The Women's Institute AGM 2014

Those lovely ladies in the WI, thousands of them, descended on the first direct Arena in Leeds for the 2014 AGM.   I had finished installing the plant and flower displays before they arrived and was a little late collecting so I missed a 5000 strong rendition of Jerusalem.   A pity, it's such a stirring song.   As usual at the end of the event I gave out the fresh flowers to anyone who wants to take them home.   The ladies weren't allowed past the rope barrier as technicians were dismantling equipment so I started throwing flowers over to them as the singer Morrisey used to do in his early concerts.   I quite enjoyed throwing flowers to my fans but the bunches of flowers came apart as I threw them and one WI member, I'm sure she was an ex-teacher, asked (told?) me not to thrown them.   Twice. The very helpful security staff took the flowers from me and passed them on.    In fact all the staff at the Arena in Leeds were really helpful.

It's the centenary of the WI next year and the AGM will be held at the Royal Albert Hall.   Unfortunately there will be no founding members in attendance.

Plant and flower displays at the First direct Arena in Leeds for the WI AGM 2014

www.plantdisplayhire.com

Artificial rocks at Chelsea Flower Show

While the row about judging continues, the plants sit serenely aside, basking in admiration from show visitors.  The delicate flowers and bountiful foliage contrasting with the rough hewn outcrops of rocks.  Fake rocks!   Burncoose Nurseries have a number of our artificial rocks in their Silver Gilt winning pavilion display.   Burncoose Nurseries, part of Caerhays Estate, are the UK's largest specialist mail order supplier of garden and conservatory plants including many rare varieties exclusive to Burncoose.   Take a look at the Burncoose stand and the celebrity visitors here: http://www.burncoose.co.uk/site/article.cfm?aID=39138

artificialrocks.co.uk

Tough truck!

Iveco commercial vehicles regularly take part in the Dakkar rally just to show how tough they are!   This model was on display at the NEC's CV show 2014.

I've often wondered where the name Iveco comes from as it doesn't really roll off the tongue:  Iveco is an acronym for Industrial Vehicles Corporation, an Italian industrial vehicle and bus manufacturing company based in Turin, Italy, and entirely controlled by CNH Industrial Group. It designs and builds light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles, quarry/construction site vehicles, city and intercity buses and special vehicles for applications such as firefighting, off-road missions, the military and civil defence. The name IVECO first appeared in 1975 after a merger of Italian, French and German brands.

CEI's Exhibition stand at the CV Show 2014

 

CEI's Exhibition stand at the CV Show 2014

The stand designs at the NEC's Commercial Vehicle Show are usually clean, simple and functional.   CEI exhibitions decided to jazz up their stand and symbolize the ruggedness of the Iveco truck with some rocks.   The thing is, the rocks that would be needed are quite sizeable and installing real rocks that size would be interesting to say the least.   CEI used our artificial rock hire service and managed to recreate a small part of the Dakkar terrain in Birmingham.

artificialrocks.co.uk

Taking rocks to the seaside.

A 6 hour drive to Cornwall with a van load of rocks for a photo shoot is normal, right?  

Carrying the rocks along the beach caused much amusement.   A few passers-by wanted to have a photo while holding the rocks above their head and after explaining that I wanted to carry them nearer the seafront they kindly assisted after having posed.   The rocks are lightweight but after trekking across a cobble-strewn beach, they start to feel a little heavier.

The photo session included three styles of fake stones: smooth rounded to represent rocks eroded by the sea, rougher rounded rocks and the more angular rusted rocks.   All are available in almost any colour.

The light grey rounded stones between 400mm and 800mm long have been digitally coloured in the second image to show how they can be produced in various colours to match the landscape.

The image below shows how a recent rockfall had exposed a rock face that was almost exactly the same rust colour of the artificial rocks.

The rougher rounded artificial stones have more surface detail and are reminiscent of the Moeraki boulders found in New Zealand.   These ones are somewhat smaller however.   The incoming tide is fast in Bude, Cornwall and took me a little by surprise.   One rock was upturned by a wave and resembled a coracle as it made its way out to sea.   Fortunately another wave overturned the boat and I was able to rescue it.   You can see the rocks washed away on Youtube here: Artificial rocks all at sea! or in the following post.

Flickr album of artificial rocks

artificialrocks.co.uk

Artificial rocks floating away.

Glow me the way to go home...

Pro-Teq Surfacing UK Ltd have been awarded a Global Business Excellence Award for 2013 in the category Outstanding Innovation for their product: STARPATH.   Starpath is a spray installed coating and aggregate mix for application on existing concrete or tarmac paths. Phosphorescent chips in the aggregate glow in the dark creating ambient lighting for areas where street lighting is often turned off in the darkest hours.

Starpath installed by Pro-Teq Surfacing UK

Starpath is durable enough for public pathways but can also be installed in domestic gardens.   The density of the phosphorescent chips can be varied and can even be arranged in patterns.

There are other glow in the dark stones and pebbles that can be used at home and these can easily be found on eBay.   Another glow in the dark product can be seen on the artificialrocks.co.uk website.   The illumination isn't photoluminescent this time however and the rocks need to be illuminated with battery powered led strings.   Warm white leds give the greatest effect but any colour leds can be used.   The smaller rocks can be used indoors with a mains powered cfl lamps to give a much brighter glow.

Illuminated rocks: artificialrocks.co.uk

Lichen on glassfibre

Searching for ‘lichen on glassfibre’ on the internet brings up a large number of sites suggesting methods for the removal of lichens.   I want the opposite.   Over the twenty or so years since our house was built an increasing number of lichens have attached themselves to a lead-effect glassfibre canopy. 

Lichen on glassfibre lead-effect roof canopy

I want those same lichens to attach themselves to glassfibre rocks.   It’s said that a rolling stone gathers no moss.   It can also be said that a roving stone gathers no lichen (I can only roll a small number of the artificial rocks due to their shape).  

The artificial rocks used for temporary hire work are constantly being handled and repositioned and as such the same side of the rock isn’t always in the same position.   Lichens need light and moisture and on a roving rock they aren’t going to get it all the time.   I could always leave some of the artificial rocks in the same position for ten or so years and see what happens.   That could be limiting for business, however.

In my earlier post about the Australian landscape at the British Museum, Alan Bishop has painted lichen on to his rocks and that may be the way for me to go.   The painted-on lichen looks real from a distance but as my rocks are seen close up I need to make sure that any fake lichen looks very natural.   Dave The Dead has succeeded in doing that here: Grim Visions and a similar technique has also been used in Hobbiton, the Hobbit film set in New Zealand.  I may try Dave’s method when I have some spare time.

Artificial rocks, moss and cobbles

Moss is far easier to obtain in its artificial form.   It can be purchased in sheets for draping over surfaces or attached to artificial stones.   You can see some moss-covered stones here:  www.artificialrocks.co.uk

Read more about lichens here: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/plants-fungi/lichens/