A Treelocate Topiary Heads Up
It might seem strange that in the 18 years since TreeLocate was established we’ve produced very few artificial topiaries of animals, especially as animals are one of the most popular topics for live topiary.
One reason could be price perception, another could be perception of lead time in production. Then there’s the expectation of just how small an object can be artificially topiaried.
Certainly in 2012 we turned down several commissions because the customers wanted very small “toy” sized topiaries – the finished size being so small that the final article would have looked like a tennis or soccer ball blob of hedging with no detail. One commission that we’ve accepted this year demonstrates perfectly why very small topiaries are best hand-trimmed from living boxwood or buxus, and why larger sizes work well in artificial materials.
From start to finish “Seamus the Stag” was completed in just 4 working days … four staff in different departments dropped their other jobs and priorities to ensure that Seamus was completed on time to be collected and transported to an Irish Pub for St Patrick’s Day. Naturally we cannot make such commitments for every commission or no-one would receive finished products, therefore it’s better to allow at least three weeks between order and despatch dates (or longer for very large sculptures).
Roughly speaking, Seamus spent one day in each of – CADCAM production, hand-sculpting & shaping, assembly & coatings, and final topiary matting. The CADCAM section produced the visual concept artwork and cutting plots for the hot-wire polystyrene cutting platform. The cutting platform created Seamus’s head & neck core, antlers, and ears. The hand-sculpt section then converted the 2D head & neck core to a fully contoured 3D version. With the components ready for assembly, they were passed to the coatings department who assembled them and applied the sprayed polyurea hard-coat covering to which the FIREsilx fire retardant boxwood topiary mat is affixed. Finally, the skills of our experienced topiary mat team were tested as they created hedge antlers for Seamus.
The pictures below show Seamus in production after handover from the hand-sculptor to the coatings bay. Click any picture for a larger view.
