Back to Art Gallery Back to School Projects Gallery Women's Conference Made by Kristi Strodge kristiDavestrodge4@aol.com Glad you got the pictures- yes, they are life size- it was for the platform at a Women's conference- the Platform was 52 feet wide and 24 feet deep - took alot to fill it up!! If you notice, there are speakers on the platform, I cut large stones to fit over them and then had ferns around them- looked much better! and about the "raw" foam stage... shame on me but no- I really was so new at this that I just dove in head first with no thoughts of picts or anything! My next project is going to be a castle- so I will try to take before and after shots of that!!! The large boulder in raw form was a 4x4 x4 square- with many layers of color- that was fun! thank you for letting me share this with ya'll - your tools opened a new world for me! Were the rocks in the wall cut separately and then glued onto something, or did you route out the grout lines in sheets of foam? The wall is the 2" Foam sheeting - I took one of the tools and made a small wire loop that I could grout the lines in the foam (not sure if that was safe or not ... but it worked!! ha!) so yes, it's all sheets of the foam- we made a frame behind it and screwed all the walls on to it. as far as color- after I cut out the "stone" look, I spray painted the lines with a spray paint for plastic so it didn't melt any further- then, I took acrylic paint in a can and rolled the surface with a basic stone color- then on top of that I sprayed the stones to enhance, detail etc.... with many colors... I also did some divets and holes in the stones to make them more authentic- it actually didn't take long once I got ONE done and knew what I wanted How did you adhere the plants to the foam? As far as the walls go- we used the small floral pins that are shaped life a "staple" with long legs....to put the greenery in- now in front of the base wall- I had cut out many blocks of styrofoam that were like 4 ft wide by 2 ft high and 1 ft thickness- those we built up platforms in front of the wall and built stands behind it so I could place full plants behind it and let them cascade over the walls- on one side we took 3 of the stryrofoam walls and built a platform behind it and and that made a great way of 3 dimension effect What did you use to get the shiny surface? most of it is not really shiny surface - just good stage lighting- but of course, some of it has a shiny surface according to the spray paints I used- Does this break down for storage? Yes, all of it will break down for storage - nothing is bigger than 4 ft as far as the bulky pieces- and the back walls are of course just the thin styrofoam insulating foam at 6'x 4 so they will stack in our storage- the only big piece is my huge boulder.... not sure what to do with it!!! Had you build sets or backdrops out of other materials before you took on this project? Yes, my walls used to be spraypainted -- lots of fumes that I am glad to say goodbye to-- but as far as something this detailed- no I am a drama, music director at our church so I do alot of drama's for kids, musicals, etc.... so I have decorated alot- but nothing that was as fun as using your tools!!! they have been a wonderful find for me!!!     .     .