Little House, Big City

A few weeks ago, I heard about a project which Manchester Craft Mafia were organising, to create a miniature city, with lots of little buildings contributed by members of the public.  This captured my imagination, as I have always had a thing for little houses.  It's also being created in my home city, so I thought I'd join in and add my own contribution. The project was described as follows:

The 'Crafty City' is a project that is very close to the heart of the Manchester Craft Mafia. We wanted to do something big that would grab people’s attention and get them involved. Taking inspiration from Anthony Gormley’s ‘Field for the British Isles’ and as our mission is to promote craft and creativity throughout Manchester and beyond, we came up with the idea of making a Crafty City, a Mini Manchester, a Not So Big Up North.

The ‘Crafty City’ is a project for everyone. For crafters and non-crafters, for people living in Manchester or further afield in the UK and if possible people from overseas. Creativity is everywhere and in everyone, and we would like to encourage it out by providing the chance to contribute, share and make.

Manchester Craft Mafia are inviting as many people to create a little building using any art material or method. The only restriction being the size and we hope the ‘Crafty City’ will grow and develop. Our city started on Thursday 19th August 2010 during MCM's re-launch night with about thirty seven mini buildings and MCM hope it will grow from a village, into a town and then into a large ‘Crafty City’. We hope this will reflect the history of how Manchester grew from a little camp to what it is today, a large and very busy city. It will pop-up at both of our Summer and Christmas Fairs and we aim to ‘show and tell’ about each and every building on our website. Our final goal is to exhibit the ‘Crafty City’ throughout 2011.

After some thought, I made the decision to tackle my building with papier mache pulp, since this is generally quite light and robust.  It's not something I've used before, though I've always admired projects made with it, and because I thought I might like to make a few projects of my own with it in future, I bought a large bag.  The base of the model was formed by half of a large juice carton, which dictated the gable on the roof.  But I didn't really plan the style of the building at all, it just 'appeared' all by itself it seemed, as a traditional 19th century house.  It's been another labour of love for me, which I now have to get to the organisers of the exhibition, along with another 2 buildings created by my boys.

Apparently submissions can be made up until about Christmas I think.  I'm really looking forward to seeing the exhibition next year, and seeing if I can spot my little house in the big city.