Trees are sprouting in the Pittsburg Public Library Children’s Department.
Mary-Kate Sullivan and her daughter, Olive Sullivan, have been fashioning wood and plaster shells designed to fit around three metal posts in the children’s room. Two are now in place, and the third should be completed next week.
“Gail Sheppard, children’s librarian, has been wanting me to do this for five years,” Mrs. Sullivan said.
“My mother said she didn’t want to do it, and I said that I did want to,” her daughter said. “She asked me how I’d go about making them. Later on, it was ‘How are we going to do this?’”
The two decided to make the trees in two pieces, first building a wooden frame work, covered with ground cloth and plaster.
“We spent a lot of time looking at trees around our yard and around the city so that we could create the texture of bark in the plaster,” Olive Sullivan said. “It took some experimenting to get the texture right. Then we used a base layer of dark brown wood stain and a layer of lighter gray paint, with a glaze of paint and linseed oil.”
They even invented stories to account for any flaws in the bark. “That shiny place was probably from a wood fungus,” Olive Sullivan said. “Jacob Weber could probably identify it. Or a scar probably resulted from somebody carving on the tree and it healed over.”
“Imagination is big in our house,” her mother said.
The first tree was placed about three weeks ago, during a Thursday afternoon because Sheppard said this is a time when the Children’s Department tends to have less traffic.
“That first tree was a little too tall, and we kind of had to pop the ceiling tile to get it in,” Olive Sullivan said.
“This second tree is about an inch shorter, which seems to be about right,” her mother added.
Sheppard said that the trees are part of a revamping of the Children’s Department that is being financed through a Pritchett Trust grant. The theme comes from “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” a painting that has hung in the library for over 60 years. It was painted in 1941 by Oakley Ritchey, and donated to the library by Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Mendenhall in memory of their daughter, Ethelwynne, who loved books.
“It’s such a unique painting, and we wanted to bring it out and link it to the rest of the room,” Sheppard said. “We also wanted to do something that wouldn’t get dated easily. We thought cartoon characters would get dated in a few years, but the story of Alice is a classic.”
Jeanne Costantini built a throne for the children’s room. Brian Kranker has built a puppet theater, and also done some work around the door leading in to the room. “We wanted children to have the effect that they were going through the looking glass,” Sheppard said.
She’s also purchasing a giant chess set for the room and has a Cheshire cat she will place in one of the trees. “When we get that third tree in, this room will look like a little magical place,” Sheppard said.
“I have loved this library my whole life, and it’s nice to contribute to its health and well-being,” Olive Sullivan said. “And making the trees has really been fun.”
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Trees are sprouting in the Pittsburg Public Library Children’s Department.
Mary-Kate Sullivan and her daughter, Olive Sullivan, have been fashioning wood and plaster shells designed to fit around three metal posts in the children’s room. Two are now in place, and the third should be completed next week.
“Gail Sheppard, children’s librarian, has been wanting me to do this for five years,” Mrs. Sullivan said.
“My mother said she didn’t want to do it, and I said that I did want to,” her daughter said. “She asked me how I’d go about making them. Later on, it was ‘How are we going to do this?’”
The two decided to make the trees in two pieces, first building a wooden frame work, covered with ground cloth and plaster.
“We spent a lot of time looking at trees around our yard and around the city so that we could create the texture of bark in the plaster,” Olive Sullivan said. “It took some experimenting to get the texture right. Then we used a base layer of dark brown wood stain and a layer of lighter gray paint, with a glaze of paint and linseed oil.”
They even invented stories to account for any flaws in the bark. “That shiny place was probably from a wood fungus,” Olive Sullivan said. “Jacob Weber could probably identify it. Or a scar probably resulted from somebody carving on the tree and it healed over.”
“Imagination is big in our house,” her mother said.
The first tree was placed about three weeks ago, during a Thursday afternoon because Sheppard said this is a time when the Children’s Department tends to have less traffic.
“That first tree was a little too tall, and we kind of had to pop the ceiling tile to get it in,” Olive Sullivan said.
“This second tree is about an inch shorter, which seems to be about right,” her mother added.
Sheppard said that the trees are part of a revamping of the Children’s Department that is being financed through a Pritchett Trust grant. The theme comes from “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” a painting that has hung in the library for over 60 years. It was painted in 1941 by Oakley Ritchey, and donated to the library by Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Mendenhall in memory of their daughter, Ethelwynne, who loved books.
“It’s such a unique painting, and we wanted to bring it out and link it to the rest of the room,” Sheppard said. “We also wanted to do something that wouldn’t get dated easily. We thought cartoon characters would get dated in a few years, but the story of Alice is a classic.”
Jeanne Costantini built a throne for the children’s room. Brian Kranker has built a puppet theater, and also done some work around the door leading in to the room. “We wanted children to have the effect that they were going through the looking glass,” Sheppard said.
She’s also purchasing a giant chess set for the room and has a Cheshire cat she will place in one of the trees. “When we get that third tree in, this room will look like a little magical place,” Sheppard said.
“I have loved this library my whole life, and it’s nice to contribute to its health and well-being,” Olive Sullivan said. “And making the trees has really been fun.”
