2010 TRAVELING FLOAT

CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

March 15 - 21, 2010

by Tom Grady:

Well, thanks to John Hiatt we have carpet on the deck - so now we can start to decorate the float. Thank you, John! From here on out (that means 4 weeks) the float will start to look different faster.

Greg has pretty much got the animation stuff worked out. On the deck of the float we have a 68 inch turtle that will twist from side-to-side. On her back there will be a basket and popping out of the basket (alternately) will be a squirrel and a skunk.

Up front, to the right of the driver, there will be three bees chasing each other around a flower. And in the back (left), that tall, black pole that you see....that's where the sun (and at night, the moon) will rise and set all along the parade route. That gives us four animation elements. We should qualify for most parade's animation awards.

Sunday (after the pageant was all over), John Hiatt came back and did the difficult detail work that Greg and I didn't do on the remaining carpet work. What a true professional! We are lucky to have John and Jodi on the team! Not only does he get the job done...but it doesn't get done any better than when he does it!

Jodi helped me with the wooden tack strips and the vinyl tack strips al over the float. We use a lot of staples and these tack strips will take the beating for us when we start stapling the vinyl, fringe and garland. Bobbi started painting the storage compartments with some left over paint that Carol had....but, whoops! The mix of the two turned out to be a brilliant "bubble gum pink" color that no one liked - so we re-painted them on Monday. Bobbi and John also glued the holographic paper to the border strip that we use on the side of the folding sides of the float.

On Monday, Judy and Richard, DC and Carol came down to help us. Judy repainted the storage bins "battleship gray". Carol spray painted the speaker cover screens and the generator back door screen. While Richard and I were stapling the backing vinyl, fringe and garland to the float - DC followed behind us and trimmed the stuffed to the correct height. Greg was still working on making parts for the animation.

On Tuesday, John and Donna Lindstrom from Capital Lakefair stopped by to deliver the sun and moon carvings for our animation feature (in the slideshow picture). John is a very accomplished carver - he has been associated with Lakefair for a longtime and I have been an admirer of his work for sometime. We hooked up through our mutual friend Kent Farringer, who is now in Phoenix. As you can see by the photos - John did an incredible job - and when you see him at Daffodil OR at Capital Lakefair, please be sure to thank him. His photo is in this collection. He carved an eight foot replica of a Woody stationwagon car for Lakefair's float this year. From the picture I saw - it looked awesome and I can't wait to see it in three weeks.   

Tuesday afternoon I left for Meridian, ID to go pick up the papier-mâché characters. What a trip! I met Monica Ramsey (Painted Paw Studios) at her new home (picture of her in this set) and she did a wonderful job too! The characters are very cute! Their faces are comical - just like we asked for. I think that the children on the parade routes will love these guys. Monica's quality on the finish and the paint on her characters is much better than what I have seen out there on the circuit....even better than what we have had on our float from past float builders. She was a good find for us.

*L - Lighting, *L&A - Lighting and Animation