THISTLE

SPIRIT | Cirque du Soleil & The Macallan (2024) | Designed by Leslie Travers

This 1400 mm thistle was created for an immersive performance presented by Cirque du Soleil and The Macallan. The unique thistle leaf shape and texture was recreated by heatforming Worbla plastic into plaster moulds. The moulds were taken from clay sculpts. The smaller top leaves where cut out free hand and shaped with heat. The bulb base was carved from polysterene, scrimmed and then covered in flex foam spikes. The spikes were sculped and cast with a metal wire core to bend them into shape. The flower was made from over 250 plastic tubes that were sliced into petal shapes and cut to length creating the dome shape. Thin metal wire was inserted into the tubes with shrink tubing on the ends to create the stigmas of the flowers. The individual parts were mounted onto a PVC pipe with textured lines made from Idenden. The whole piece was painted with an airgun and an airbrush with Rosco paints. Finally the underside of the leaves and parts of the stalk were flocked. The final piece was suspended inside a steel frame (made by the Scottish Opera workshop) with Dyneema string.