Back in June or July another member of our orchid society asked if I wanted to take charge of the display for our society coming up in Sept. or did I want to be responsible for our local show display in Nov. Inasmuch as I was holding my breath during all the moves and life changing events in my offspring's lives plus entertaining grandchildren (current & upcoming) and couldn't begin to focus on an orchid display, I opted for the Nov. responsibility. Of course, that caught up with me about a month ago when we had a meeting of the show committee. It occurred to me a few days before the meeting that they probably expected me to have a plan. Since the theme of the show is "Falling for Orchids" I thought a large cornucopia with orchids spilling out of it would be just the ticket, and they really like the idea. Unfortunately, there were no LARGE cornucopias to be found.
Next step was to contact another society member who actually builds furniture. He's retired from working oil rigs in the Gulf. He said yes he thought he could come up with a frame using wire. And he certainly did. He brought it to my house a couple of weeks later in his van, thank God, because I couldn't have gotten it into my Toyota Camry. Here's a picture of it.
Not only was it made of heavy guage and chicken wire but also zip ties (those, red, yellow, green things you see) and on some joints two or three layes of duct tape. I thought he did a great job, but I'm here to tell you those zip ties don't want to turn even when their ends are sticking out, and it is not feasible to try to sew through duct tape.
It now became my task to cover the #!%@$&**$# thing. Papier mache was suggested by a friend, but coming up with enough paper was a big problem plus where to do such a messy task and also leave it to dry was not doable. Besides I'm really lousy at that sort of thing. Finally I decided on old shade cloth of which I had an abundance.
The first step was to line the opening section with black. The plan is to have one or two orchid plants in the opening. There is an unwritten law (in the U.S.) that orchids should be displayed with a black or dark green background.
Next came covering the outside with another kind of shadecloth with different texture and a different color, trying to simulate that woven look, don't you know.
You are probably wondering: what kind of thread? what kind of needle? Well, it turned out that 6 strand embroidery thread worked---3 skeins of black, and 4 skeins of beige. Needles? embroidery, tapestry, and both the small and large mattress needles; also a pair of pliers was used occasionally to pull the needle through. It took several days to finish that part of the job.
Next it was haul that sucker outdoors for a spray paint job. However, I'm going to skip the outdoor picture because it only shows what two cans of paint could do, and you want to see the finished color, right?
Now the big question became how do I finish off that edge that will be center front in the display and surrounding those orchids. Raffia? Yarn? Cloth? Grapevine? I promised myself it would not be anything that required more sewing. Well, here's a preview of the finished edge. I can't actually put it on until we set up the display because I wouldn't be able to get it through the doors of my house.
You can't imagine how happy I am to have that simulated cornucopia off my dining table and resting comfortably on the bed in the guest room. The show is two weeks from now, and I'll let you see how it looks in the display. Keep your fingers crossed for us. Oh, and regarding that opening sentence? Talk about taking on big jobs . . . . I rest my case.
7 comments:
So, this spring do you want to help with...
Not even an Easter basket!!!!
And you called us nuts when we took up cross stitch.
So what did you use to finish off the edge?
I think it would have been easier to set up a ladder with orchids falling off of it. or a person, falling off the ladder into a pile of orchids. But the cornucopia is cool.
Plug---Thank you for the compliment. What I didn't write in the blog was that when the show chairman asked for ideas for a theme back in May I suggested "Falling for Orchids" because I thought it left it open to several interpretations. The society eventually approved that, but the first month it was brought up, they all ho-hummed. The next month no one else had come up with a suggestion, so it won by default. Anyway the edge is actually foam insulation tubes that you normally put on outside pipes which I spray painted with hammered copper spray paint. You get four three-foot pieces for about $3. Isn't that great? They're already slit to just slide around. I'm so glad you asked.
I think I'm having a Martha Stewart moment.
talk about a horn of plenty! perhaps after you're done with it, if you don't want to store and reuse it, you could donate it to the local grade school's drama department. a prop like that is too great to throw away. and it sounds like it's pretty solidly constructed.
Hi, Heather,
Glad you tuned in. Wish I'd read your suggestion sooner, but as this was the "big weekend" I've been haulin', buildin', cookin', and dropping dead in the evenings. It would have been a terrific stage prop. When we were setting up our display someone walked in and asked, "What is that? Some kind of home made cornucopia?" We thanked him for recognizing what it was and took it as a compliment. Get them where you can is my motto. Unfortunately, no one has room for that size prop on a long term basis, and it went to the trash site outside the garden center. Maybe someone will take it for a worthy cause. I know if I put it on the curb at home it would be gone by morning on general principles, but I had no way to get it home. Bon voyage, Cornucopia!
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