Jake DeMaris from Perimeter Church in Johns Creek, GA brings us these frames that form to make a cross. (Originally posted May 2014)
This stage set was inspired by part of a design Jake found on CSDI. He took it and went a little crazy with it. The original design was yarn wrapped around 6 different frames with different colors and designs. He took one of the frame designs and modified it slightly. Then he made 16 different sized frames that they hung on two battens that can raise and lower. They put the set up at the beginning of March and made it look random until Easter when they moved the set into an outline of a cross during the song Awake My Soul by Chris Tomlin for their Easter service.
They used 1×4 wood to make the frames that ranged from 2’x3′ to 6’x8′ in size. They had to add 1×2 crossbars and strong ties for the larger frames to make sure they were sturdy. They painted the frames black and had to put nails every 1″ all the way around the frames to wrap the yarn around. One of their volunteers made a couple nail guides for them to make it easier.
The last step for the frames was the yarn. They wrapped one vertical layer of metallic purple yarn (which shimmered like crazy with light on it) then wrapped white acrylic yarn in the angle pattern. The last part was hanging the frames with aircraft cable and lighting them up with LEDs from below and from the front. The wood cost about $180, $50 for paint, and $50 for the yarn.
Definitely one of their cheaper sets, but it took a lot of man hours. The more volunteers the better for this kind of project. The hard work definitely paid off. They rented a few sharpy lights to draw attention to the reveal of the cross.
How did you make the guide? where did you place the lights to light up the set? and what kind of lights did you use?
To make the guide we had a foot long piece of wood stapled to two other pieces that fit over the 1×4 frame. Then we drilled holes an inch apart that were wide enough to get around the nails.
To light the set, we had 4 LEDs washing the whole set from our furthest downstage batten, then we had 12 other LEDs attached to 2 trusses shooting straight up at different angles from a couple gaps in the set.
I love that!
Did you use actual string or yarn? I was thinking of going with yarn so it’s thicker. Also, is there only one layer of the purple? Did you string the purple so it was vertical for every frame?
What type of string or rope did you use to hang it? I’m concerned that with rope it will be hard to get the gaps correct for the cross to pop. I was thinking of using strips of wood but my lighting team is afraid they will create shadows.
My design team starts cutting wood tonight – so excited! It’s going to be a great Easter!
We did use a version of this for our Easter title Absence. We liked it so well we left it up until Christmas :)
I kept 2 of the pieces to hang in my office.
I’d attach a photo but I’m not able.