Gothic Fantasy Pram

Designed by Patricia and Dave Williams

How it all began

For a very long time I have wanted a vintage style pram. It goes back to when I had my own babies, living in a flat there was no room for such a majestic pram. So, children long grown up, I decided Powertex gave me the perfect opportunity to use a pram as a base for my Gothic Art.

This involved much searching online sites to find one and I finally did at an amazing cost of £45. It was found in a house clearance, looking a little tired and worn as it would at 50/60 yrs old. It was love at first sight, just to push it to the car to take made me bristle with excitement.

On arrival it was tucked up inside my Powertex storage garage where it silently waited while plans were made. The plans changed many times, the only certainty it was going to be black.

It was going to make it’s debut at The Whitby Gothic Weekend on October 25^th-27^th where we go twice a year to show our creations, let the work begin.

How we created the Gothic Fantasy Pram

Materials used

• Black Powertex Universal Medium
• Silver Colourtrix
• Easy Varnish
• White Powertex Universal Medium
• Cotton t-shirt fabric
• Foam roses
• Plaster skulls and faces
• Embellishments from my stash
• Mdf shapes
• Resin embellishments
• Gesso
• Rust paint

Stage 1

Sand it all down and give it a coat of gesso, then black Powertex, suddenly it no longer looked sad and tired it began to breath life. I left it for 48hrs to dry out while cutting up of lots of fabric.

Stage 2

Dave, re-upholstered the inside, deep buttoned style in black leather. It was taking on a whole new personality.

Stage 3

Turned upside down I started to apply the fabric cover to the base in long strips leaving it quite wrinkled to give a texture. At the handle end I attached a ceramic baby curled in a leaf, roses and skulls.

Stage 4

Now the sides were a whole different story as I wanted them very ornate and busy. I covered the sides with Powertexed fabric. We started to gather lots of plaster pieces then bedded the pieces into the fabric. In the centre as a focal point I added a plaster face, with wings.

This took a few days to dry out. Then I coated it all with Black Powertex. Flipped it over when it was dry and did the other side to match.

Stage 5

Time to start working on the hood, I coated it all over with black Powertex inside and out. I cut up lots of twine and laid out a spider web pattern, which I then filled in with skulls of different types and faces, adding scrunched up fabric coated with Powertex around them to make sure they were securely fixed. Once more the whole hood was coated with black Powertex.

Stage 6

So excited to reach this stage; Dry Brushing. Keeping it reasonably simple I started with silver Colourtrix,  lightly brushing all over to bring out all the texture , it instantly came to life and really needed very little more. To finish off I added touches of dry brushing with white Powertex Universal Medium.

Stage 7

The back of the hood and the apron, they changed many times as they progressed, we wanted them to almost tell a story, of derelict buildings and overgrown trees, we used some MDF pieces for this.

The Hood

So finally it was time to put her all back together and take her out for a photo shoot.

So here she is our much loved Gothic Fantasy Pram who made her debut at Whitby Goth Weekend. She met some amazing people who ooohed and aahhed over her and photographed her from every angle and she even had the pleasure of a delightful baby boy try her out for size.

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  The Hood

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  The Apron

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  Finished Pram

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  At Whitby

Where do we go from here I asked myself as after finishing such an intense and exciting project there is always that feeling of anti-climax, but we have two fabulous projects on the books, so even more exciting times to come.

See my last project the Dark Dreamcatcher or if you would like to see more of our work head over to our Facebook page Alex Henry. Don’t forget to add your projects onto The Powertex Studio, I would love to see them and you will also find lots of inspiration there.

So until next time,

Patricia (Alex Henry)