Dissecting a Scarecrow

We had promised ourselves we would make a scarecrow for the past few Vintage Festivals, so finally this year we stopped talking about it and started creating. It was a team effort, with initial brainstorming suggestions including a scarecrow on the roof on a bike (no, Tania, that is just never going to happen), a scarecrow on a bike attached to the front fence (now that's more plausible) and a scarecrow doing exercises.

A quick walk through the creative space full of hidden delights that is our back shed revealed a couple of retired pieces of equipment, and so the creations of 'Gunna" and 'Mona' were born!!

We tossed around a few ideas on how to give scarecrows a bit of "core stability" (ie; how will we make them stand up) and then one weekend The Master Sculptor (aka Jerome) forwarded photos of his endeavours:

We were all very impressed, but had neglected to tell him that said scarecrow was now going to be standing on an eliptical trainer - thankfully wire is somewhat malleable.

Come Monday morning, patients arriving for appointments were confronted with a rather suspicious looking package in the back of Jerome's ute (even more disturbing when one of his hobbies is listed as "digging really big holes!).

The police were not alerted, and the construction of Gunna began (in between patients, during "tutorials", after work and over lunch!!). Mona was a little easier, as she only needed to lie down! Everyone brought their creative skills to the table, and within a couple of weeks, we had two amazing scarecrow bodies.

Not to let the Tigers rule, we also crafted a Tanunda Magpies representative, and little Maggie spent some time indoors, as the scooter she was on was high risk for theft and other shenanigans! She was originally carrying a couple of bottles of wine, but the warmth of the season threatened to push out the corks, so they were safely stowed away!

Creating the heads for our bigger scarecrows was the next challenge - and thanks to Pinterest and Google, we got some tips and tricks that involved old pillows, stockings, felt, raffia and embroidery thread.

And Voila - we have scarecrows.

It was really reassuring that they were never vandalised or removed, although they did occasionally startle us when we forgot they were there. We had been concerned about how they might survive heavy rain - would have been interesting if we actually got some!

We were super-excited when we were in second place for the voting by only one point. This was short lived, though, and we quickly fell at least 50 votes behind first.

We have always known that this is an amazing community, but the standard of entries, and the sheer volume, were exceptional. Well done, Barossa!