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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
National
David McLean

Talented Glasgow artist creates stunning miniature of city's iconic Barrowlands

A prolific visual artist has added to her portfolio of Glasgow buildings in miniature by creating a one-off scale model of the city's iconic Barrowland Ballroom.

The incredibly-talented hands of Karen Bones, real name Karen Bonella, spent over a fortnight recreating the world-famous Gallowgate venue using only foam, cardboard, Perspex, paint and her artistic nous.

The painstakingly-detailed mini Barras looks almost like the real thing with Karen taking time to add individual bricks and shutters, while also recreating bits of exterior signage and graffiti and even the multi-coloured panels above the entrance canopy.

READ MORE: Glasgow artist's stunning miniature of demolished West Regent Street townhouse

And of course, the legendary 'Barrowlands' lettering and stars light up. It's sublime.

It's one of dozens of handmade miniatures of historic buildings created by Karen over the past couple of years and sold on her Bricks & Bones website.

In 2022, the artist, who is originally from Glasgow, but now lives in Larbert, unveiled her model of the then recently demolished Georgian townhouse at 141 West Regent Street.

Glasgow Live caught up with Karen on her latest creation, which she says has been her "most elaborate and tricky so far".

"I've been going to the Barras since the mid-'80s and it's such a special institution," said Karen.

"It took about two or three weeks, which is a little longer than normal as I had to wait for the lights to arrive.

"This is the first one I've done that's been lit up, so there are a lot more elements to it. Trying to figure out the lighting for the sign was tricky - it's actually two separate light sources, one for the sign and one for the stars - but we got there in the end.

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"The response on Facebook has been brilliant, with so many people reminiscing about the days when it was a ballroom and how they used to get a 'lumber' there."

Rather fittingly, the Barras model, which has already received the thumbs up from the Barrowlands management, has just been sold to the lead singer in a Simple Minds tribute band.

Karen continued: "Obviously there's a big Simple Minds connection as they shot their Waterfront video there.

"George Porter, the singer from a Simple Minds tribute band called Simple Minded, he's brought it right away.

"He's loving it and was actually in the Waterfront video as well! I'm glad it's going to someone connected with the place."

As for Karen's next creations, she is currently working on a miniature model of Glasgow's neglected Lion Chambers and also has plans to recreate another famous city venue: King Tut's. It's a place she has a personal connection with.

She added: "My husband works with the stage crew at King Tut's and we actually had our wedding reception there. In fact, ours was only the second ever wedding there.

"It's not quite as iconic as the Barrowlands, of course, but an important one for me from a personal viewpoint."

You can view more of Karen's brilliant creations here.

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