Special Event Design

Sloppy Love

Graham Schardt from Prairie Ridge Church in Ankeny, IA brings us this urban stage design combining chain link, corrugated metal, pipes, barrels and duct work.

They started their design with “urban junk” – a collection of chain link, corrugated metal, pipes, barrels, duct work, scrap wood and miscellaneous objects off the curb.

A few years back they were given a neon cross, and since its arrival it had only served as a humorous light for back stage where their worship team gathers before service. This set lent itself perfectly to having it be the center piece. They also created a backlit sign saying “LOVE”. It was created using light boxes that were being tossed out by one of their stage volunteers’ work and black gaffers tape.

They minimized their color palette for lighting focusing on blues and yellows to recreate a night on a city street. They used LED’s and some old pars.

Almost all the materials were salvaged from congregation members and the frugal eyes of some of their volunteers who can see treasures in trash.

Assembly of the set was done by attaching the various materials to wall flats they created for earlier sets. Some items were mounted or built on palettes. Since the series was a few months long, everything had to be done in a way that deconstructing or moving off stage was simple for scheduled weddings and community events.

Networked Hi Ho Silver

4 responses to “Sloppy Love”

  1. Heidi Knobloch says:

    I LOVE PRC and totally miss the worship and messages and people from this church! Looks great Graham and Derek!

  2. Jen Parker says:

    Way to go! Thanks for sharing this!!

  3. Ron Schardt says:

    Cool Graham! Very impressive.

  4. Judy Bailey says:

    Really creative work, Graham. Fun to see your work after seeing you so recently.

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