Borrowing the title from Roald Dahl’s collection of amusing and twisted stories may seem a liberty, but at The Unexpected Gallery we find that visitors to the gallery do tell us such wonderful tales. It may be the unusual gallery atmosphere where unexpected discoveries are made – antique teapot lamps juxtaposed with bird skulls in test tubes or 1930s polished copper fire extinguisher lamps dressed with luxurious gold vellum lampshades - that generates interesting revelations.
People bring u
s all manner of nostalgic mementos to bring back to life in dynamic ways. One client had tr
easured his boyhood marble trophies into retirement and presented them in a bag one day to us. The outcome was a wall-based display where marble stripes were invisibly suspended in clear resin within a protective frame. The piece now hangs proudly above the client’s front door.
Another day, a dusty box of 1950s Disney plastic Christmas tree lights appeared, the owner explaining that her father had made them in a factory and that she had fond memories of them from her childhood. She now wanted to remember them, and her father everyday, so could we design a light with them. The design needed to utilise the qualities of LEDs, so not to risk the brittle nature of the old plastic shades. The result was a giant lamp where the old shades formed a ‘fringe’ around the base of a reconstructed vintage standard lamp and shade.
And then there’s serendipity. A couple of weeks ago we were delighted to find an antique copper and brass bugle hiding in a dusty corner in an antiques centre. The next day a client visited the gallery and was admiring a table lamp we had just created from a 1880s clarinet – “we’re doing a bugle next” we said. With disbelief she exclaimed that her daughter was the bugle player for the Kings Troop and what a wonderful Christmas present that would be. Lucky girl.
