pleased| Shoulder cladding, left side The left panel cut out, with some touchup regluing done after the cutting |
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| Shoulder cladding right side |
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| Shoulder cladding center section It's slightly rolled up so a couple of end slats could be reglued |
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| Canvas under skirt fully installed with hooks |
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| Closer view of hooks holding canvas skirting Cuphooks (round, opening upward) around the top, L-hooks (pointing downward) around the bottom |
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| Closeup of upper hooks |
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| closeup of lower hooks |
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| Even closer view of lower hooks These will be used for tensioning the lines of coconuts |
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| As Seen on TV! I'm using the Buttoneer to attach the green "grass" skirting to the canvas. It punches barbed u-shaped plastic connectors through all the layers with a pair of (out of focus, sorry) hollow needles |
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| Closeup of the fasteners, one still in its |
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| Closeup of buttoneer fastener in grass It's the short blurry horizontal rectangle near the center of the top band of the skirting. The skirting is actually interfaced in the sewn region, so the fasteners have something to keep them from pulling through |
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| Grass skirting applied to the bottom of the canvas |
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| Grass skirting on canvas I'm about to trim it to a manageable length |
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| Lower grass skirting, all trimmed, side view |
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| Lower grass skirting, front view |
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| lower grass skirting, rear view |
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| Lower skirt, with raffia applied over the canvas There are two complete paper raffia skirts wrapped around the canvas (the string just hooks into the cuphooks). The first time around, I scrunched the paper knots closely together along the string to increase the density of coverage over the canvas. |
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| Lower skirt, another shot The coconuts will solve some of the blowing-around problem |
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| Lower skirt |
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| Shoulder cladding installed on middle section, left front corner The simplest way to attach it turned out to be screws through the canvas between slats |
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| Shuolder cladding, right side |
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| shoulder cladding, center back. I drilled holes into and then screwed individual slats over each of the edge-joins between pieces of the cladding, to cover up the gaps. |
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| closer view of center back |
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| slat covering right front join |
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| slat covering left front join |
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| beginning the coconut stringing. I'm using upholstery thread and knotted-on beads to hold the coconuts at the correct distances |
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| Fuzzy closeup of the beads on the coconut string |
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| Beads on the carpet/upholstery thread |
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| 4 sets of coconuts If the beads look larger, they are. I switched to larger green plastic beads with bigger center holes, because the small green glass beads kept cracking. The layout was done on a rotary cutting mat so I could get the spacing right. |
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| test installation of 4 strands of coconuts This was done after I'd knotted all 14 strings (56 coconuts!) |
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| Test install of coconuts, retensioned The upholstery thread proved painful to work with in terms of installation and tensioning. This was the end of Saturday's work. |
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| Coconuts, RESTRUNG Sunday I went and got some 1/16" braided blind cord (the stuff that is used to actually thread all the slats together in Venetian blinds). I restrung all 14 sets using this thicker, softer cord. I left the upholstery thread in place, as it gave me an instant way to get the spacing correct. |
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| Closeup of hanger ring on cord I also knotted tiny metal split rings at the top of each string |
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| Coconuts, hung on the skirt |
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| Coconuts, tensioned and flipped around properly I used taut-line hitches at the bottom of each cord |
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| Top row of coconuts netted together. Each shell also has a hole on each side, so I can string them together into a net around the raffia. This keeps them from flipping over an also controls the raffia from blowing around |
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| Inside view At this point, I opened TDK up and climbed inside to check fit and visibility. Both passed. |
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| Cane webbing for neck My webbing is 14" of useful weave with ends hanging out beyond a stitched edge. I ran two lines of stitching down the middle and split it in two longways |
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| Cane webbing affixed to lower disk |
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| inside view of lower section of neck (cane webbing) |
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| closeup of staples. All the fuzzy ends were folded under and stapled down on the back of the plywood disk |
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| applying the cane to the top The fringe was trimmed away in this case, so as not to interfere with the rollers under the dome. |
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| Test assembly of Project TDK, view one The neck needs more work (and the neck rings!) |
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| Test assembly, view two |
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| Test assembly of TDK, view 3 You can see that the fiber optics in the Tiki Torch gun light up really well. They actually blink with a red light (from a raver toy) |
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Along the way I discovered two design problem; the upper cane webbing cylinder fits too closely into the lower one, and the head can't move up and down. This can be mitigated by taking 1/2 to 1 inch off the diameter of the upper disk (the rollers for the dome run on the inside edge of the disk, so they'll still work) and restapling the cane. This will eliminate the interference.
Secondly, the braided reed I did for the rings looks really crappy next to the webbing. I'm going to get a pile of fabric flower leis and use them for the rings instead. I can actually tack them directly to the cane webbing. As luck would have it, one will cover the area where the upper cylinder enters the lower, and disguise the transition.
Almost there! (and boy are my hands tired after installing all those hooks and knotting all those beads!)