A witch on a flying bicycle, twin bearded makers among the clocks, and a cardboard robot built by goblins are still moving in Armidale Mall shop windows, giving locals a last chance to see displays made possible by some of Armidale’s most creative minds for the Creative Streets Festival.
The Mechanical Wonders of Beardy Street brought together three mall shops, The Clique Curation, The Jolly Good Emporium, and Granny Fi’s Toy Cupboard, with Fiona McDonald of Trick of the Eye, who made the life-size figures.
The windows were built for the festival, which ran from Saturday, 17 October to Monday, 9 November, and have stayed in place beyond its close.
“We had been talking about doing automated window displays for a while,” said Granny Fi’s Toy Cupboard owner Beattie Alvarez.
“And then the grant opportunity came up, so we thought we’d apply and see if we could get some help on that.”
The group received a $3,000 grant from Armidale Regional Council (ARC) through the Creative Streets Festival.
“Mum’s job was to create the life-size figures for it,” Ms Alvarez said. “And then we each worked out how to automate them.”
Ms McDonald, who is Ms Alvarez’s mother, made a witch for The Clique Curation. The witch rides a flying bicycle, has a cat with a twitching tail, and waves her wand as she lands.
The Jolly Good Emporium’s window features twin bearded makers surrounded by clocks, while Granny Fi’s Toy Cupboard has a band of goblins trying to build a cardboard robot that can move its head, and an old goblin lady relaxing in her mystical cave.
“For the past few weeks, I have been busting myself trying to get big figures done as my part of a collaborative project,” Ms McDonald wrote.
“The biggest part of it was getting the figures,” Ms Alvarez said. “Nothing else could really happen until they were done.”
Each shop then took its own approach to the mechanics.
“Clique was working on theirs for a long time, and theirs is the most intricate with all different moving parts,” Ms Alvarez said.
“At first we thought finding the bike was going to be the hard part.”
“She wanted a vintage style bike, and we managed to find one for $10 at the tip shop.”
Wayne Boyle worked with a mechanic on the twin figures in The Jolly Good Emporium’s window, while Ms Alvarez took a simpler route.
“I’m not a technically minded mechanical person, but I am good at cheating,” she said.
“In my window, we worked out that if we put a fan heater on oscillate without turning the fan parts on, I put a cardboard box over it, we can have a robot.”
“And his head moves side to side when I plug him in.”
The displays came together for a fraction of what Ms Alvarez said the project was worth.
“The project was estimated, if the artists were going to be actually paid, probably 22 and a half thousand,” she said.
“We asked for 10,000; they gave us three.”
Because the displays could not be shown before the festival, none of the windows could be assembled until the day it began.
The build also ran alongside a house move and another event. When Ms McDonald hurt her shoulder, Ms Alvarez finished the figures, at one point carrying one across the mall.
“Mum did her shoulder in, so I had to finish up,” she said.
“We’re all working together and having a few late nights.”
Ms Alvarez said it was important to count four businesses in the project, not three, because the grant application was Ms McDonald’s.
“Mum was the one who actually put in for the grant and got the grant,” she said.
“And from there it was all of us working together.”
“Well done my collaborators! I think we did an amazing job,” Ms McDonald wrote.
“And a big round of applause to Armidale Regional Council for the grant that helped us achieve our project.”
The figures will not be sold when the windows come down. Each business can keep its figures, and hand them back if it ever plans to throw them out. Ms Alvarez said The Clique Curation’s Cheryl Andrews was very attached to her witch.
Ms Alvarez and Ms McDonald have just returned from a very successful trip to Brisbane Comic Con, where they came close to selling out.
“It was great,” Ms Alvarez said.
Back home, she said trade in the mall had been quiet ahead of Christmas in the Mall on Friday, 4 December.
The group is already thinking about what comes next. Ms Alvarez said hundreds of people came to the mall at Halloween, when only three shops opened for trick-or-treating.
“I didn’t even advertise it,” she said.
“I was thinking, I don’t know, Halloween markets or something, if we can get some private funding.”
She said any future event would be smaller than what council ran a few years ago.
“It’s going to be a small thing,” Ms Alvarez said.
“I love doing the community things,” she said.
“We’re all still up for reviving the mall and using the mall to its full capacity.”
And her message to the local community in the lead-up to Christmas: shop local.
“The main thing is just come down to the mall, make a morning of it… see all the different shops, have a coffee, have a cake, have lunch,” she said.
“Instead of buying 100 pieces of plastic that will end up in the bin, buy one thing that your kid will love forever.”
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