Properties!

When you have numbed all the nerve-endings in your fingers with an accidental layer of superglue... when you are desperately trying to remember trigonometry in order to sew a triangle of fur over a cat’s arse... when you are chasing what appears to be the last twelve gold beads in the whole of Germany around the props room floor... when all your colleagues are giving you grief about the tiny rubbery over-cooked chicken that you left on the doorstep a week ago (If I had found the bio-bin, I would have dealt with it earlier)...

... frequent blogging whilst at work doesn’t seem quite as attainable a concept as it did before you started working.

So let me show you what I have spent the last three weeks working on

Edgar The Spider

 

Edgar (fondly named after Edgar Allen Poe) started out in life as a joke-shop spider. He was a bit too small and plasticy to have much impact on stage, however, so I cut his legs off and extended them.  I created his new legs from wire (to add rigidity to the upper part of the legs) and lightweight chain (to add that satisfyingly startling jiggle-factor). I then covered him in tarantula-coloured fluffy wool, and attached a couple of yellow beads to created home-made-looking eyes, tying in with the slightly crafted look of the rest of the play.

 Edgar in the scary haunted-house scene in 'Lizzie and the Pirate'.

Mina the Cat

Mina (as in Harker, as in Dracula) also belongs to the haunted house sequence wherein she jumps out of a chimney! I vaguely made her pattern from scratch. She has a rigid tail, weighted feet to give her that extra leaping quality, and button eyes.

The Skull

The Skull (un-named, I've already proved I can read) rather unsurprising also belongs in the haunted house. For this, I rather excitingly devised an Indiana Jones-type contraption, whereby the skull sprung up out of a box!



The skull is activated when the actor sneakily nudges the end of the pole through the handle of the box. The weight of the large washers causes the skull end to flip upright and into view! I am a little bit obsessed with automata devices, so this was a very satisfying prop for me to make, even if there were a lot of chisel/washer/fulcrum-based adjustments needed!

The Crown

The crown was a central plot device in 'Taradiddle' and was somewhat challengingly required to be gold and silver and red and yellow and green and blue with diamonds and rubies and emeralds!!! I overcame this with feature-coloured gems at equi-distant points around the crown. The crown was created by wiring and glueing lots of beads to a pre-existing crown structure, and creating a new rim to fit the actress's head.

I love to solder!

The Mirror

The mirror was also in 'Taradiddle', and like everthing else in that play, it required bling! I created it from a plastic photo frame and cut it a new wooden backing and handle. I then covered it in gold paint, gems and glitter. I very much felt like I was working at the Mattel factory. Isn't it hideously wonderful?

...and that's all for now. I also have all my scenic painting to show you, but my computer is currently 'unable to find a destination'... hmm