Tubee, or Not Tubee

Testing the Tube Solution tonight. I chose a 7 tube, flower pattern for the set support leg solution. My Japanese pull saw ended up doing a better job on the thick, tough board than the hack saw did above.

What's FREE, easy to come by at the factory behind my building, relatively easy to stack, strap, and cut to the sizes needed, to securely support the set's satellite landscape pieces?

The answer is the super idea Downstairs Clare came up with for me today. I went down to ask him about the cool sawhorses he had made to support his painting tables. After he diagramed out how they're made, and he told me how many hinges each would take and how much 1x3 lumber I was going to have to buy, lug up here and cut?! I was not keen on it.

I asked him what he would do if he had to prop up several fairly lightweight cardboard set pieces and he immediately suggested cardboard tubing. Better yet, how about snagging the HUNDREDS of fabric bolt cores the fabric trimming factory behind us puts out by the dumpster each week? You heard the "oh, yeah!"go off in my head, didn't you!? His solution is practically Macrobiotic! How much more locally available could this material be?

I tootled over to ask the factory folks if they had a clean tube batch coming out soon they couldn't have cared less what I was so excited about but kindly offered to hold the next batch of 20 to the side for me in the morning. yay.

I grabbed the few by the trash to test out the idea and I'm happy with it. It looks more humble than I'd like. But then again, it suits in budget and function. I have decided that the sets themselves will be made from lowly cardboard, crumpled newspaper bulges, papier mache substrate, with a plaster topping. Simple, off-the-shelf materials fits my philosophy for this project.

Today's Art is Life Quote (via Daily Poetics)

It is our responsibility to be magicians, to be jesters, to be alchemists, to create hope where there is only illusion, to create reality where there are only dreams. —Marcel Wanders