? If so, what led to that decision?
Due to time constraints machine sewing was used for the canopy, curtains, and and crochet was used for the fringe.
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Was there a specific reaction or emotional response you wanted to cause in the viewer/audience? If so, how did you hope to achieve it?
This bed is the first thing visitors see in rooms as they ascend the stairs. We wanted a Wow! factor and definitely succeeded in that. The bed was used as a backdrop for promotional media as soon as it was installed and the room quickly became a favorite for both visitors and staff.
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Describe the process you went through in making the project.
As soon as we knew we had this as part of the room furniture, I started researching canopy beds and ran with the van Eyck image as soon as I found it.
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What did you learn while working on this project?
Canopied beds appear in the background of more art than I expected.
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If you were to make this project again, what would you do differently?
I would use more and thicker fabric for the curtains for actual use as a closing.
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Were there any surprises?
The canopy fit over the existing bed features on the first try.
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What inspired you to create this project?
We had the opportunity for a static demo as the pandemic quarantine restrictions loosened. This project provided a way for people to work independently and still have an impact in the larger community over an extended period.
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How would you sum up this project and your experiences in making this?
It was fun.
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Links: |
Birth of John the Baptist, Jan van Eyck, c1422, Public Domain
https://www.wikiart.org/en/jan-van-eyck/the-birth-of-john-the-baptist-1422
The red canopy bed covering with colored fringe was designed based on this painting.
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Book of hours of Agnès le Dieu, Parchment, 248 ff., 18 x 11.5 cm, Bourges, around 1500 / f. 122r
http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/utp/0102/122r
More paintings showing a fringed canopy with curtains. Note that several of these drawings depict large patterns on the curtains and canopies.
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Book of hours of Agnès le Dieu, Parchment, 248 ff., 18 x 11.5 cm, Bourges, around 1500 / f. 90r
https://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/utp/0102/90r
More paintings showing a fringed canopy with curtains. Note that several of these drawings depict large patterns on the curtains and canopies.
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Book of hours of Agnès le Dieu, Parchment, 248 ff., 18 x 11.5 cm, Bourges, around 1500 / f. 109r
http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/utp/0102/109r
More paintings showing a fringed canopy with curtains. Note that several of these drawings depict large patterns on the curtains and canopies.
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Book of hours of Agnès le Dieu, Parchment, 248 ff., 18 x 11.5 cm, Bourges, around 1500 / f. 34r
http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/utp/0102/34r
More paintings showing a fringed canopy with curtains. Note that several of these drawings depict large patterns on the curtains and canopies.
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St. Jerome in his Study, Jan van Eyck, 1432
https://www.wikiart.org/en/jan-van-eyck/st-jerome-in-his-study-1432
More paintings showing a fringed canopy with curtains. Note that several of these drawings depict large patterns on the curtains and canopies.
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Notes: |
| - | In order to complete the canopy bed project in the limited timeframe, crocheted yard was used to make a foundational 8-yard strand to which the fringe yarn colors were added. The pattern for the strand: chain to create a base of 8 yards, single crochet back to the beginning of the chain. The fringe was added in a repeated pattern to the base of the chain stitch using the pattern loosely based on the van Eyck drawing of teal, blue, green, blue, teal, red, gold, red. |
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| - | The canopy bed cover and curtains were designed and made for a static demo by the Canton of Hrothgeirsfjordr (Toledo SCA) at the traditional Toledo Metropark Wildwood Manor House Holiday Tours, Nov-Dec 2021. Self-guided tours were made available to the public from Dec 3-12, although the display was in place from Nov. 16-Dec 18. Local families and groups are invited to transform rooms and closets in the Manor House with themed winter holiday decorations. Themes were submitted in early spring; Castle in the Swamp was accepted by the Manor House and the group was assigned Barbara’s Bedroom which is the only room in the building with a canopy bed. Wildwood is part of the region known as the Black Swamp, and so the concept developed to decorate the room as a dreamlike castle room morphing into a fairytale swamp. Each room is given a tree to decorate so a variety of basic heraldic field divisions were created to fill the space, with smaller ornaments filling in between the rows. |
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| - | Red and gold, the baronial colors, were incorporated into the spindle bed canopy and drapes in the manner shown in the Jan van Eyck image of the Birth of John the Baptist. The fringe on our red curtains used golden yelow and picked up the colors of the womens' dresses in the van Eyck image, using a similar pattern to the fringe in the image: green, blue, teal, red, gold, red, teal, blue, in a repeating sequence. Several of these colors carried over into the rest of the room's swamp colors through the stylized tulle ‘river’. |
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