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Barking Mad

(Above) Lighting stand wrapped in tube and chicken wire, ready to be covered in moslin and PVA; and (below) my creation is taller than me!

21st July 2011

Today's blog was written by Talulah.

And from a lighting stand, carpet tubes and chicken wire, a tree is made...

So, while the rest of the team were enjoying a well-earned day off (since the studio of the Artrix in Bromsgrove was out-of-bounds), I’ve been a busy bee working on the set for A Bird In Your Ear on the Artrix stage. The creative process is always a fun time, where all your ideas — whether from your head, paper or model — become that more real. Today was that day where I could begin to see what our trees were going to look like... Very exciting!

It was a productive day, working with materials you wouldn't necessarily associate with trees... I used chicken wire to sculpt the trunk and branches, then used strips of muslin fabric coated in PVA glue to form a surface. Think papier-mâché on a bigger scale.

I have to say it was very time-consuming and took a lot of patience. But with good music in the background to keep me going, it was worth it for the final triumph at the end of the day — being that much closer to beginning my next stage of the design...