Putting It Together

Wow, what a great opening weekend.  We had to cut it short due to an illness, which is too bad, but we still have two more weekends, Jan 9-12, and 16-19!

We had a number of comments about the set, so I thought I'd put up a little picture post explaining the construction.  Todd's plan started with a series of platforms.  These platforms formed the "practical" part of the dune, the parts actors could actually walk on.  As you can see, there are two large platforms in the back, and a series of lower platforms forming a ramp going down along the up stage side of the dune.  You can see the first transition ramp as well right nest to John.

You can also see the first layer of carpet foam on the top platform.  We used several layers of carpet padding, plus some actual carpet (part of my house had just been recarpeted, so we used the old carpet that had been ripped out).

Once we had constructed the ramp and platforms we strung chicken wire along the sides of the dune.  We also put extra 2x4s and constructed a few wooden posts (you can see one in the center of this image) to give the dune some shape.  Here Todd is attaching the Chicken wire.  you can also see the ramp has been carpeted.

Once the chicken wire and wood frame was in place, we draped it with a large canvas.  Todd seemed several large canvas pieces together with carpet glue strips, then he pre-painted it with a mixture of sand and paint to give it a textured look.  We draped this over the frame and we cut off the excess canvas (we used strips of this canvas to help form the rock we made).

After that was done, we dressed it up with some extra stuff: a few plants (small plants are from Michael's, the big one is just some pampas grass in pvc pipes attached to the platform) and a fence.  The fence we got at Lowes I think, we pulled out some of the pickets and broke some off to make it look worn.  Then I cut slits in the canvas and stuck them through at varying angles and Todd screwed them into the platforms from below.

After that we poured some sand over it to give it a bit of texture and added some seashells.  Tada!  Dune accomplished.