Fall is right around the corner, bringing in the cold weather and harvests from the apple orchards! This year, in our partnership with the Phoenix Fall Festival, we’ve set to work on bringing that autumn spirit to life with some larger than life recreations of the marvelous apples we all know and love. They had to be big! They had to be shiny! Something you’d want to bite right into if you knew they weren’t foam.
So we set to work on bringing the harvest to life! These apples will stand alongside the pumpkin sculptures we made last year, so it’s important they hold up to the same standard of quality and beauty that we dedicate ourselves to. And with these, we guarantee they’ll become the apple of your eye!
Shaping The Harvest Delights
To begin, we sourced a variety of short, foam cylinders in different sizes in order to serve as the core of our build. Some would be as small as a two feet across and tall, but others would even be as big as a dog house! Massive!
If you take a look at our video to the right here, you’ll see exactly how we started out with these cylinders, shaping them down by cutting pieces away with heat, in order to create perfectly ripe, round apples! A touch wider at the top, tapering down to the bottom.
After the raw shape was formed, we sanded the structures down, getting rid of those unseemly edges, and the small melted pieces made by the hot knife. It took a lot of sanding to get them in an acceptable spot- that incredibly smooth finish.
But it was just a round foam apple base at that point! All apples, of course, need stems. For these, we printed a range of bumpy apple stems, with loops at the bottom. To add these to the apples, we carved a small square out at the top of the apples. After inserting a dowel through the bottom loop of the stems for support, we adhered them to the structure using a combination of foam glue, and wall patch in order to create a seamless surface.
It’s been a joy and a breeze to add more 3D printing and fabrication to our projects. With our expertise, we can create all sorts of additions and parts that really expands what we can do- in this project and the next. If you take a look at the end of the video above, you’ll see just what they look like at the end of these steps- shaped, sanded, seamed, and stemmed!
Getting Them Ready to Pick Right off the Tree
But a bunch of unpainted foam apples just won’t do for a fun outdoor fall festival like the one these are bound for! No no, they need to be ready to stand up to the elements. They need to shine that bright, deep red, looking like they were just plucked from the tree and washed! So of course, we set to work.
Ashley here made it look like a snap of the fingers in the video just below, but it was a long process! First, we added our usual sealant- a coating of urethane spray to create a hard outer shell. This protects the piece against scratches and dings, as well as the wear and tear of the outdoors- like rain!
But the urethane spray is a yellow color on its own, and partially transparent. While some apples can take on that yellowish hue, it’s not quite what we’re looking for. So, after a coating of primer, we added a glossy coating of red to make those apples shine.
Then, we added details, bringing the brown to the stems, as well as the beige and yellow tones of the inner core, where the stem meets the top of the apple. After a few smaller details to really make these apples look like you could just take a bite of them, we added a final coat of transparent sealant, finishing them off.
It was an absolutely fantastic project- one we’re looking forward to seeing in the fall when the festival rolls around! Take a look if you’re in the area at the Phoenix Fall Festival, take a picture! And enjoy the outstanding work of those who put on the festival as well.
It’s been wonderful, getting to use our printer more. Mixed media projects like these, where we can bring together foam construction and sculpting with precise 3D printed parts, brings the best out in our sculptures. We’re very excited to offer our services in bringing your dream to life, whether that be in Foam Sculpture, 3D Printing projects, or both mixed together like these decorative apples! Let us help you make event props, sculptures and more, to really make your space shine! (Like these big apples)
