When I volunteered to wrap Bywell Hall for the jubilee weekend I had little idea how to acheive it.
I 'tweeted' for help but no one had a clue. The original inspiration was a photo in my Tim Walker Photographs book where a country house appeared to be wrapped in ribbon and tied with a large bow. My Friend Gill and neighbouring artists Linda and Paco suggested we wrap the hall with version of the union flag. This is how we did it.
Firstly we ordered several rolls of poly-cotton sheeting from Factory Fabrics and set them onto the lawn at Bywell Hall. Strong ropes were laid out to the exact measurements of the hall then we positioned the fabric between them. We used the full width of the white sheet for the saltire then overlaid it with half a width of red. For the diagonal threads of the flag we used half widths of white with quarter widths of navy blue on top. We cut the fabric to size then handed it to Ros and Anne who worked in my dining room pinning and sewing it for us. Lynda made channels to thread the ropes through. The ropes were attached securely to the front of the hall by metal eye hooks drilled into the stone work of the building. There were two horizontal and two verticals on each wing of the hall.
Fortunately I have a large dining table.
Gorden and Steve fed the rope through the sheets and we hoisted and tweaked them into position. They were secured with ties. The rain poured relentlessly. The men wore shorts and were soaked and frozen. I had not received 'long ladder training' so had to stay on the ground...Hurrah! Eventually the rain beat us but we returned the following day to finish. Gordon gathered the diagonals into a tiny bow of navy blue chiffon which wafted prettily in the breeze.
Ropes hold the fabric in place.
It was still in place the following day and the sun almost made an appearance.
Helen.
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