Author: David Powell - Evermore Park When the directors of the Evermore Creative Studio discovered Pal Tiya Premium, we all knew that it was going to be a game changer for us. Evermore Park is an immersive theatrical park in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Here guests can come and interact with costumed actors and puppeted characters to go on quests through an old world style village. As you make your way around the park, the different sections represent different time periods in a fictional town. Victorian, Gothic, Celtic, and ancient mythological themes are portrayed through real architectural elements sourced from Europe and augmented with set design. One of these specially designed buildings is known as Drakenhaven. For Mythos, our summer season, we wanted to focus on the magic and wonder of dragons, and their return to the town of Evermore. Many of the “choose your own adventure story elements” in the experience centered around that theme. To that end, we wanted to have a dig site where kids could come and uncover a “real” dragon Skeleton. This was at the foot of Drakenhaven, suggesting that dragons had lived there long ago. This revered location was built upon the ancient resting place of these mythical beasts. We knew that we needed a material that would last through time, could be sculpted artistically, be less toxic than other materials, and not cost too much. This led us directly to Pal Tiya Premium. Our team took the Sacramento Masterclass in the material lead by Kim Beaton, Co-Founder & Creative Director at Pal Tiya. We knew for sure that this would be the very best way to accomplish what we were seeking. We began the sculpture with an armature that was made out of various materials. For the dragon’s head, we used polystyrene that had been milled to the right shape by our Kuka robotic milling arm. The other bones were then cut out of cardboard and assembled into the skeletal shape to check the size. These bones were covered with aluminum foil using Kim’s method we learned in the class. We sculpted additional rock shapes out of smaller blocks of Styrofoam and covered some of them in aluminum foil as well. Since we knew we would be embedding the skeleton using concrete as a mortar, it wasn’t critical for us to cover every single part of the bones in aluminum foil. Once the armature had been sculpted in aluminum foil, our team started mixing and applying the Pal Tiya Premium to the armature. We began with the whole crew and quickly ended up with just one person applying the product and spraying it down with water. Texture was added as it dried and became leather hard. Since PTP strengthens with water we continued to keep it wet and covered as much as possible to give it the most durability.
For the installation, we determined where it would be placed, strategically stacked shale rocks around the sculpture, and used regular concrete to solidify it in place. Then we applied a thin set concrete over the top of that so that we could sculpt rock details to match the Shale. The whole thing looked very natural like an actual dig site. Because of the inherent strength of Pal Tiya Premium, we were able to use just 1 ½ Standard bags of the product, keeping the cost to a minimum. The Dragon sculpture has been stood on by most of us without any damage whatsoever, despite being built into narrow bone structures with many hollowed out undercuts. Needless to say we continue to be astonished by this stuff! The project was so much fun and looks so great in place, that we have decided to augment Drakenhaven with many more dragon remains sculptures, giving the whole building a very strong feeling of being built on the bones of ancient dragons. We can’t wait for our guests to come and explore the hidden secrets of this dragon ruin that has risen anew. We were so grateful to Kim and Community Manager Yvonne for their instruction and continued support through this whole process as well. They were always eager to answer questions and help us to make the most out of this great product. They were also able to get us the product very quickly and smoothly. Pal Tiya International is a great company that is changing the game in outdoor permanent sculptures, and we look forward to many more projects for our immersive fantasy park.
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AUTHORSCreators of Pal Tiya Premium: Add water. Knead like dough. Sculpt. Place in your garden. Cures permanently stone hard. No firing. No Molds. No Kidding. Archives
September 2020
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