How To Make A Giant Egg, Part II

Continued from Part I

Once the frame of the egg was finished and painted it had to be moved out of the barn where it was constructed to the location in Frenchtown, NJ where it would be used in the opening performance of the Artyard Center on Sept. 4, 2016.

How many people does it take to move a giant egg?

A front end loader helps!

Artyard Hatchery Building, Frenchtown, NJ

After moving it into place it was time to make and fit the cover or "shell" to make the egg look like and egg.  We decided to make the cover out of Polartec 100, a lightweight stretch fabric that is used for outerwear linings.  By using a stretch fabric we would be able to fit the cover closely to the frame making it as egglike as possible.


 

35 yards of 68" wide fabric...but sewing this was pretty easy

The first fitting

 

Adding sections to fill in near the doors

The finished egg

The last thing that needed to be done on this project was to set up the egg on the morning of the performance.  It had to be secured to the building and then also bolted into the ground while making sure that the "eggshell  cracked open properly", so the doors had to work flawlessly.
 

Chris and Eliot securing it to the building

Setting the doors

Trying to come up with a solution so the doors will open properly

During the set up it took awhile to get the doors to operate properly because the frame of the egg was sitting on a downgrade in the asphalt.... that was slight but nonetheless causing the doors to be out of plumb.  A little re engineering and in the end they worked perfectly.  A testament to problem solving skills of all involved!

Chris Lockhart (right) helping to solve the door issue

 

This was an interesting and enjoyable project to work on.  Best wishes to the Artyard Center and we are ready for the 4:30 inaugural performance!