La Bricoleuse

Last week, i posted the first half of a two-parter on how third-year grad student Adrienne Corral has been creating a range of different samples for a lizard-skin costume effect, using the silicone effect known as gicking. I left y'all on a cliffhanger with the spandex stretched and masked, and here's what happened next.

( Read more... )

DISCLAIMER AND SPOILER WARNING:

This post contains major SPOILERS for Marat/Sade, both in terms of a shocking scene and how a stage effect was achieved.

Caveat lector.

I mentioned in my prior post on the Nickleby flogging effect that during tech of Janos Szazs's production of Marat/Sade at the American Repertory Theatre, i was asked for "some type of appliance" by which a performer could sew his lips shut onstage with grotesque bloody realism from as close as 10', and that could be applied onstage in full view of the audience in a split second with his back turned without him exiting the stage. I promised i'd explain how, so here we go.

( Read more... )

One of the two shows we're currently producing is Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, in which the character of Laura has a leg brace, frequently referred to in the script, the construction of which is one of my responsibilities. The show is set in 1937, and orthopedic devices of the time had a very particular, almost fetishistic look, with their shiny metal hinged rods strapped and buckled to the wearer's limbs.

The first issue was, where do you get the hardware for such a thing? ( Read more... )

lasergirl69 asked me for some brainstorming help, and i thought i'd answer in the form of an "Ask LaBricoleuse," because this isn't the first time i've had an issue of this sort come up, so clearly it might help more than just one reader. Here's what lasergirl69 had to say:

...I've got a weird question and I'm not sure where to start.

I have to build a pregnancy belly with a water rig on it to 'break' onstage. I think the capacity of at least a litre or two of water, and it has to be actor-activated. Except it has to be *subtly* actor-activated. Have you come across any info/advice about this sort of thing, or know anyone I could ask?

One place you could ask to get more opinions than just mine is to post the question to the USITT Costumer's Info List, which is an international email list for professional costumers. There are currently around 530 subscribers, and you don't have to be a member of USITT to join. It's easy to join via the Yahoo! homepage, and you can sign up for web access or digest format if you don't want to get individual emails from it. I have a digest subscription--posting varies but it's never terribly high-traffic. People frequently ask how to make or where to rent/buy trick pieces--"I need a hat with a spring loaded bird that flies off of it for Annie Get Your Gun. Anybody built this hat before? How?" That sort of thing. Someone may have built a water-breaking pregnancy belly on there and either be able to sell it to you, or tell you how they did it!

But, here's my advice on the problem:

The first thing i always do when i have a weird costume issue like this is to reconcile what the options are for the primary action, which in this case is the breaking water. You want to see what sorts of things are out there that can do what you need--dump a liter or two of water fairly fast, with a simple release motion--then figure out how you plan to hide them in a pregnancy pad.

I would start by going to the hardware store and checking out the plumbing section and the pet store and checking out the aquarium section. Look at stopcocks, valves, hand pumps, siphons, all that sort of stuff, and see what might be available.

Plumbing and aquarium vendors are the obvious starting points, but you also will probably want to check out pool supply places and water toys, maybe a cooking equipment store or somewhere that sells home-brewing supplies; you never know where the answer will be found. Anywhere that sells anything related to storing and dispensing quantities of liquid is fair game! Once i had to build a bra for an actress that could "lactate" on cue, for the Adam Rapp play Animals and Plants--i went through several experimental versions for this--nursing bras for mastectomy survivors, random tube/bladder set-ups, a remote-controlled squirting toy. Think wildly, because sometimes that's where the answer is found!

You may wind up buying 5-6 different possibilities, then just trying them out, talking to the director and actor about what sorts of release motions are concealable with the action of the scene, and which are not going to work. Once you decide on what the right water-releaser is going to be, then it shouldn't be that big of a deal to hide it in something as bulky and concealing as a pregnancy pad.

I do think that the pad will have to be rigged kind of like a snare-drum marching rig--with shoulder and waist support, rather than just waist, in order to support the weight of 1-2L of water without injuring the actor wearing it. It might be something you need to build onto a singlet or unitard, with some reinforced shoulder strapping. Of course that can be troubleshot easily once you know what your water reservoir is going to be like.

My readership hopefully will chime in down in the comments too--if anyone has any flashes of inspiration for this, please do share!

I thought i'd kick off 2007 with the final installment of my four-part studio setup series!

For those who haven't been following this series, Part One is here, which addresses the equipment and inventory needs of a typical dyeshop or "wet room," Part Two is here, which focuses on specific equipment and inventory utilized in leatherworking, distressing, and shoe-related areas, and Part Three is here, which is an overview of millinery equipment and various supplies used in hat and headdress production.

As for why i first sat down to develop these lists, some background:

The MFA program where i teach allows the students to focus in a range of non-design areas of professional costuming: draping, tailoring, craftwork, or costume shop management. The fall semester's management seminar topic was "Sourcing and Supplies"--this is not just how and where to find everything from a spoon busk to an industrial shoe-patching machine, but also strategies for addressing shop supply inventories, storage, etc.

