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I want to sleep in a giant teacup!

topic posted Mon, April 11, 2005 - 2:21 PM by  Melissa
But don't know how to build one. Can anyone give me advice?

I'm envisioning a structure that will encircle my tent at Burning Man, be about 8-10 ft tall, with a 12 ft diameter across the top, an 8 ft diameter footprint, and, ideally, be wind storm resistant.

At first I thought of building the whole thing out of papier mache, then of fabric, wooden ribs and irrigation tube hoops, now PVC pipes???

I am open to any suggestions about how to proceed and would be very grateful for your feedback or ideas.

Please help me ensure that my 24-hr Mad Tea Party takes place as scheduled. A giant cake goes to the friendly, wonderful, generous person with the most useful design advice!!!

Thank you!
Honeybee
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Melissa
offline Melissa
27 friends
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  • nurz
    nurz
    offline 112

    Re: I want to sleep in a giant teacup!

    Fri, April 15, 2005 - 12:24 AM
    Sounds great. I think wodden ribs makes for a good strong foundation. You can aways add chicken wire and paper mache or burlap thereafter. But most important, you should add LED's all the way around for night time ambiance. Giant Blinky teacups is totally the way to go.

    Saz
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    • Melissa
      Melissa
      offline 27

      Re: I want to sleep in a giant teacup!

      Fri, April 15, 2005 - 1:37 PM
      ooohhhh, yes, yes, yes! had not thought of blinkyness or of night visibility issues.

      Do you know a source for cheap LED? I've never used it before. Is there anything about using it a newbie needs to know?

      Thanks for your post!
      honeybee
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      • Re: I want to sleep in a giant teacup!

        Wed, April 20, 2005 - 1:04 PM
        >>>Do you know a source for cheap LED? I've never used it before. Is there anything about using it a newbie needs to know? <<<

        There's a bit you need to know about LEDs to use them well, but more than can be adequately explained in a tribe post (I teach an LED class at The Crucible among other things) We can chat offline about it...or I suppose I could just write a big long tribe post on the subject (best bet, find a friend who knows what's what and get them to show you)(or take my class :)

        I will post a great source for sheap LEDs as soon as I find their info somewhere in this pile of papers.
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    • raj
      raj
      offline 83

      Re: I want to sleep in a giant teacup!

      Sun, April 17, 2005 - 12:58 AM
      paper mache and rain might not work so well...

      fabric stretched over a metal frame (like t-girl's duck) might work well...
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      • Melissa
        Melissa
        offline 27

        Re: I want to sleep in a giant teacup!

        Wed, April 20, 2005 - 10:31 AM
        Hi Raj,

        Thanks for your response. I missed out on seeing T-girl's duck... Any idea how I could contact her?

        Thanks!
        honeybee
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        • Mars...
          Marshall
          offline 44

          Re: I want to sleep in a giant teacup!

          Wed, May 4, 2005 - 3:14 PM
          I'm getting in on this late, but I've got a 10' satellite dish that could potentially be used as the base of a tea cup. It's made of aluminum mesh and spars and is straightfwd to assemble. Are you planning on inverting the cup or having it right way up? If right way up, then you'd want to make a base for the dish so that it could stand up on it's own. Anyho, the dish's free for the taking. It's in my backyard in Sunnyvale. I only ask that you recycle the valuable aluminum when you're done.

          best o' luck,

          -mt
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          • Melissa
            Melissa
            offline 27

            Re: I want to sleep in a giant teacup!

            Tue, May 10, 2005 - 2:37 PM
            Hi MT,

            Wow, that's a really generous (and intriguing) offer!! Thank you.

            I am a bit fuzzy in the sattelite dish area, and am not sure what you mean by "assemble"; I thought they were generally all one piece?

            Is it heavy - hard to transport? Can I poke holes in it to rebar it to the ground?

            honeybee
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