Spring of Scenery 2023 - Part 6: Scenic Photo backdrop - flocking

I used my home-made foam flock on my photography backdrop.

To fix the flock, I painted on PVA, sprinkled the flock, then spritzed with isopropyl alcohol.  To seal it on, I drizzled a thin PVA/water/matt varnish mixture over the whole thing.

The flock was mainly a very fine mixture, including 2 or 3 different shades of green.

Drenched thoroughly, the PVA would seal everything into a solid layer which should avoid bits falling off every time I use it.

There are a few bigger clumps of foam to give the impression of larger plants growing.

The thick application of the sealing mixture also ensured all the rock rubble along the edge of the cliff was very securely fixed in place.

I was careful to use a stiff brush to move some of the flock around to blend it into the edge of the rocky areas and also to keep the stream clear.

This stage was left for 2-3 days to dry thoroughly.  This is another part of the process that requires plastic sheeting or lots of old newspapers to protect your work surfaces.  Old plastic cereal packets work well for this, something like a giant box of cornflakes will have a huge bag that covers a very large area once opened out flat.

Once dry, the matt varnish in the mixture ensured there was no glossy shine on the cliffs or the flock.

The flock crept into the edges of the rubble in a way that I thought was reasonably realistic.

Although the photo backdrop could be used in this condition, there were a few more finishing touches that I wanted to add and I'll cover these another time.