robot

A few days ago we welcomed a new flatmate – Robot. He doesn’t have a name yet but he is very good at counting numbers and greeting guests.

So how he came to life? Well… we couldn’t figure out how to hide a very awful gas meter, hanging on a wall right next to the entrance that couldn’t be build around or otherwise hidden behind a piece of furniture, as it needs to be accessed for the gas readings…
And then I had this brilliant idea – if you can’t hide it – expose it – make it stand out even more.
And because I have a tendency to see faces in various objects I have immediately seen a head of a robot hanging bodiless on the wall.
Something had to be done about it.

 

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I have decided that the body of the robot will be a massive cross-stitch felt tapestry. The combination of the traditional, granny-like cross stitch with the quirky illustration of a robot body seemed just perfect. It could be easily attached to the wall and removed on the rare occasions of the gas readings.

So I started off by taking the measures and designing the illustration. I knew I would have to punch holes in the felt so I needed an exact blueprint of the cross-stitch printed 1:1. Then I have ordered a large piece of 5mm felt and some thick wool. Punching holes turned out to be the hardest part, but after it has been done I could start stitching. This was the best part! I could instantly see the progress – line by line (like a heavy image loading) the robot was slowly growing. After the body was ready, all I needed to do was to print out the face features and the other elements, stick it all down and attach the tapestry to the wall.

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Before and after.

 

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And of course… a self-portrait with my very first own Robot!

 

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ps. It is a pity we have only managed to attach the Robot on our very last evening before leaving to London, so we didn’t have much time to enjoy having him around. Well, at least he could wave us goodbye 🙂