At least, that’s what the client told us they were intended as.
In January, we received the spec for over a hundred artificial topiary trees to be designed, built, and delivered to a client’s crew performing the interior landscaping in a major northern shopping centre.
From the outset we had (internally) referred to them variously as “teardrop topiaries”, “topiary conifers”, or just simply “teardrop trees”. However, as the delivery date drew nearer, our client began referring to them as “Egg topiaries”. Putting two and two together, to get three and three quarters, it hints at them being used for part of an Easter season project – we’ll know more once we see the on-site photographs of the finished display.
Until then, we thought we’d share with you a photo essay of this large order in production, and remind you to pop back in a few weeks to see the photos of the final installed project.
Hover over any photo for a short description of what’s happening, or click on it for a larger view.
Phase 1 – Polystyrene-core cutting
To cut a symmetrical core, the polystyrene cylinder must be centred exactly on the turntable
With the cylindrical polystyrene block centred, the CNC wire cutter and turntable cuts symmetrical facets that will yield the final shape
Source & final – the giant polystyrene block from which the cylinders are cut, which in turn are cut to provide the shaped core onto which topiary matting will be added.
As the egg / tear-drop topiary trees were to be pole-mounted the lower half required a precision-cut pole-sleeve into which the pole would be fixed.
Phase 2 – Assembly and Coatings Bay
Depending on the size of the finished tree, some pieces were initially sprayed before the poles were mounted into them.
The initial coating of polyurea hard-coat requires a steady hand and a good aim – the air pressure needed to spray the compounds can require standing 3-4 metres back from the target.
Such is the air-pressure used due to the weight of the coatings compound that an experienced coatings technician can “roll” the tree core using the spray jet, allowing the whole object to be coated without manually repositioning it.
Two of the coated batch sizes for this project – the tree bodies varied from 70cm to 2 metres in height, with over a dozen sizes in total.
Phase 3 – Applying Topiary Matting
Topiary mat tiles are individually trimmed to fit and follow contours, this precise and time-consuming task often decides the final appearance of the topiary.
Whether using a coated polystyrene or a wooden core, the correct heavy duty pneumatic stapler has to be used to fix the matting into place.
Angela staples topiary matting onto a coated core during the early part of the project build when we were making more recognisably egg-shaped trees.
Hazel, our most experienced topiary-matter cracks along with oddment sizes keeping the project on target for completion date.
Some of the finished items before shipping and installing
Total height over 3 metres, these were one of the “mid-size” trees.
Two of the smaller sizes (75cm & 1.2 metres) temporarily potted for photographing.
1.2 metre short-stem tree complete as per client instructions – one of over a dozen different sizes in the project.
750mm short-stemmed topiary tree looking decidedly egg-shaped.
