La Bricoleuse

In my previous post on this project, i wrote about the research and development portion of the tar application--what fabric, what medium, release agents, etc. And, if you recall, we left poor Ralph the Mannequin wrapped in clingfilm and half-covered in silicone caulk and feathers, curing overnight.

Our next step was to repeat the process on the other side of the suit, give another night's cure-time, then fit it on the actor to test our tar-application and stretchability. This was a success, so the next logical thing to do would be to repeat the process for the back of the suit.

Two caveats though: We had to come up with a way to hide the zipper in the back, and the question was posed, could the tar give off smoke?

I love a challenge! I figured, if we could burn a parasol onstage, we could make tar smoke. But first, the placket... Draper Kaitlin Fara patterned and stitched a Powernet placket onto the costume which could snap into place to hide the zipper, and crafts assistant Rae Cauthen and i then had to get tarring!

( Read more... )

I have been rubberizing tons of shoes for Big River, and i recalled a post that came up on the USITT costumers' email list; i thought it might be a good idea to post my answer here for Googlability's sake.

Basically, someone asked where to order "dance rubber," and what were some brands folks would recommend. Here's my response:

I stock the Vibram ProTania in black and natural, and the 3.5 grid soling in black, oak, and white (the white will take dye)..

http://www.frankfordleather.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=b4x&Category_Code=Soling

http://www.frankfordleather.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=vib7673s&Category_Code=Soling

The 3.5 grid sole is what folks have called "dance rubber" in many of the shops i've worked at, and the Vibram ProTania is the stuff that's got the word "Vibram" printed across the tread.

I use the Pro Tania on most of the shoes i rubberize (like Stacy Adams boots and other leather sole shoes) for performers who will not be dancing or doing fight choreography, and the 3.5 on shoes where the designer or actor specifically requests "dance rubber".

I've worked in shops where they stocked the Chevron and Herringbone sole rubbers Frankford sells on that same page and liked them, they're grippy with directional treads a bit beefier in texture than the 3.5 grid sole and the Pro Tania.

We also stock something that I hear called "fight rubber" which has SUPER grippy directional treads. It's a product called Maxi-Grip, and you can order it from National Shoe. I use this to rubberize shoes for actors who are doing something like swordfight choreography.

I don't care for the Topy, it doesn't seem to provide as good a gripping surface for the kind of activity actors typically require, and is harder/denser (thus seems slipperier) than the two linked up there.

Incidentally, here's a pro tip for rubberizing a LOT of shoes: learn some work songs with a good driving rhythm. Hammering with your mind not engaged gets boring really fast, but if you sing something like, say, Pete Seeger's "The Hammer Song," you can maintain a good rhythm hammering the soles efficiently, and it really does make it go faster.

Today was the first full day of the USITT Costume Commission's Fabric Modification Symposium, a three-day extravaganza of classes, presentations, hands-on activities, and more hosted by UNC-Chapel Hill at our Center for Dramatic Art. I thought that i was going to be an assistant to one of the presenters, but it turns out that instead, i got to be a "floater," checking out all of the first day's worth of classes! I took a ton of behind the scenes photographs and even participated in some of the seminars.

Thirty-five costume professionals from the US and Canada are attending, and we divided up into four groups, which rotated through the series of four different classes. The classes are taught over two days, with a "break" day in the middle (tomorrow) to allow some of the projects to cure/set/etc. So, today was the first day, and we'll do a second day worth of work on these things on Saturday.

The classes are as follows (i'll list them in the order that my group went through them):

1.) Screenprinting with EZ Screen, taught by Jeff Lieder. Jeff is a costume designer, a professor at U-Wisc Milwaukee, and has served as the Costume Director of the Utah Shakespearean Festival for the past 18 years.

2.) Devore and Discharge printing, taught by Colleen Muscha. Colleen is a costume designer and head of the Costume Design MFA program at Florida State University.

3.) Rubberama (silicone caulk techniques on spandex), taught by Janet Bloor. Janet is head of the NYC-based costume studio EuroCo Costume Company and co-author of the book, Rubber: Fun, Fashion, Fetish.

4.) Arashi Shibori, taught by Lori Hartenhoff. Lori is a fiber artist and Costume Director at Northern Illinois U.

( pix and technique overviews! )

So, the show finally closed and everything's come back from wardrobe to be restocked and i can give you guys the followup on how 1812 industrial adhesive performed as a substitute for Barge.

The verdict is: a cautious hooray!

I wound up sending two pairs onstage with soles rubberized using 1812, and one pair with the ol' toxic standby, Barge. During the course of a month's run, one of the Barged pair dropped its rubber under the ball of the foot and had to be reglued. This is pretty much par for the course, IME, particularly with very active performers--there's always one shoe that the bond somehow didn't set right on that has to get redone at some point in the run. Both pairs rubberized using 1812 did have peelage in the instep of the arch, but that was easily fixed by reapplying the glue and clamping it good overnight. I think also some of the peeling might be chalked up to my learning curve on working with the medium. I just rubberized another pair of shoes and sent them into rehearsal for a new show, so we'll see if those peel as well, or if the bond is better now that i'm getting into the swing of using the adhesive. All told though, it seems really promising as a good quality Barge replacement!

In other shoe news, anyone who's used those rubber-foam-soled gladiator sandals that International Male sells knows, those bastards always split right through the middle of the sole. Seriously, all the way through, every pair it seems! What a design flaw. They usually can handle maybe a 3-week run of a show, but then they're worthless, the sole all flapping like granny's jaw. I need some for my event that's coming this Saturday though for an ancient Greek character, and we've got a pair but of course the sole's split.

Today i'm trying a new idea for fixing those, and if it works, i'll let you know how it goes. I've repaired the crack with Gorilla Glue, and "clamped" it back together using a staplegun, shooting the staples down into the cracks of the tread so that in theory, i can just leave the staples IN the sole (they are short enough not to come close to penetrating the footbed of the shoe, of course, for actor safety). If it works, i might have just found a way to make those damn shoes wear longer, which would be great, since they are indispensable for shows set in that period.

Rubberizing the soles of boots and shoes for stage productions is one of those recurring tasks that fall to the crafts department. A theatre company can save literally hundreds of dollars by rubberizing in-house rather than sending shoes out to cobblers for this service, provided there's a craftsperson on staff who can do it properly.

In this photographic tutorial, I will describe one process for rubberizing using the industrial solvent-based contact adhesive, Barge. Barge has been widely used in the shoemaking industry for years, but is a known carcinogen, so extreme safety precautions are required in its use. Theatrical safety experts have recently been urging the use of an adhesive known as Synthetic Latex 1812 as a less-toxic substitute for applications in which one would otherwise use Barge. I have just obtained some 1812 and will be conducting some future experiments on its usefulness in rubberizing--look for a forthcoming post soon!

For now though, 1812 is far from a universally-used substance in this application, and many shops do still use Barge for rubberizing. Thus, I'll write up the Barge process here first!

( How to rubberize boots with Barge in 11 helpful photographs... )