 |
Here is the pastor of our
church. He's trying on one of the little shepherd's
costumes. Well, he's got a nice smile but it doesn't fit
him very well. |
 |
Here is the front of one of the
backdrop panels. You can see how Kim has painted
green hills and clouds in a night sky. Look at the backdrop
but please don't look at our messy garage! |
 |
This is the back of the panel.
It is really a fairly simple frame made from pvc pipe and we painted
on canvas. |
 |
A closeup of the pvc pipe frame. |
 |
Here you can get an idea of how we
attached the canvas at the bottom and put tension on it with shock
cords. |
 |
The top of the frame |
 |
A view of the bottom of the frame |
 |
More of the same |
 |
etc. |
 |
The pipe frame was designed to come
apart for easy disassembly and storage. Some pieces were glued
together and others conneced with long scrrews. |
 |
Example of parts held together by screws inserted in holes
we drilled through both the joint and the
pipe. We will be posting more detailed instructions on these
frames. |
 |
Here is Dave, one of our friends, who helped with the construction. He
is cutting parts for the manger on John's scroll saw. |
 |
Smile for the camera Dave! |
 |
Larry worked on one of the pvc frame for the
backdrops. |
 |
Our construction crew. John, Larry, Dave. |
 |
Here is Kim busy painting the
"outdoor" scene. |
 |
Hey, remember, I asked you not to
look at our messy garage! That's Kim busy painting
the clouds for outdoor scene. The scene on the left is the
backdrop for Herod's throne. John did the painting and Kim
made drapes of red cloth extending from top to bottom on either side
of the "window". Herod's throne started with a chair Kim found
in the trash somewhere (hey, we're cheap!) We spray painted
it gold and Kim re-covered the seat with red material. If
you click on this image to enlarge it, you can see the
gold throne behind the ladder. |
 |
We bought a lot of the paints from
the "Oops" table at Home Depot. They sell it really cheap
because they mixed the colors wrong. |
 |
Quiet! Artist at work. (Rembrant may
have started this way.) |
 |
We cobbled this sound system
together. Speakers John made in Jr. High School wood
shop, an amplifier he got for
$5 at a yard sale, Joshua's old CD player, and various
patch cords. John saves stuff like this - that's why the garage looks the
way it does. |
 |
Here is the test assembly for the
stable. John's own design. It assembles easily
and packs up fairly small for storage. I used 8 pieces of
cheap grade 1"x4"x8' lumber for the frame (cost around $1.50
each). This worked fine but if it had gotten wet I think it
would have warped like crazy. If I make this again, I will use
better quality exterior grade treated lumber. |
 |
Here is the manger assembled. |
 |
The manger pieces. John also designed
this - to look good but also pack up easily into small pieces.
No hardware needed. |
 |
Another view of the assembled
manger. |
 |
The lumber is held together by a 1"
wooden dowel passing through holes I drilled through all 8 boards.
Then a smaller dowel passes through each end of the large dowel
(like a cotter pin) |
 |
John designed and built the light
control box. Used regular light dimmers, outlets and other
electrical hardware and mounted in a box made from extra pieces of
white shelving material. Each dimmer controls the outlets directly
above it. Five dimmers and a couple of switched outlets were just
enough. |
 |
This little spot light will be hidden up at
the back top of the stable to shine light down on the manger. John
got the outdoor rubber light socket at Home Depot and fitted it
into a soup can painted black. |
 |
Same spot light from a different
angle. |
| |
|
|
