Clever Doris: Doily-gate

Now I know I claim to be North Leeds foremost Wombler and Skip Rat but even this project challenged Clever Doris's resourcefulness. This was Stealth Wombling on an industrial scale.
Often I would scour the whole of West Yorkshires charity outlets in the search of the illusive cotton crochet doily whilst trying to head off the bands of old ladies armed with crochet hooks and knitting needles, who were trying to reclaim their crocheted handiwork. One thing I did learn was that when you're not looking for the pesky doily blighters they're everywhere. Sadly the reverse was true also.

The reason for needing so many doilies? Friends of mine were embarking on their first of a series of pop-up restaurant /Loft Party ventures based here in Leeds. The concept was the brainchild of 2 local people: an award-winning chef and equally eminent DJ. The doilies were going to be used to create a number of lightshades to decorate the 3000msq. restaurant and party space. It was an idea we saw on Pinterest (have a look at the site - it's full of ideas across all categories, not just crafty stuff).
Anyway looking at the lightshade instructions we thought "how hard can it be?"

Hmmm...
Now it wasn't so much hard as 'challenging', particularly as time went on we soon reallised that in order for them to have impact upon the space then we needed to produce far more than originally expected. After a quick tally and within the time remaining we concluded that we needed to average 1.5 shades per week. The aim was to produce 6 shades each of large, medium and small, the largest being approx 80cm diameter down to approx 40cm.

Due to the differing size of the doilies it was impossible to estimate how many of them we'd need. My prime wombling skills would therefore come into play...we just had to keep going. Womble, make, womble, make, womble and so on...

The starting point was to purchase a number of large round punch balloons, inflate, clip at the top (so it can be reused) and coat it in vaseline (it'll all become clear!) The balloon was then rested on a bucket for stablilty.
Each doily was soaked in a thick wallpaper paste mixture and firmly slapped and smoothed onto the balloon. Basically it was then a case completing round the balloon, overlapping each doily slightly until it was covered, leaving a gap at the top.
All straightforward? Well, yes, but for a numbers of factors:

If you try to put too many wet doilies on at once then they have a habit of sliding south. We therefore did the bottom half 1st, left to dry, flipped the balloon over and covered the top half.
If you don't clip the balloon firmly (we ended up using 3 ikea bag clips) then the balloon deflates leaving a soggy doily mess on the floor.
The doilies take approx 5 days to dry properly, meaning that in reality it takes 10 days to complete one.
If you try to speed up the drying process, i.e. place it too close to a radiator or use a hairdryer, then the air within expands, causing a big tumourous lump, resulting in a doily 'egg'. So it must just be left to dry at room temp.

Once all obstacles were overcome the balloon was deflated, leaving a solid doily orb. The vaseline coating means the balloon peels away from the outer doily crust much more easily.

Although this one was complete it wasn't until deflated we noticed a few dents. Back in went the balloon/quick vigorous pump/area resoaked with paste and left to dry.

One of each - not bad eh?

After weeks of wombling, making, phone calls, texts, emails and lots and lots of swearing we finally reached the end of the road, with just one left to dry. Phew, we were finally there. The only issue was where to store them; our houses resembling the opening scenes of 'Prisoner' with big doily balls everywhere!

The last doily: despite my previous advice of not using a hairdryer I just had to wing it and hope for the best...

T minus 48 hours and the last balloon inside the last shade burst, creating balloon/doily/wallpaper paste carnage. After a lot of slippy sliding and with no time to order a replacement balloon, we landed upon the brilliant idea of using a gym ball (which also doubles up as a spare seat at dinner parties). A quick clean up operation had to commence as this was last chance saloon. And double challenge due to the length of time they take to dry. Talk about flying by the seat of your pants...

D-Day: the final shade was not quite dry so it had to be rammed into a binliner and transported with hairdryer to the venue, where it would be completed.
Cue me in passenger seat surrounded by 18 doily shades in bag bags.

CSI Leeds: like body parts waiting to be taken to the morgue...

The tables were postioned and the shades placed in their desired postions, hung by lengths of ribbon. The light soources came in the form of fairy lights powered by batteries