TABLESCAPE 5: ANYONE FOR TENNIS?

2013, Los Angeles County Fair (awarded: Best in Show)

The Ebersole Hughes Company are award-winning “tablescapers.”
Tablescaping is the art of setting a thematic table.

We aimed to return to the winner’s circle with our “Anyone for Tennis?” table, figuring correctly that sports was a more popular theme for the county fair crowd. Normally, the amount of time you have to make the table is more than plenty, and though they give you a set of hours to complete it in, no one is really watching any clock. This year turned out to be a bit of a harrowing construction, though, because not only was there a new monitor in charge that clearly had been watching too much reality TV, but upon unloading we discovered we left the perfectly cut astro-turf that defined the table back home in Marina del Rey. So, our leisurely four hours of time was winnowed down to 40 minutes after the round trip to retrieve it. And then one of the pieces of glass broke that was to lift the table over the tennis balls, and we had to improvise using the black cardboard that backed it for half of the table. The contrast was actually quite nice, and just as we got everything essentially finished, the gung-ho monitor yelled: “Time! Step away from your table!” We left fully unsure of whether or not things were in place. Imagine our happy surprise when we found out we had won the Orange Ribbon for Best in Show for the second time!