NEEDED: 6' x 3' clear plastic tube!

[Miss Whitney]

Hey folks! I'm looking for a 6 foot tall by 3 foot wide clear acrylic or plastic tube to display 1000 paper cranes. All the plastics people I've talked to tell me it's going to cost THOUSANDS of dollars, but I know better.

Do you have any ideas or advice on how go about making or buying such a tube? ANY suggestions greatly appreciated.

[Smmarrt]

Hardware store? Or do you have a recycle art parts store near you - SCRAP or another. It's a place where people drop off unwanted bits and artists and teachers can come and get bags of stuff for low to no money. Ask a teacher.

Or a builder - maybe some supplies come in a tube that size - light bulbs or light fixtures?

OR - this may be weird - could you use glass instead? Look thru all the thrift stores and get a bunch of vases and remove the bottoms and fuse together?

Shipping place - like FedEx or Kinko's. Or maybe ask on Craigslist and look under the Free section.

[Painted Sparrow]

Hmm, well, I know more about the cardboard concrete moulding tubes, but even that is really pricey in that sort of diameter. I needed 2 1/2' diameter tube for a show & that was a few hundred.

I know it is possible to shape & mold plexiglass or similar, if you would have the means to do that.

Would it work to cut down some plexi & use it to build an octagon-shaped enclosure? I know it's not a proper circle, but it's a reasonable alternative. Or there are plastic-like sheeting objects on the market, you could build a frame of plexi & cover it in transparent plastic sheeting. Uhm, one last alternative thought, building a plexi frame with only a few supports in the middle of the structure, running fishing line from one end to the other to hold the cranes in? That may be drastically changing the concept you are going for, though.

I know I'm not helping on the finding it front, but I work in large scale materials a lot (I'm a scenic designer by training) & some of those things just end up being impossible to find or impractical to afford.

I hope I'm helping at least a little bit, though!