Every props shop needs an upholstery yardage chart! This chart is one of the most relied on ones; I’ve seen it floating around for years. The estimates are based on 54″ wide fabrics. If you need to do repeats, matching patterns, or your fabric has a nap, you will need more fabric. Likewise, if you need to add pillows, arm covers, trim, or skirts, your estimate will be higher. Feel free to download this or print it out.
Our upcoming production of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson has a gallery in the audience of 19 portraits. These were described as oil paintings of “dead white guys”. We decided to begin experimenting with printing these portraits out and seeing how we can make them look more like a painted canvas.
I decided to try some of the Rosco Crystal Gel we received a while back. Crystal Gel acts a little like “Sculpt or Coat”. You can brush it on in thin layers, and it will hold the texture you give it. It dries clear and hard, but it remains fairly flexible. My idea was to use it to add textural brush strokes over a picture we print out on our large plotter.
The Crystal Gel has a consistency of mayonnaise. The instructions say you can thin it with water if you want. It starts out white, which makes it easier to see where you are applying it.
You can see in the above photograph that the painting is getting wrinkled. We weren’t really surprised by that; for our next test, we mounted the paper to a piece of foam core before painting.
We were very happy with the final result. The photograph above doesn’t really convey the best part about this method. The texture of the dried Crystal Gel catches the light differently depending on where you stand, so as you walk by the painting, it appears to be made with thick layers of paint.
Here are some sites and other things I’ve run across lately.
My wife and I are currently working on a project for a new show which is essentially a Styrofoam sculpture. It got me thinking about the various ways to treat and coat foam.
You need to coat foam with something. If you tried to paint raw foam, it will eat all the paint up. If you tried to use anything with a solvent, such as spray paint, it will dissolve the foam. Finally, uncoated foam is just too fragile for many uses, especially in theatre.
Coating the foam with Gesso or joint compound will smooth it out and give it a paintable surface. If you mix the joint compound with glue, it will make give it a little more flexibility, as joint compound tends to crack and flake off. Though your Styrofoam will look nice with these kinds of coatings, they will still be fairly fragile.
At the display company I’ve worked at in the past, we made a lot of sculpted pieces out of foam. For the most part, we used Rosco Foamcoat on top of our pieces. Foamcoat goes on a little like joint compound, and creates a hard but flexible coating. It can be sanded and painted, but it doesn’t fall apart like joint compound. It gives a good amount of protection, though it will still dent if you hit it or drop it.
Another product we use at the display company is Aqua Resin. This takes a lot more time, but you are left with a very hard and very smooth surface.
You can use other types of resin on Styrofoam. Polyester resins will eat through the foam, but epoxy resins will give you a very hard, very smooth surface. These are normally used in conjunction with fiberglass or other composite fibers. You can use fiberglass or carbon fiber over foam to give it a lot of strength; this is how some surfboards and skateboards are made. At this point though, are you making a Styrofoam prop, or are you just using it as a form for the fiberglass?
For the project we’re currently working on, we’ve decided on the following compromise; we are going to cover the foam in muslin strips soaked in glue. After this dries, it will create a hard outer shell which can be painted. With a fibrous coating, the piece will resist cracking or crumbling. We will then coat the piece in Foamcoat to smooth it out and hide the texture of the muslin. Finally, we will cover the whole thing in epoxy resin to make it smooth, waterproof, and even stronger. I did a few tests, and this gave the best result for our timeframe and budget.
Finding out this kind of information online can be difficult, so most of what I’ve written here is based on my experience, experimentation, and some research. If anyone else out there ever sculpts in foam, I’d love to hear how you finish it off.
Artful substitution of new materials for old ones that cannot be obtained, a trick Germany learned during the war, has now extended to the stage properties used in that country, with some queer results. Shapes made of thin paper and blown up with air are adapted to all sorts of settings, from rocks and trees to pianos, and serve their purpose so long as no forgetful actor leans against them. “Props” of this kind have at least the advantage of compactness and light weight. Luxurious-looking rugs and hangings are made by a new and economical process of printing on fabric. One attraction has a property tree, so made, of paper and wire, that it can be adjusted to any height, from a bush up. In another case, a real field of waving grain is transported to the stage by gluing straws to folding sections of flat base, the whole being fireproofed. Some interesting new cloud effects are produced, presumably by the optical projection of chemical-vapor images.