Recently I was involved in designing a paper installation for an exciting stage backdrop. The stage decor team at my church CityHill Hillcrest, decided on a paper leaf theme to coincide with Autumn and to have an beautiful opportunity to recycle discarded office paper.
We had a work party where leaf patterns were supplied and volunteers hand cut 100s and 100s of leaves. Each leaf was made up of 2 sides of paper, and we made sure that the print side was on the inside, leaving the plain white side on the outside.
The leaves were glued onto black cord (We used black, so that the string would not show up against the black curtain). We wanted a graded effect, with more leaves towards the floor. We divided the strings into thirds, and glued 9 leaves (as best I remember) on the lower third, 6 leaves on the middle third and 3 leaves on the top third.
The paper leaves were folded in half lengthwise, and wood glue was applied to on either side of the fold. The 2 paper leaves were then glued together, over the cord, forming a central leaf vein.
The logisitics of handling long strings of leaves was interesting, and the auditorium floor became filled with the strings, awaiting mounting on the cross-beam at the back of the stage.
The occasional workparties we have together are a huge source of delight to me. There’s something so special about people from a community working together for a common beautiful goal.
The recyled paper white leaves were a great ‘blank canvas’ for the stage lighting. A truly satisfying project.
Chat to us if you would like us to design and make a similar installation for you.
You can read about other installations we have done before over here.
If you would like to make up some decor strings yourself, the pattern is available for download. Click on the link below:
