GreatBeanBags, a Midlands-based textile manufacturer, has manufactured 24 giant, pet-shaped bean bags for artist Pippa Hale’s Pet Project exhibition at The Bowes Museum in County Durham. The interactive experience reimagines historic ceramic pet figurines from the museum’s collection as large-scale, soft sculptures designed for public interaction and will run from 26 July 2025 to 1 March 2026.
Each of the bean bags has been designed and manufactured at GreatBeanBags’ Midlands facility, inspired by original porcelain pieces held at the museum, including a 1768 Berlin Porcelain dog and a Staffordshire ceramic cat dating to around 1875. These figurines were scaled up to 18,000 times their original size to create bean bags that reach up to 2.5 metres in height, allowing visitors of all ages to sit, recline, climb, or interact with them directly. The exhibition is part of a broader effort to reinterpret museum collections in a more accessible and playful way, removing barriers between audiences and objects.
The manufacturing process required close collaboration between GreatBeanBags and Pippa’s team to ensure the final product retained key features of the original figurines. The bean bags were crafted on industrial locksmith machines using heavy thread and durable, upholstery-grade faux leather fabric that can withstand repeated handling in a gallery environment.
Patrick Tonks, Creative Director at GreatBeanBags, said: “This commission pushed the boundaries of what soft furniture can be. Working with Pippa Hale allowed us to reimagine the bean bag as a sculptural form that’s playful, expressive, and fully interactive. It’s exciting to see traditional crafts applied in a way that encourages direct connection with heritage museum collections, meaning more people are interested in engaging with them.”
Leeds-based contemporary artist, Pippa Hale said, “The Bowes Museum has an amazing collection of ceramic pet figurines which of course are small, precious and fragile. I wanted to engage visitors in a new way that makes the collection tactile and fun so have scaled them up into these massive, soft, interactive sculptures. This of course wouldn’t have been possible with the team at GreatBeanBags. They’ve taken on the challenge and worked with me to transform the tiny figurines into objects that are huge and playable. I’m painting the Staffordshire Cat and Berlin Dog in their original styles and visitors will be able to depict their own pets in the same style via a series of workshops throughout the exhibition giving them the opportunity to learn more about their history and production techniques.”
GreatBeanBags is a British Bean Bag manufacturer, online retailer and subsidiary brand of UK textiles manufacturer Precision Stitching Ltd, founded in 1992. The company’s products are handmade to premium British quality standards by skilled designers and a specialist textile production team, and the business adopts a just-in-time manufacturing process, meaning all products are made to order, which eliminates unnecessary waste from surplus products.
In addition to supplying bean bags directly to customers through its retail store, GreatBeanBags also creates bespoke soft furnishings for brands and events, having previously worked with companies such as Barclays, Innocent Drinks, Heineken, and Virgin Atlantic.
