I’ve mentioned various communities online, such as the ones centered around making movie prop replicas or building Halloween prop displays, where you can find a plethora of prop-building tips and techniques. Cosplay is another such community.
Three Cosplayers
Cosplay means dressing up and role-playing as fictional characters. It’s most popular in Japan, with cosplayers dressing as anime characters. However, it is also present throughout the world and involves characters from science-fiction, fantasy, and history as well. It can be extended to Renaissance Faire participants, or even Civil War reenacters.
As such, websites focused on these communities have a plethora of information on making DIY armor, swords, and other weapons.
Here is a collection of props and armor tutorials from one such forum. There are tutorials on working in fiberglass, polystyrene, foam, and vinyl.
Cosplay.com has another thread collecting various prop and costume tutorials on working with certain materials or building specific items.
The Prop Blog, by Amethyst Angel, showcases her work, tutorials, news, and information. It’s also a huge gateway to a number of similar cosplay sites and showcases around the internet.
For Twelfth Night, the director wanted a funerary urn trick. When the actor knocks it over, he wanted the lid to fall off and a puff of ashes to fly out. I decided on a pneumatic solution.
The Funerary Urn in Action
Early on, we decided the urn should be on a base which was hinged to the floor, which would keep the urn from rolling down the hill into the audience, and also have it fall in a consistent manner during every show.
Air Tank and Valve
This trick is actually extremely simple in concept, and pulling it off only requires a minimum amount of research to find the right parts.
The idea behind it is the same as filling a straw with corn starch and blowing it out. Instead of a person blowing it out, I have a tank of air which is filled before hand. And instead of a person deciding when to blow, I have an electric valve which is triggered when the urn hits the ground.
The tank of air is just a soda bottle. I fitted a tire valve onto the cap; I got it from an old tire, though you can buy them new if you wanted. A hose runs out the back of the bottle into the valve, which then runs to a hole in the stage which holds the corn starch. The valve runs off of eight AA batteries, though it can be changed to be plugged into the wall. Finally, I wired in a button between the valve and the batteries, which is on the stage floor where it can be pressed by the urn when it hits the ground.
This story is kind of funny, but it also teaches a lesson. The only thing more annoying to a props person is when people throw their trash away in the prop garbage cans.
I found a great post at ToolCrib about the ten most dangerous woodworking tools. What makes it great is that it attempts to survey what woodworkers think are the most dangerous tools in the shop, and also lists the statistics about the most common injuries from woodworking shops. Often, what we think are the most dangerous tools does not always coincide with where the greatest hazards lie. This is especially true when you look at your own individual experience; if you witness someone chew their fingers up on a router, you will be more biased to believe a router is the most dangerous tool ever. This can also be the case if you work in a shop with poorly maintained tools. A table saw which shakes and wobbles is much more dangerous than a well-maintained table saw with multiple safety features.
In the last post, I looked at desktop fabricators and how they might impact the future of building props. In this post, I’ll check out what kind of new materials will change how we make props.
New Materials
by conarcist
One of the grandest changes in the way we make things came from the development of plastics during the last century. Consider the scope of plastics: Styrofoam, epoxy and epoxy resin, acrylic, Plexiglas, PVC pipe, styrene, nylon, kevlar, many laminates like Formica. Consider too the amount of adhesives we use based on plastics. PVA and most contact cements are plastic-based, while most tapes are at least backed in plastic. These days, a small prop shop can work with materials whose properties would have seemed miraculous even as late as World War I.
The downside of course is the ecological damage these materials cause, both in their production as well as their disposal. The future of making props will see a transition to more organic and biodegradable materials which can exhibit the same properties as synthetic plastics.
The first phase will see greater use of recycled materials. We are already beginning that phase. The field of props is almost defined by its reusing and repurposing of otherwise worthless cultural objects, and many of us build new props from material found in scrap bins or the trash. But we will also see more “new” materials made out of recycled bits. Many of our fiber and particle boards are made from the dust and scraps which are left over from processing lumber.
Instructables’ user Star Simpson has a guide on plastic smithing, where you can construct plastic objects out of old plastic bags.
We may also see a return to older, friendlier ways of constructing things. The Victorians made beautiful objects out of plastic milk and papier-mache, and there’s no reason these techniques cannot be used for the more temporary theatrical productions. You can find information on how to make your own plastic milk at Instructables, or at Joey Green’s Mad Scientist, which also has some fun facts about the stuff.
These kinds of things may be fun to experiment with, but may not be useful for more commercial shops. However, companies around the world are developing new materials based off of these homemade projects using organic and biodegradable products. It is worth it to keep on top of these products and try them out if you have the chance.
One website which showcases new materials with interesting materials is Transmaterial. Some products they’ve featured in the past include a polymer fiber which is five times stronger than steel. A company called Ecovative Design has developed an insulation foam substitute made out of mushrooms.
All in all, the explosion of materials technology we’ve seen in the last century or so shows no signs of slowing down. Our challenge now, as it always is, is finding the best materials to do our jobs. Are there any new materials you’ve been trying out lately?
Making and finding props for theatre, film, and hobbies
