Props elective

Reminder of current personal project ideas:

• House of Flying Daggers dagger pouch
• Relatively realistic cat (poly, probably)
• Tsubasa Chronicle style staff
• Traditional Japanese teapot
• Crawling vine plant (multicoloured)
• Puppet of ‘Ryuuk’ or ‘Rem’
• Noh theatre mask

I’m extremely glad to have chosen props as an elective, as I feel I’ve learned a lot. Before I started I thought it would be a case of I’d be learning stuff it would be too late to apply, but now that I’m in the department it’s made me remember that once I graduate, I’ll more than likely be starting as an ASM again, and all this may just come in useful.

Things I’ve learned so far:

• If you water down paint slightly you don’t get brush marks
• How to sculpt poly
• How to use the pyrograph
• How to safely use two part foam
• That metallic powder can also be used as is and rubbed onto a waxed surface to give a different effect to mixing it with shellac
• How to scrim (and how to do it around curved edges)

Due to the time I’m in props I’ve now to start a personal project (everything else to do will either take more time, or is better suited to someone with more experience). At first I thought that I’d do something that a stage manager could potentially be asked to do, but later realised that anything it’s pretty much possible to be asked for by a designer, so I’m currently thinking of doing whatever seems most interesting that can be done with the materials that Astrella can provide for projects.

I get a feeling that this project will probably be more stressful than I think, but worth it.