CENTRAL SCANNING Chelsea Flower Show blog

How we scanned the seeds for special D-Day commemorative sculpture

This year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show stunned in more ways than one when a special project that’s been many months in the making came into full bloom.

Back in December, multi award-winning garden designer, John Everiss, gathered a small group of volunteers together and asked them to don the uniforms of D-Day soldiers. Once in full regalia, they were then asked to pose in various static positions.

Unique tribute

As unusual as it may sound, this activity was the starting point of what was to become one of the showpieces at this year’s flower show. John had a vision – and it was an incredibly creative and inspiring vision that was designed to help commemorate an extremely important date in wartime history.

With this June 6 marking the 75th anniversary of the 1944 D-Day Landings, visitors at this year’s show had the privilege of seeing The D-Day 75 Garden, which was designed to celebrate the D-Day veterans who are still living and commemorate those who lost their lives. The 32 x 12 metre creation will be gifted by the veterans to the town of Arromanches, Normandy in a ceremony on June 6.

The garden is just as thought-provoking as it is head-turning, thanks to the two life-sized sculptures that bookmark the entrance and narrate the scene that unfolds behind them.

And these two sculptures are part of the reason why John asked his six volunteers to dress up and take part in his musical statues-type exercise at the end of last year.

But what was our involvement in it all?

The scanning exercise took place at our site in Bromsgrove, but it’s not the first time we’ve worked with John. We’ve collaborated with him on numerous projects over the years, including this one (another Chelsea Flower Show exhibit) - https://www.central-scanning.co.uk/project/futures-garden-a-3d-scanning-project/)

For this year’s project, John asked us to scan his ‘D-Day’ volunteers in-situ, using the Leo scanner from Artec 3D.

We selected this particular scanner due to its flexibility and the fact it’s hand-held and fast – it only took us around one minute to scan each person. (Here we are at work, helping make it happen - https://www.facebook.com/DDayRevisitedOfficial/videos/340759166650239/)

The 3D scans were shared with Stage One Creative Services, who produced highly-detailed plaster moulds. These moulds were then used by John and British sculptor, Thompson Dagnall, to create the garden’s many inhabitants, which included a life-sized replica of 11th Armoured Division veteran, Bill Pendell MM.

For those of you who didn’t go to Chelsea this year, here’s a glimpse at some of John’s mesmerising sculptures that make up the D-Day masterpiece…

Once again, we’re delighted to have helped bring another one of John’s visions to life, particularly one that touched so many people’s hearts and minds at Chelsea and will no doubt continue to do so at its final resting place in Normandy for many years to come.

If you’d like to find out more about the Leo scanner or to discuss your 3D printing or scanning requirements with us, contact us on 01527 558282 or [email protected]. For another example of our 3D scanning ingenuity in action, read this blog[SK1]  and discover how we’re helping rhinos survive the horrific aftermath of poaching attacks.

We 3D scan, we 3D print, we 3D care.

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