Brandon Criswell from Evangel Church in Columbus, MS brings us this dotted masterpiece.
To create this set they used 2,000 pearl playground pit balls strung together with wire. They strung the wire down from pieces of PVC running parallel to their back wall. Then they added circles made from white, clear, and grey Coroplast in front of the pit ball curtains. They attached those to the PVC line with fishing line.
Cool!
where did you get the pit balls? did you paint them white?
The company is called Intech. I ordered them in pearl white.
Do you have a link, Cant find it?
http://www.ballpoolballs.com/colors.html
What do you do with your designs once they’re taken down? Can the pit ball curtains be purchased from you, for example?
I wish there was a way for churches to share resources for this sort of thing to save money. We are a large church with a large stage and a tiny budget for this sort of thing. I’m grateful for Craigslist, though! :)
Hey Courtney,
I can’t speak for evangle, but I know all of ours have already been given away or traded. But one thing to keep in mind is most stages are custom made for a particular stage so they don’t always adapt well. For bang for the buck this design is hard to beat (well under $500 for materials)
J
We have an annual budget of $1000 (for set design AND tech/lights) and we change sets every 4-6 weeks. We have to recycle a lot of design elements, which is a creative challenge in itself, but we’ve been able to adapt many things. :) I was just lamenting my desire to have some online network like Craigslist for churches where things could be traded/borrowed/etc. to save money. Think of what $500 could do…you know?
Yeah, that’s tough with that schedule and budget. We only change the set design once a year. Good Luck!
Really cool.
I love this! My mind instantly goes to projection surface…
It’s funny how we crave old school technology. I mean, with all the high definition around, we still love those low res screens for stages. The versa-tubes, par can matrices, etc. etc. Of course, we love high def too. (Just a thought. Not really on topic.)
-Tyler
I’m storing this pit ball idea away! Love it.
I’m also interested in knowing where they could be purchased.
Definitely love the stage! We loved it when we had that look at our church done by Todd Bougher in 2009! He’s got some really great stuff, everyone should definitely check out his site: http://todd-design.blogspot.com/
Definitely. Todd’s stuff rocks!
hey im really interested in those versa tubes,where you get them from,how they connected to your presentation software,were they are duplicated across all the screens,really awesome setup
I was the lighting designer to that helped them. They are actually using Martin StageBars at the bottom, and Chauvet ColorPallets at the top.
All it controlled through HogIII PC lighting console.
They just batch the light color to the graphics they have in propresenter.
How did you sting the balls so that they are even?
clear or black drinking straws are used to separate the balls. To keep them all even, just cut the straws to the length you like, and do it all the same.
They are strung through drop ceiling cable and you can attach a turn buckle to make them even.
Also have done a version using fishing line to string them together and with a washer as a weight to keep it straight.
Love this design. Way to think outside the box (or play pit). Thanks!
Absolutely Amazing. This is one of the coolest sets I have seen. And what an amazing way to accomplish it! Keep up the phenomenal work for the Kingdom of God.
,Steven
Can you tell me how you made the holes in the balls to string them?
Gentlemen,
Just a note to thank you for mentioning our name as source for pearl (white) ballpool balls (3” diameter). Our name is INTERTECH Corporation. Your answer in one FAQ said Intech — close. Another had our web address correct: http://www.ballpoolballs.com . Another address for balls is http://www.intertechcorp.com /funballs.
We have received orders from several churches in recent days as a result of your mention of our name.
Thanks again.
Kind regards.
this is HAWT!
Did you cut the coraplast circles your self or order them?
I’m not sure what Evangle did, but Life Church made a template of the circles out of MDF, then used that to cut the circles. Not an easy task.
Ya we have cut straight lines and that was not easy. I have been looking up just buying them, but not have a lot of success, in bigger sizes. Thanks though.
I remember this we had that up for a while