TEA TREE: CUP HOLDER DETAIL

Today just a short post starting on my favorite tree, the Tea Tree.

All I have so far is the hangar supports. They should all be glued or welded together to form the top part of the tree. It looks like this:

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All the teacups should be thrift-store and all different. I'll probably have to get around 100. It could be that it's easier and better looking to get two or three different types and mix and match from there. Not totally sure which way to go. I guess we'll see what the thrift store yields.

Here's what's supposed to happen: Participants take a cup and saucer from the "leaf" part of the tree and put it into a hole in the trunk. Hidden inside the leaf part of the tree (which will be the net of hanger supported teacups) is a tea maker, which dispenses tea into the waiting cup.

Next to the tea tree will be a cream-and-sugar tree, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I'm having some challenges working out how to do the innards of the tree. They are:

1. I want to find the right machine to make/dispense/keep hot the tea. My dad might have a line on something... Originally I was thinking one of those old giant coffee/tea dispensers that you might see at a truck stop or community college maybe 15 years ago. But they are too heavy and prohibitively expensive. They'd also be hard to cover in a tree-like way.

2. I also want a lever or a pressure plate so that the tree knows there's a cup there and can begin to dispense. My dad thinks that a standard coke-dispensing lever might work...

3. I want to figure out a cool way to obscure the machine inside the tree. The hangars/teacups make a nice form, but it's very see-through. I want to stuff the bowl of the tree with something that makes it look more tree-like.

4. The trunk is also unsolved at this point. I think I want it to be a little more realistic trunk-like than, say, the apple tree. Austin/Caralie, do you have any ideas? Dad?