Monday, February 05, 2007

The Moss Thing

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I was struggling with what to post and Velvet ( you are an endless resource, dear lady!) requested more info on the giant moss project I spent the whole weekend perfecting. So here goes.

I am working on a home dec. show... one of the oldest on HGTV. We are in the process of redecorating the most perfect home I've ever seen in Glendale. The show is a spring special and we have to come up with ways to freshen up a home for spring.

One of the ideas my director had (but is up to me to execute) is to create monogram out of moss. The home owner's last name begins with "L" so I found a sufficiently swirly font and then redrew the loops in Illustrator. Next, I blew it up to the size of the wall over the fireplace - roughly 2.5 feet square. The document was emailed to Kinko's where it was printed.

I cut it out and placed it on insulation foam.... great tip here: if you ever need ALOT of Styrofoam, you can buy and 8 ft. x 4 ft. piece for around 10 bucks at a home improvement store. Craft stores sell a 2 ft. x 3 ft. piece for that much! (I got Lowe's to cut the foam into three pieces at the store.)

A jig saw made quick work of the cutting but covered my clothes, hair and arms with a solid coat of Styro-pieces...which Mabel managed to take a nap in! The cutting was the easy part! It went downhill from there!

You see, there is NO glue that will not burn / eat through Styrofoam AND hold reindeer moss in place. Foam glue is too malleable for too long. Silicone, hot glue, contact cement, etc. etc. would not work. After a number of trips to the hardware store, my best friend B calls... she owns Horsepower Golf and is one of the craftiest ladies I know.

"Oh, you need grip tape," she announces matter of factly.

Apparently some kind of miracle double stick they use to keep grips on clubs. She showed up with a roll... it costs 10.50!

I spent the afternoon and evening coating the dang L with tape... only to find out our reindeer moss was so very fresh, it wouldn't stick! (I had tested the tape with dry moss.) I then realized the tape at least protected the Styro well enough I could glue... but the darn thing still wasn't quite right.

I ended up wide awake in a panic today at 5 am and decided to "bake" the reindeer moss to dry it a little. By 9, late for work, I realized I had to beg my director to let me use floral pins...something he had hated when I built a prototype.

He acquiesces and let me use them. By noon, I was home again and frantically pinning... I used well over 100 pins to finish but I did it!!! That silly thing ruined my weekend, but I'm bulldog... I don't give up easily.

The sad part: This will account for around 2 minutes in a one hour show! Gotta love show biz!

Foot note: since these projects are copyrighted by the network, I cannot post pictures but promise to link back next month when the show airs.

4 comments:

Sunflower Optimism said...

Holly, could you not have painted the foam with a primer than used glue over that? A primer does a good job at sealing surfaces. Maybe a tip for next time.

Good luck! I love HGTV - always bouncing between that and the Food Network, LOL.

Linda@VS said...

Well, Holly, I'm excited, but it sounds as if this was a lot more fun to read about than it was for you to do. I eat, sleep and breathe HGTV and want to be sure I don't miss this show. I hope you'll give us enough hints so we can be sure which show it is.

CreekHiker / HollysFolly said...

Sunflower, That's a great idea...although some paint can eat through Styro too. But a latex primer... that might

Velvet, It's called "Countdown to Spring." The show is with Matt Fox and Shari Hiller.

Anonymous said...

You have such a fun job, Holly. I love to watch the HGTV channel, but don't see it nearly as much now that I'm married - use to leave it on sometimes 24/7. (For some reason, it's not on of T's favorites!) I'm going to look for this one and see if I can spy your handiwork.