Here’s a hanging screen in the garden, a project from a decade or more ago that I still like. It helps separate two levels of the garden: a lower level that has black bamboo planted in a corner, and an upper one where there’s a long tiled bench and outdoor fireplace.
The screen hangs in an opening that’s five feet high and six wide, and features opaque white polycarbonate in the frame that allows the shadows of the bamboo to provide interesting shadows on long, sunny afternoons.
The style of the screen is a little more overtly Japanese than where I’m in my life stylistically right now, and comes from a time when I was exploring Asian influenced craftsman designs as I was trying to improve my woodworking skills. (There’s a whole bedroom in the house that features similar woodwork.)
The materials are redwood for the frame and polycarbonate for the “windows.” The whole assembly was made with no tools more specialized than a hand-held circular saw and router. Everything is held together with screws, pegs, caulk and an unspeakable amount of waterproof glue.
That’s really cool. I love the silhouetted bamboo leaves.
I really like this James, it works so well.
K
This does work beautifully and adds great drama to the bamboos. You make it all sound a bit too easy, I’m sure you are being modest about the level of skill required to construct these.
My other half better hide the glue from me, that’s all I can say!
James, your garden has so much personality. You can tell it is the home of gardener-artists.
The bamboo shadowing is inspired! I’ve created a similar effect by backlighting against a plain wall, but I love the idea that you can see yours during the day.
Wow!
A wonderful feature, James. The kind of element that adds beauty, while revealing the character of the gardener… LOL Alice
Pam, Karen, thanks very much!
Goo, it’s amazing what you can accomplish with a bottle of glue. The stuff can do wonders with making up for a slightly mis-cut piece of wood.
Susan, thanks to you too. The one thing I’d like to figure out is how to provide interesting lighting effects all day long. The windows in my screen can look a little vacant in the mornings or on days with no sun.
CM, the next project is to do something about the stuff around the screen. I’m one of those people who’ll have no trouble when it finally comes time to retire.
Alice, I hope my curiosity with different things of the world comes through. It makes for a somewhat unfocused garden, but hey, that’s me.
Truly inspired! I love the effect. Can you tell me what thickness of polycarbonate that you used?
Heidi, thank you! I’m 90% certain that it was 1/8 inch thick. The local home center carried it so there wasn’t any need to special order it from a plastics company.