Burn, Burn, Burn!

Next stop Hollywood for the Pirates! Yes, that's right, our fabulous talents have finally been realised by the film industry. This is our straw effigy sculpture, nicknamed no-head-mike by the film crew.

It has been constructed for a British indie film with the working title Burn, Burn, Burn. A very appropriate title we thought to cut our teeth in the biz. And yes, it will burn in the film! Look out for it in 2015.

Here are some pictures of us setting up:

And here are a few pictures of the sculpture during filming:

4 minutes to burn, that's how long the Pirates have a sculpture on fire for on the silver screen so far! I suppose we have to hope that it sparks off (intentional pun) a trend of more films with fire sculptures...

Topiary Figures on the Move!

Our two iconic artificial topiary installations named "The Sweepers" and "The Neighbours", which have also featured at the Southbank Centre, have come to the end of their stay at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and are looking for a new home.

Green Man Festival 2014

Yay to a dry and bright Green Man Festival 2014 in the Brecon Beacons in Wales! Pirate Technics again built the centre-piece Green Man Sculpture.

This year he wore a tribal mask, giving him a more spiritual appearance. He held in his hand an oroborus - a snake eating his own tail and the symbol of infinity.

At night he was illuminated dramatically, giving him a haunting look from across the field.

Constructed using locally sourced materials and foraged greenery people could walk through him and tie butterfly-shaped wishes inside.

He was again burnt on the Sunday with a great firework display from Two Tigers Fireworks as the last act of the festival. His mask stood out dramatically as he brought to a close one of the best UK festivals.

Here is a video of the whole finale show.

And here's a time-lapse of the build.

Emerald City at Secret Garden Party 2014

The Pirates were back once again for another year in The Garden. This time we built a massive recreation of the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz in an art-deco style to co-inside with this year's theme of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", complete with DJ booth and dance floor.

The huge emerald shards, some standing 12m in height, were illuminated at night to provide a memorizing light display.

Taking a slight deviation from the tradition of the Big Burn happening on the Saturday, Pirate Technics instead closed the festival on the Sunday by burning the vast stage we built over 3 weeks to an array of dazzling stunt planes making heart-shaped trails in the sky.

The sun shone on everyone all weekend and it was a fitting close to what can only be described as a vintage year in the garden.

Check out this video if you would like to see the whole process from construction to burn!

http://youtu.be/mWnnjfk_p8Q

Giant GM Maize Grow at Glastonbury 2014

Glastonbury was as usual a belting festival but exhausting as the mud started to rear its head by the end of the weekend.

We had two sculptures on show - our pagodas in the backstage of the boutique area called The Park and another in the entrance to The Stone Circle of some giant maize stalks, with illuminated kernels at night.

Here is a time-lapse video of the maize stalk build. Thanks again Piers!

Festival Season Begins in 2014 with Bearded Theory!

Yes, it's festival season again! We can't believe it's come around quite so quickly. 

Even while Pirate Mike was busy getting married, we still managed to get the Parrot Pagodas to their first festival of the year, Bearded Theory at the beautiful new location of Catton Hall.

Congratulations Mike and Diana!

Life of The Topiary Scultpures

Here's a time-lapse of the life of the topiary sculptures so-far. This video starts with the build and also features the two moves they have had to-date. Thanks Piers for your time putting it together.

http://youtu.be/ClnCcol0SAA