The Process of the Canopy

This process has been a little crazy, and a little overwhelming, as I realized that I’m building an entire canopy structure basically within a week. Let’s break it down.

The canopy itself, or “screen” to catch the shadows throughout the day:
Realizing that it wouldn’t be possible to span that large of a distance with a single piece of fabric, I decided to break the design into 3’ wide stripes. I’m alternating between two kinds of white fabric- muslin, and I-forget-the-name-offhand-but-it’s-shiny. The nice thing about alternating is that the difference in appearance is subtle- they’re both white, one just has more sheen than the other- and it lets me save money by using a lot of muslin, which doesn’t look quite as nice but is much cheaper. Having both materials side-by-side will help to highlight the way each one captures the shadows, since they are distinctly different. I’m hoping some shadows will cross both kinds of fabric and make this difference even more obvious. I bought the fabric, and started sewing yesterday, and wow. This is a lot of fabric.

The structure, or “branches”


Originally I was just going to pull the cloth taught between the trees, but this puts a lot of stress on the fabric. Instead, I’m going to create a slightly arching structure by bending metal poles into a branch-like pattern, and sewing the metal poles between layers of fabric.
This will (ideally) support the fabric better, and by using forms that are drawn from the surrounding site, will keep a sense of unity between the project and the site.

The acrylic leaves and net, or “light filters”

I want to mimic the way light passes through leaves, and especially like the effect when light passes through the lasercut leaves and is projected onto the cloth screens. To keep this effect in my canopy, I plan to weave the acrylic leaves through a bird net (should arrive tomorrow, fingers crossed!) and suspend the leaves/net slightly above the canopy, like so:


In this way, I’ll capture both the shadows from the surrounding trees, and the fascinating light patterns through the acrylic leaves. If it turns out the way I hope, it’ll be a strange combination of the familiar/natural and the oddly unnatural.

One last thing- I may have to cut holes in the fabric to keep the wind from ripping it apart, and I was thinking of cutting out holes shaped like tree branches (resembling the structure) but then sewing fishing line across the holes. This would keep the fabric from drooping down, but still allow wind to pass through. What do you think?