Recycled Coral Reef Scene

Here I have presented photographs of a scene that I made from recycled materials. The scene depicts a rock with coral growing from it and on the central piece of coral a figure is shown wearing a necklace that I made from litter and rope. The figure evokes the fairy tale character of Thumbelina in her connection and unity with nature.

The base of the set is made from a slide projector carousel which I found in a tip and inserted lighting into. On top of this I placed a spiral of glued carpet strips to create the rounded rock shape. I then added detail to the lower edge of the rock by using the traditional technique of ribbon weaving to create a black wire feature.
I produced the large piece of coral by coiling a core of several large and smaller pieces of rope with paper string. This method was quite time-consuming but has created an intricate and beautiful plant-like structure.The smaller sea plants are made from wire and rope that I manipulated into natural shapes and then glued together.

Front of set showing the illuminated slide projector
carousel and coral

Detail of ribbon woven wire and coral

Detail of figure in the central coral

Complete scene