Tag Archives: Useful Sites

Useful Sites

A Link to the Past

It’s January 7th, you know what that means? I just had an epiphany! Get it? Sorry, with Under the Radar in full swing all over the building, Compulsion now in rehearsals, Timon of Athens starting rehearsals next week, plus writing magazine articles and my book on prop-making, I only have a list of links today. But they are very interesting ones that should keep you busy for a long time.

Useful Sites

The First Links of Winter

Christmas is fast approaching, so I have less time to write, and you have less time to read. But if you really need your props fix, here are some fun links to check out:

Vacuum Bagging – If you’ve ever worked with fiberglass or carbon fiber, you may find vacuum bagging to be a helpful way to squeeze the layers together. I’ve even seen it used to laminate veneer into bent plywood. This is a great tutorial.

Wooden Halo Gun – Over on the 405th (a site for those interested in prop and costume replicas for the Halo video games), a member is documenting the gun he is building from scratch. The cool part is that the original model he made is constructed out of wood. Go carpentry!

Medical Objects brought to life – The Science Museum in London has photographs of over 3,000 of the objects in their “History of Medicine” collection. It’s a great research source, and also a fascinating collection of curious objects to just peruse.

Typewriters – A lovely collection of vintage typewriters.

StageBitz – This looks interesting; online software to manage your prop lists. It’s still in beta testing, but I’m one of the beta testers, so I’ll let you know how it is.

Useful Sites

New Links for Fall

Here are some of the hot new links for Fall:

  • Rebuilding the Boardwalk, pixel by pixel. A great article about recreating 1920’s Atlantic City for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. With all the challenges you can imagine for such a task, one of the most difficult, according to the article, was finding the right chairs.
  • The Gizmologist’s Lair. W. E. Johns has such a plethora of articles and links on his site, I’ve barely scratched the surface and already have discovered so many great things. He has projects, reference for all sorts of technical and technological bits and more.
  • A Big List of Sites that Teach You How to Do Stuff. Pretty self-explanatory. I haven’t checked out all the sites they list, but I do know eHow is a big waste of internets.
  • The History and Geography of Inventions. A quick reference for you to see when and where many things were invented.

Have a great weekend!

Useful Sites

Midweeks Link Dreams

Just a reminder that today at 2pm (EST), I’ll be taking part in a live chat interview at TheatreFace. Come join in the fun if you want to ask me a question.

I also have a fun new project I’ve been working on, and I might be posting photographs of it as early as next week, so stay tuned. Until then, here’s a fresh roundup of links for you to explore.

  • You know that Smooth-On has a plethora of videos and tutorials on their website, right? Well now, they also have a Mold-makers Exchange, where you can buy or sell molds and casts, or advertise your mold-making services. It’s like a Classifieds for all things moldmaking (or a “Craigslist” as the youngsters (and I) say). It’s very sparse at the moment, which is why I’m getting the word out about it.
  • The Library of Congress has a YouTube. With nearly 600 videos from their archives, there is a wealth of historical material available for free viewing. Many of these videos are great for research on the early twentieth century and thereabouts.
  • Check out these delicious fake food miniatures.
  • Erich Friend runs a Theatre Safety blog. Though focused more on theatre planning and operations, some of the information (I’m looking at you, hidden fire extinguishers) is relevant to props shops.
  • And finally, Volpin Props has made an awesome M8 Avenger Assault Rifle out of scrap materials he had sitting around in his shop.
Useful Sites

Monday Link-a-tastrophe

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By now you should know about This to That, a great tool for finding out what glue to use. Well, Beacon Adhesives, makers of such prop-friendly glues as Magna-Tac and Fabri-Tac, have their own Adhesive Selection Chart.

I know I just did a post on knots, but I had to show off this hot knot diagram. It’s from a site I just discovered called Low-tech Magazine, which “refuses to assume that every problem has a high-tech solution”. How very apropos for those of us in the world of ever-shrinking prop budgets.

Dug North has started compiling a great big list of Automaton plans in one single page. Some are even free!

Finally, here’s a neat little Repair Manifesto. You can view the image in a larger size as well.