... 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!
I love to solder!
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