more smoke 'n mirrors from the attic....

I have been happily working on a little set design again....

Remember THIS?

Smoke and Mirrors Part 1

...and THIS?

Smoke and Mirrors Part 2


Pastor Mike is doing an 11 week series on JOY.

He is referencing the book of Philippians, which is known as Paul's book of Joy.

But how do you illustrate JOY without being too literal....?

#1: THE INSPIRATION

I had just seen this and it got me to thinkin'...

(You're welcome.)

#2: THE EXECUTION

Ever made one of these?

But what material was used in that video?

At a local sign shop I found 4' x 8' sheets of this:

I had to fill a huge space, so I needed a minimum 4 foot circle to start with. Each 4' x 8' sheet provided two 4 foot discs.

Here are eight 4' x 8' sheets ready to go....

cut into 4' squares...

I made an old fashioned compass using string, pencil and nail...

freehanded a spiral...

cut it out with my good sewing shears...

 hardly any waste - me likey that.

The only thing that worried me about these was tearing - since it was so easy to cut, would it hold up to hanging for 11 weeks?

So I cut some smaller discs from the waste.....  

and glued them top and bottom at the center stress point.

Using an eye screw, washer and bolt and some heavy duty fishing line, we hung them from the 'rafters'....

#3: THE RESULT

This... 

became......

THIS!

Joyful?

I think so.

And here's the bonus: when the air kicks on in the building, THEY SPIN!

(Notice the way the power point screens tie in? Thanks to the talented Linda on the creative team for that attention to detail)
I would be remiss if I didn't tell you how important the lighting crew was/is on this project

Without these guys:

...it would just have been a bunch of gigantic rotelle pasta hanging in space. (not to mention these guys also hung these things while I pointed and said, "a little to the left....no right....no wait, left.")

Thanks guys.

Joyfully yours,

smoke and mirrors II ~ or how to stretch your dollar to get the biggest bang for your buck.

About a year ago at this time, I wrote about a set I designed when I was Visual Arts Director at a church in California. 

For those of you new to this blog, you can read more about it HERE.

 

This year, I am back at it again, but this time in the role of a volunteer. I am now part of the creative team at Lake City Community Church in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. I was asked to design a set for the weeks leading up to Christmas Eve that would be less thematic and more generic. - one that would fit the moderate budget and could be reused throughout the year. The lobby would give everyone their traditional Christmas fix, but when you entered the auditorium, it would be more abstract and theatrical.

So I went fishing around on the Internet and saw many grand designs.

The word "spandex" came up in several conversations....

As cool as it looks, it is a bit pricey.

designed by Duke Dejong (aka: The Duke of Spandex)

Then I remembered how cool that faux stained glass looked....

 designed by Patrick Fore from Journey Church in Norman, Oklahoma

But the printing and paper costs were a little high.

Then this caught my eye:

designed by Camron Ware

I bet you can't guess how that was done...

Smoke and mirrors baby.

This is where we started...

...and here is what we did:

Bought a roll of 5' wide Weed Block from Home Depot (about $100)

Cut several 30' lengths from it - I cut it 6' longer than required so it would "puddle" on the floor.

(I love my huge foyer - fondly nicknamed "the bowling alley")

Sewed a casing along the top edge of each panel.

We laid them all out on a lot of painter's plastic.

Using brooms of all kinds and a few gallons of cheap white semi-gloss paint we randomly "broomed" and dribbled the paint onto each panel.

It took five of us and almost no time at all - it requires a person on either end to hold the cloth taught.

Biggest concern ~ the paint seemed to soak into the cloth ~ would the treatment dry "opaque" enough for it to create the effect we wanted???

(To be completely honest, I went to bed that night a little freaked out ~ I had no Plan B...)
Moving on....

Using cheap conduit cut into 5' lengths, we hung them from the catwalk - the biggest decision here was how many to use - five or seven?

(design rule #1: always use odd numbers)

I decided on five.

Now comes the smoke and mirrors part...

The lighting crew!!!!!

All light is absorbed by the black landscape cloth, and only the paint is illuminated.

Cool, yes?

AND...we can change the mood of the room simply by the flick of a switch...

We can also use these panels at other times of the year, in different configurations and placement to create a completely new design.

A huge THANK YOU to Dennis, Tod, Patty, Myrna, David, and Ron for sharing your gifts and working your magic.
See ya in the pew....

xoxo