Steampunk Interactive Table Commission - Bradford Industrial Museum

My partner Lucas Stephens and I were commissioned to design and make an interactive piece for the Steam Gallery at Bradford Industrial Museum. The initial designs I came up with had a steampunk look and as it turned out the Museum had a Steampunk exhibition in the pipeline so we were asked to complete it in time for the exhibition opening in December. The table has lots of mechanical bits and pieces for people to explore, moving scrolls, a sheep race, drawers and cupboards to look in, secret buttons, spy holes to find and a game to play involving a spinning disc and cards.




The sheep race in action, 'Oves Mira Mechanica' means - Marvellous Mechanical Sheep






We call this contraption the 'Fancy'
The embroidered scroll contains quotes from the mill workers

Story Chair. Bradford Library. Morwenna Catt + Lucas Richard Stephens

Animal Benches, Pupil Referral Unit, Bradford. Morwenna Catt and Lucas Stephens.

My first rough sketch for the benches

We worked at the Pupil Referral Unit to produce some benches for their garden. The young people took part in workshops, created their own mosaics and learnt all about the materials and techniques we'd be using on the furniture.

The main structure of the benches was carved with a chainsaw and finished with chisels.

This one is an Owl

A frog...

This started as a floppy eared rabbit....

We decided to use reflectors as eyes so they 'glow' in the dark

A cat..

A bear....each animal has a section of mosaic on its head.

A dog

The animals bite onto the benches to keep them solid.