I gave a guest-lecture in that course last semester on the appurtenancing of a crafts space. The thrust of the matter was, what if a managerial candidate was hired and coming into a space where s/he had to either set up a crafts shop from scratch, or analyze the existing inventory of a crafts area and do supply ordering for the beginning of a season with no aid from a staff crafts artisan. I am posting a brief overview of what i touched on in a four-part series:

Setting up a Dye Shop/Wet Room
Cobbling, Leatherworking, and Distressing Equipment and Supplies
Millinery Equipment and Supplies
Specialized Crafts from Parasols and Purses to Plaster Molds

This post is the fourth and final one. I want to touch on a variety of areas, not all of which will be applicable to all shops. A manager may just as easily find herself or himself working at a Shakespeare Festival shop (where armor is of great import), as at a LORT theatre that only produces shows in 19th or 20th century settings (not so much armor, perhaps, but potentially lots of parasols or jewelry). This is the "everything else" post, stuff that didn't fit under one of the other three topics but is nonetheless important to consider!


Jewelry--Whether you think your shop will actually custom-make jewelry in-house, your crafts artisan is guaranteed to have to repair it or alter it on occasion. Supplies include:

Findings--clasps (lever and magnetic), jump rings, split rings, chain
Ornaments--Bulk beads and pendants
Soldering iron/solder/flux
Polyclay & push-molds (useful to make your own cabuchons and the like)

If you think your crafts artisan(s) may be manufacturing high-end jewelry in-house, you might want to look into investing in some precious metal clay (PMC) and a mini-kiln, and perusing the catalogues of an industry supplier such as Rio Grande.


Craft-props, a.k.a. "Propstumes"--These items often fall to the crafts artisan's responsibility to make, since even though they are technically props, the costume designer is usually responsible for designing them. Potential supplies needed:

Purse frames
Parasol frames
Pocketwatch fobs and findings

It can be hard to find quality modern supplies in this area. For example, nearly all modern long-handled parasol frames have a six-paneled dome. What if your designer has created one with a ten-paneled dome? Sure, you can work out a way to alter the frame, but it's easier if you have an acceptable frame to start with. And what about unusual purse frames, like accordion-hinged reticule closures? I regularly check local "junk shops" and eBay for these items.


Masks, Moldmaking/Casting, SFX makeup--Masks may come around once in a while for your crafts artisan, but chances are, a craftsperson who can cast things will save your butt (and budget!) many times over, particularly if you need something like 40 large ornamental medallions or buttons or similar. Buy one or two and have her/him cast as many as you need. And, I always argue that production should hire a specialist when SFX makeup is required--prosthetics or extreme gore effects. However, all too often in theatre no one wants to budget for that and it often falls to the crafts department to come up with SFX appliances for stage use. These are some of the materials that may help out with these projects.

Alginate
Plaster
Gauze
Latex
Silicone
Oak tanned/kip leather (tip: bellies are often cheapest)
Phlex Glue
Thermoplastic sheeting and mesh
Casting rubbers, plastics, and foams
Mold release products

Be aware that many casting products have a definite shelf-life. It does no use to keep things on hand if they will be useless by the time you need them. Ordering these kinds of supplies needs to happen as projects come up, unless you are heading up the kind of shop that you know you will have several casting projects per season.


Bigheads, Walkarounds, Macropuppets, etc.--these are some supplies useful for creating extreme-shape frameworks in-house.

Skirt hooping
Steel slatting
Aluminum armature wire
Body-mount options such as snare drum marching mounts and backpacking frames
Head-mount options such as bike or hockey helmets
Acrylic rods/bamboo/dowels/etc.


Armor--these are some supplies useful to have if you plan on manufacturing stage armor in-house.

Industrial felt
Sculpt or Coat
Shellac
Backer rod (ethafoam tube)
Glover’s needles
“Apoxie” (2-part epoxy clay)

...Or, if you need to purchase-and-alter armor, check out the vacu-formed shapes sold by vendors like Costume Armor, and the metal helmets and pieces made by Windlass Steelcrafts (sold by a number of vendors).



Note that these lists are to be treated as suggestions, a jumping-off point. Also be aware that if the dimensions and ventilation of your craft space are limited, you may wish to avoid all products that would require the use of respirators. If you do use casting media, solder, and adhesives that require respirators, be aware that OSHA requires you to have a training program in place for all employees that will need to use respirators. When ordering these products, make sure you always ask for the MSDS. You need to have them on file, and they have a lot of good information that will help make decisions like what types of protective gloves and respirator filters to purchase.

And, that concludes my series on setting up a crafts studio! Hope it was of some use or perhaps at least interesting to read about in parts. Or, if you hated it, rejoice! It's over!

Now we can get on to all the exciting topics that Spring has in store, namely tons of hats and shoes, which i don't know about you, but hats and shoes are two of my very favorite things in the world, and i'm super exciting to be teaching seminars on both this spring. We've got some cool stuff coming up on our mainstage, too, so i suspect there will be more posts on distressing and painting/dyeing in that realm, as well.

Happy 2007, y'all!