Stage Designs

The Duke of Spandex

Duke Dejong (who is secretly one of my heroes) designed this stage for First Assembly of God in Cedar Rapids, Iowa using loads and loads of poly stretch and spandex to make 3 and 4 point shapes. All of the shapes were cut by hand in house. (You can buy those fabrics at Dazian or Rose Brand.)

To hang them, each point was tied into a knot around their anchor points on the truss. Each truss and shape was up lit using LED fixtures. To add a bit of variety, Duke sometimes would project gobo patterns on the fabric as well (not pictured).

PS Folks. Duke is now going solo doing consulting for churches. If you’re looking for stage design help, hit him up. He just might make your wildest dreams come true.

Faith in the City Church Plant...More Like Church Tree

8 responses to “The Duke of Spandex”

  1. jthtiger says:

    This is great! Duke is amazing!

    It's not very often you see stretch fabric used like it is on those 3-point shapes. I like how the fabric is kind of gathered up horizontally! It looks awesome!

    I wish I had some trussing to play with :)

  2. bria says:

    where is a good, cheap place to buy spandex material like this for stage design? thanks!!

  3. Fraaz says:

    How do you cut those shapes? Is it more complicated than just cutting the spandex into the desired shape, or is that basically it? Anyone know where I can find some info on that?

  4. dukedejong says:

    Bria, I generally buy Spandex, and most material for that matter from Rosebrand. On this design we actually tried to go cheap and bought some non-fire retardant spandex for the triangles and then had them treated. Wished we would have just bought the FR stuff from Rosebrand off the bat. The large, four point pieces are actually Poly Strech fabric which was a little cheaper than Spandex itself.

    Fraaz, cutting the fabric wasn't hard, and if you were up close to the fabric you would see the imperfections in the cutting. The thing I always know in the back of the mind is that the nearest person in the audience could be anywhere from 20 to 60 feet away from the material(depending on your room/stage), so small flaws are only seen by people who are on the stage. It was really very easy to do. Shoot me an email if you need help. duke(dot)dejong(at)yahoo(dot)com

  5. dukedejong says:

    David, if you want to email me I'd be happy to not only work with you to help figure out what you need, but get you a quote as well through the company I work for. ddejong@ccisolutions.com

  6. Niko says:

    Hello,

    It does not look like there was attention given to creating shapes that are free of wrinkle. There are methods we use to cut our the slag to not let this happen. I am in total support of DIY jobs however if you are wanting perfect wrinkle free shapes we help churches all the time. All the best and god bless.

    • Niko says:

      I don’t know if it is appropriate to leave my url here but if so then great and of not then I am sorry and please delete.
      StretchShapes.net.

      God Bless

  7. jeff harrison says:

    use of nylon wire ties rather than knots when attaching to truss reduces wrinkles http://www.buywireties.com

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