An Italian engineer who garnered a bit of notoriety for crafting a 'mysterious' crop circle in 2011 has produced a new piece of work and, this time, shared some candid details about how his latest formation was made. Francesco Grassi, who resides near the city of Turin, caught the attention of crop circle researchers seven years ago after he created a remarkable circle-shaped formation in a field. At the time, he opted to keep his authorship a secret and watched as thousands of people flocked to the site proclaiming it to be a UFO landing spot before Grassi eventually came forward to take responsibility for the formation.
Lest one think that he was merely a prankster looking to pull the wool over people's eyes for his own amusement, Grassi actually penned a book featuring his sociological observations on the craze caused by the crop circle. And now he's providing additional insight into the phenomenon by way of a proverbial sequel to his original formation. This time, however, Grassi upped the ante considerably by producing a pretty complex-looking piece and, fortunately, revealing a bit about the crop circle creative process.
Speaking to an Italian media outlet, he said that the massive work, which measures two soccer fields side by side, took a full year to go from conception to completion. Unlike nefarious rogue crop circle makers, Grassi sought and received permission from the landowner to use his crops as a canvas for the formation. "When I got this proposal I was immediately enthusiastic," the famer said, expressing surprised at the sheer number of people who have come to see the formation.
As to how it was made, Grassi explained that the piece was crafted using simple instruments: boards, measuring tape, and posts. The most important ingredient, feet to press down on the grain, was supplied by around 20 people who worked with him to construct the crop formation over the course of one night. The specific methodology, though, remains somewhat shrouded in mystery as Grassi only teased that he picked up the technique in England when he "studied the beliefs of those who perform magic rituals and prayers within the crop circle." Intriguingly, he insisted that there is no formation so complex that it could not be made by humans.