Category Archives: Resources

Online and offline resources to help you in all aspects of propping a show.

Build it Green NYC

Last week, Jay and I finally got to check out Build it Green NYC. It is a non-profit group that collects salvaged and surplus building materials, and sells them to the public for low prices. The location is a bit of a bear (the northwestern corner of Astoria); then again, if you want cheap prices in [...]
2 Comments

Parts of a Chair

Learning the names and terms for parts of objects is important in developing your shared vocabulary for easier communication. If a designer asks you to “make the splat wider”, you don’t want to waste your time trying to widen a drop of paint. For chairs, this was a little tricky trying to distill down all the [...]
1 Comment

Money money money

Mint.com recently had a posting showing pictures of over twenty different kinds of historical US currency. Some of the pictures are really fascinating with the colors used, and the large denominations which used to be in circulation. The Secret Service, which enforces counterfeiting laws in the United States, has very clear rules governing the reproduction of [...]
Leave a comment

A brief intro to furniture history

Furniture history is important to most props people. This is obviously an enormously complicated and involved topic. My aim here is merely to point to some resources for a general overview. Sometimes, a topic is so overwhelming, you don’t even know where to begin. Maltwood has a useful History of Furniture timeline. The chart breaks down [...]
3 Comments

Set Decorators Society of America

I haven’t done any film or television prop work, so I was unaware of them, but the Set Decorators Society of America has quite a handy website. First off, they show off the decor in films which their members have worked on. These are extensive photo-essays showing the sets from these films, often without actors [...]
Leave a comment

Switch to our mobile site