After some enquiries regarding the stand I used for the Kaleidescope design, I have dug out the photos taken durng its construction to share with you.
Hebel blocks are readily available from hardware/gardening suppliers (most notably here from Bunnings, in the US from Home Depot). They are a sturdy base that can be painted, drilled and glued for use in floral art structures. A word of warning – they do crumble easily so be prepared to have corners that may need a touch up with paint etc.
For this structure, which needed to support circular wire and wire mesh rings, I have used
- 1 hebel block
- 2 plastic pipe connectors glued into holes in the block
- 4 lengths of rigid plastic pipe to give me the height required
- pipe connectors as needed to create the height required
I am very fortunate to have a dad and brother who both love to take time off the farm work to make a floral art structure for me. I supervised and took the photos!!
Paint the blocks first to get a good base coat of the colour you need for your design. I have used a particular colour to match the staging that is used most often when I would use (and re-use) this structure. By painting it the same as the staging colour, the structure blends in to its surroundings.
Layout the rest of the structure to work out where to place the supports.
Measure for hole placements
Drill holes for supports.
I then glued in the pipe connector piece as this gave more support and stability for the pipe rather than gluing it directly into the block. It also means I can transport the pieces more easily and the blocks and pipes can be used in many different configurations (as you can see from the images below).
Adjust pipe sizes using connectors for your required height.
Test with the remaining structure for stability, bearing in mind the weight that will be added with your floral material.
Note: I give the plastic pipes a quick paint before placing them but they scratch easily so always carry more paint to touch them up once the floral material is in place.
I have re-used this structure regularly as you can see, in all sorts of ways.
