Incorporating a Musical Instrument

Class title: Incorporating a Musical Instrument

Staging: bench, space allowed 70cm square, height unrestricted, judged from front

 

Musical-Instrument-2

This is not an interpretive design. In this competition, the design must incorporate an actual musical instrument – trumpet, violin, drums etc.

 

Some of the entries used the instrument as the container for their arrangement, others used it as the backdrop for their arrangement. My entry incorporated the instrument by using part of the real instrument (that can also be used on its own as an instrument) to help construct a replica of the whole instrument in horticultural material. Bagpipes!!

My bagpipes are resting on a styrofoam box covered in a tartan scarf that is also draped over a tall glass vase for a backdrop. At the top of the backdrop is a small group of thistle type flowers (actually known in Australia as Patterson’s Curse – a pasture weed).

 

The “bag” is made from tea tree sticks highlighted with protea leaves and sea mist gypsophila. All of these materials were chosen because they can remain out of water for the duration of this Show.

 

Coming out from the bag is the bottom half of a chanter. A chanter is part of a set of bagpipes and is used for practice when you don’t want to inflate the bag to use the pipes.

 

The pipes are constructed from coloured bamboo sticks with cotton string highlights and topped with a gumnut. Woven raffia is used to connect the pipes to one another and for the decorative trail, which also has gumnuts and seed pod decoration.

 

Judging feedback:  The judges wanted more height in the design so that the instrument could be standing almost upright. Their other comment was to be careful of draping material that has straight lines in it as these must appear straight in your design or the judges will subtract marks. Apparently along one side of the base the tartan was not straight – I think the base was actually cut crooked (my fault for the lack of attention to detail!).

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