Crop Circles A Beginner's Guide - Hugh Manistre-pages

Page 49 of 66

Page 49 of 66
Crop Circles A Beginner's Guide - Hugh Manistre-pages

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Jim Schnabel's book describes his basic techniques; lightweight plastic garden roller, for flattening large areas quickly, and ideal for rings and avenues. The stalk-stomper for producing the spiral effect in the lay. Plain old hands and feet for the smaller details. For some design components a central pole (or accomplice) is used to fix a length of line to define perimeters. While working to a plan, the circlemaker is also open to inspiration, improvisation and error, all depending on the circumstances. From 1994 onwards, the circles in the United Kingdom began to show new heights of artistry. There was a return to more predominantly circular forms, used in large combinations to make designs described as 'thought bubbles' and scorpions. While deliberately cultivating a certain air of mystery, some circlemakers have become more open about their work. Two London-based artists, John Lundberg and Rod Dickinson, emerged as leading circlemakers and their controversial activities can be monitored from the Circlemakers website. Among these pages one can read other confessions of circlemakers and find a beginner's guide to circlemaking, detailing the tools and methods necessary to make 'genuine circles’. They and others have undertaken commissions. Lundberg's team were flown to New Zealand to perform for NEC and Adrian Dexter, winner of the circles competition, swirled the Soil Association symbol, to promote this organic farming organization (still only 1 per cent of UK agriculture). Interestingly, the circlemakers themselves often profess a belief in the 'real' phenomenon, and also report some of the same experiences of unexplained lights and sounds as described in Chapter 6. On Lundberg's website, he writes ‘our crop forms are intended to function as temporary sacred sites in this (Avebury) landscape’, and says that their activity attracts anomalies and is the 'subject of attention of paranormal forces'. The motivation of hoaxers and the interaction of humans and the circles is the subject of the next chapter. Scorpion formation A kind of symbiosis now exists between the hoaxers and the croppies, who sometimes allow a