1000 Cranes Display - Opinions???

[krakrs]

Hi all-

I am embarking on a pretty ambitious 1000 cranes project. Trying to keep this short, imagine a 40x25 grid pattern made up of cranes. The cranes are different colors and are strung together in such a way as to make a picture (I'm making a 40x25 penguin for my sister - and this is a 2D penguin of course, not 3D, it looks very 8-bit in my diagrams!). I will string the cranes on, I don't know, dental floss maybe and fix them inside a large frame (about as big as a door!) so the design is kept visible (no tangles, even spacing, etc). I will then cover the framed cranes with plexiglass or some kind of clear somethin-er-other to protect the cranes, improve movability, etc.

Hopefully you can envision what I'm talking about here. Now for my opinion questions-
1) Should the cranes themselves be made of glossy paper, matte, watercolor painted (each one ends up unique, but the color is often kind of dull), or what? Any expert advice?
2) Should the frame be wooden? Or if you could imagine, my other idea is to have two large sheets of plexi bolted together (but spaced apart) and all the cranes suspended between the two plexi panels. This would end up very mod and minimalistic and could be cool. Opinion?
3) This isn't real important, but since I'm asking might as well ask, could you envision something like this as turning out better with 3" or 2" cranes? (3" squares or 2")
4) I would love to have a mirrored back to this thing. I think it would be awesome, but it's SO much money for a humongous mirrored plexi. Has anyone ever experimented with painting the BACK of plexi so it looks mirrored on the front? If so, is there anything particular paint you would suggest? (no, this isn't really an opinion question I guess)
5) For that matter, would you suggest plexi at all? Is there some other material you can think of to cover the front of this thing? I just don't want the cranes exposed to, well, anything once they're set. But I still want to see them!

Any comments or advice would be appreciated!

Thanks ~ k

[Lephantome92]

I think, if you decide to keep them between plexiglass, use some sort of non-gloss paper. With glossy cranes behind glossy plexi, it'd be kinda hard ta see all the work you did!!
If you made your 8-bit penguin with 3" cranes, it'd be roughly 10'x6'. However, if you decided on 2" cranes, it'd be around 6.6'x4.2'. So, whichever you think is better, go for it!
I'm also making a Senbazuru, but instead of making a picture, it's just going to be a circle of C=20 cranes. Then, since it's what I got for Christmas, and it's too thick for anything else, I cut different colors of scrapbook paper. After I've made all of them, I'm going to string them up in such a way that, as you look around the whole thing, it's a rainbow spiral.
At any rate, I wish you luck!