Refoliation seeks volunteers for fabrication!!

[thehun]

Refoliation is a set of five trees that will make up part of the Man Groves. Our trees are made from recycled steel, and the leaves are repurposed plastic bags gathered in Beijing, China by the Greening The Beige project.

Our fabrication crew is based in the East Bay, and looking for volunteers who can contribute one day a week. The work is fun and fairly easy: all we ask is that you have some basic familiarity with metal and/or power tools, or aren't afraid to learn.

Check us out at http://refoliation.wordpress.com and then email hun.this@gmail.com to find out more about volunteering.

[capjbadger]

Please read your TOS. No crossposting. In other words, "Once is enough".

Badger

[Cassidy]

We IMPORTED USED plastic bags from China??? WTF???

[thehun]

Well, aren't you a couple of bundles of sunshine.

Badger, duly noted and it won't happen again.

Cassidy, the purpose is to raise awareness of litter in Beijing while creating art in the States. We're not going to dump the plastic bags in the ocean when we're finished, or even in the recycle bin. We'll either donate the finished piece, or repurpose the materials for next year. Take a chill pill sweetie.

[AntiM]

I took care of the cross-posting.

Sounds interesting, but the first thing I thought when I saw "refoliation?" Does this mean I don't need to shave my legs?

Interesting concept.

[thehun]

Well nobody *needs* to shave their legs... and if that's how you feel you can contribute, then rock the fuck on. :D

Spread the word though, 'cause we have a lot of leaves to make!

[capjbadger]

Well, aren't you a couple of bundles of sunshine.

Badger, duly noted and it won't happen again.

Hey now... I said please and was nice about it since you are new here. No blood no foul.

Interesting idea. I'm curious as to how the "leaves" are being made to keep them from getting shreaded in the winds.

Badger

[thehun]

Sorry Badge, the sunshine comment was a response to the cumulative effect of those two replies. I totally understand, s'all good, and thanks for not flaming the newbie.

The leaves are super awesome: they are 16-ply plastic. We iron several layers together to make a tough material akin to Tyvek, which won't rip but can be cut easily. It also does this rad natural curve which makes it take a very pretty leaf shape:



We're going to take them up pre-event and leave 'em in the sun and wind for a couple days, see how they fare... but we're confident.

[capjbadger]

Hmmm... interesting. Fusing the layers of plastic. Nice. I may have to try my hand at that for other projects.

Glad to hear you are testing them before the event. Wait... you're testing them on the playa?

Hmm.. The fail points I can see would either be the layers coming back apart in the middle, and the attachment points (leaf to stem, stem to tree) breaking.

Hope the tests go well, but I would hope that you are not testing them on the playa. If they do fly away, you've mooped the playa anyway.

Badger

[MozyBonz]

I like sputnik's idea for testing.
put it in the back of a truck and drive 80 mph down the highway if it stays together well you should be good.


I like it.


*gets out iron and plastic bags*

16 you say....

[thehun]

Hmmm... interesting. Fusing the layers of plastic. Nice. I may have to try my hand at that for other projects.

Glad to hear you are testing them before the event. Wait... you're testing them on the playa?

Hmm.. The fail points I can see would either be the layers coming back apart in the middle, and the attachment points (leaf to stem, stem to tree) breaking.

Hope the tests go well, but I would hope that you are not testing them on the playa. If they do fly away, you've mooped the playa anyway.

Badger

Yeah, I've worked cleanup before so I'm not about to create unneccessary moop. TRUST MEH. Stems are cemented and heat-fused inside the leaf, with wire long enough to wrap around the branch several times. We are allowing people to attach leaves to the trees only at certain times of day, under supervision, followed by LNT checks. boo-yah.

As for checking on-playa, I'm headed up for the 4th of July so I'll just stake them right outside my tent where I can keep an eye on them. I'll also be testing while I work DPW this year.

[thehun]

I like sputnik's idea for testing.
put it in the back of a truck and drive 80 mph down the highway if it stays together well you should be good.


I like it.


*gets out iron and plastic bags*

16 you say....

YES! If you're really into helping, email me (hun.this@gmail.com) and I'll send you leaf-makin instructions. Thank you!!

[capjbadger]

Yeah, I've worked cleanup before so I'm not about to create unneccessary moop. TRUST MEH. Stems are cemented and heat-fused inside the leaf, with wire long enough to wrap around the branch several times. We are allowing people to attach leaves to the trees only at certain times of day, under supervision, followed by LNT checks. boo-yah.

As for checking on-playa, I'm headed up for the 4th of July so I'll just stake them right outside my tent where I can keep an eye on them. I'll also be testing while I work DPW this year.

Ahh cool. I though that looked like wire.
Awesome. And THANK YOU!! for your past (and future) cleanups. *hug*
That black leaf in the pic looks like there is some glitter traped in the leaf one or two layers down.

So how does the whole fusing process work? I'm assuming cardboard base, then a couple layers of the plastic, then paper in top to keep the iron from sticking to the pastic? Or do you do all 16 layers in one go?

Badger

[thehun]

No! No glitter! What kind of fool do you take me for!! It's just a black bag ironed onto a white bag, the small pic is deceiving your eyes. Click it if you want a better view, it's linked to our flickr.

We are making a few porn leaves though, with pictures of vag underneath clear plastic sheets.

It works basically like this: lay a bag flat, iron it between 2 sheets of paper until it becomes one bonded layer, repeat with 3 more bags. That makes 8-ply. Fold in half and cut into 2 matching leaf shapes. Apply cement to wire, place between leaf halves and iron until it's all bonded.

And you're welcome for cleanup... I got to do the BLM inspection in 05, that was actually kind of fun.

[capjbadger]

hahahaha Yeah, with the larger pic I can see the detail. I was thinking you might have trapped the glitter under a clear layer like you are doing with the porn leaves.

Very cool. I'll have to playwith this idea to see how big I can make the sheets of plastic.

Badger

[thehun]

If you're playin, email me so I can give you more detailed specs...

[trilobyte]

Kickass project! I got all excited when you first told me about it, but hearing the details has me looking forward to seeing it come together even more!
My plate's kinda full now, between my own playa projects and a couple people I'm trying to help with. But if I'm able to commit I'll shoot you an email.

~Trilo~

[thehun]

Hey Trilo!

It would be great to have you in the shop, but I know exactly how hard you work so no expectations ;)

See you out in the real world, if nothing else. cheers...

[capjbadger]

If you're playin, email me so I can give you more detailed specs...

If time frees up (ha!) I'll let you know, but I've got my hands pretty full of project already.

Badger

[trilobyte]

I mentioned the project specifics to Pani, and she's very excited. Hopefully if the madness at her work dies down (in the next couple weeks), we'll be able to make a trip over the bridge and give you guys a hand

~Trilo~