Easter Designs

A Crossed Cross

John Parmalee from Faithbridge UMC in Spring, Texas brings us this great Easter cross.

John borrowed this design from Frank Lloyd Wright who often had ladders in his stained glass. The first cross was built of 1×6 pine, screwed together. There were three sections: the top, the arms and the bottom. They stood up the bottom and lifted the top connected to the arms and set it on the bottom which was on a 4′ by 4′ platform. The hoist remained attached as it was pretty top heavy. They used metal tee plates for the joints (a little paint and they go away).

They used a hoist available at Harbor Freight for around $120.

The second cross for their larger room was made of 2×6’s – put together with a framing air nailer. That cross was hung and screwed to the floor using angle brackets. They regularly punch a small round hole in the carpet and drill an insert into the floor.

Last year they put black luan plywood around the cross, cover the back with two layers of white Scuba knit polyester and back lit it with eight S-4 pars.

Behind the cross was six 5′ x 30′ strands of Scuba knit polyester woven in a big X. It cost only $2 per yard (white or black) from Glickfabric.com.

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3 responses to “A Crossed Cross”

  1. Jayni says:

    I love this, I was thinking of something like this for our next stage set, but smaller. How’d you suspend the fabric from the ceiling?

  2. Jayni, I have two winches mounted to the joists over the stage, they are a little over $100 each from harbor freight. I lift a Truss and attach the fabric to the truss. There is another truss on the floor that holds the fabric down.
    The truss I use is Rohn 25 radio tower, galvanized and not real shiny but a little over $100 per 10’ sections from Tesco, is a supplier of material to build cell sites. Ihid it above a teaser and a grown row drape below. I also put lights on it.
    The fabric has pockets each end. A 5’ section of 1” white PVC pipe is in the pocket. I use white electrocutions tape to hold the fabric to the pipe. I slip a rope through the pipe. One end of the pipe is attached to the truss, your choice as to speeding. I usually use a wire tie and a small hole in the pipe to keep that end solid. The rope coming out of the other end of the pipe is tied back to the truss leaving about 3-4 feet of slack so the pipe hangs or stands at about 45 degrees.
    Another approach is to bring the fabric to a bundle and wrap it with several turns of rope and knot it securely. Hang it in the cross cross then put a 3 ½ -4’ section of pipe in the fabric to expand it. You may need to use some monofilament or something to keep it in place.
    I think I said the fabric was a little over $2 at Glick fabrics here in Houston.
    At Faithbridge we have used the criss cross many times and always get a good comment. The last few years we have come out of Christmas with it, held until Easter then added the cross for a few weeks and now we are into cylinder cones. They are fun to light.

  3. Jayni says:

    Thanks John, I hope you don’t mind but I used the weaves in the back ground I loved the look of it. I had to change out stage from Easter to Mothers Day and when I saw this it just yelled out Yes! it was perfect. Unfortunately we are a small church under 250 people and our walls under our 2600×400 pixel monitors is only 8.5 feet by 10 ft to work with so fabric was not expensive at all in the local stores I ende up only needing 30 yards with some left over. It looks great. What we had to work with was a wooden structure of 4 boards nailed together with stabilizing legs screwed into th platform floor to keep sturdy and I used my good ole staple gun and gathered 6 – 10ft strips just like you have and filled tight on the ends and gave it a nice look. Now instead of one huge one like
    You have behind th drum cage. Our drum cage is connected under our middle screen directly under our baptistry area so I made 2 sections on each side of our drum cage it looks amazing thank you for sharing your ideas.

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