#prop creation

[planeturi]

staff number 1: the galaxy staff!

its a bit flawed, but a pretty good result for a first attempt at building a prop, especially since i was practically winging the whole process.

more about the building process under the cut

the pole is taken from a random wooden broom, the top piece is a painted hollow styrofoam egg, all held together with hot glue and sticky-sided foam sheet cuttings. the same foam cutting were also used for the soft handle, to protect my hand from the spikes.

the spikes were made with puffy paint, which is silver but got repainted over with the blue to black gradient because man i was highly indecisive while making this thing.

overall this is what ive learnt from this project, learn from my mistakes:

foam sheets can be painted after being primed with a nice layer of glue. i used matte mod podge, but im sure other thick glues will work fine.

however, my mistake was applying the foam cuttings BEFORE painting them. had i painted them individually instead of all together, it wouldve created a more cohesive/consistent look. it wouldve taken much longer but wouldve also been more worth it!

you can get rid of that icky styrofoam visual texture with the noticeable circles and lines with multiple layers of mod podge. but its kind of ineffiecent. i think ill try using something like painters duct tape instead next time.

you cannot reuse foam cuttings. even if you manage to tear them off successfully. it wont look or stick the same.

PLEASE have a proper plan PLEASEEEE

[silverlyrawolf]

Weird question. If I were to create a potion bottle to go with my costume, what color should the potion be? Please help I can’t decide.

[kanadia413]

Do this isn’t really my typical art but I’m working on a cosplay scythe for a cosplay I’m doing. Insulation foam is hell if you only have a very flimsy box cutter and god I started to drown in the amount of foam shavings I accumulated while I worked on this. Took like 7 hours and I still need to glue paint and do some work on the handle wish me luck!

[5ftgarden]

No idea why Tumblr decides to make this look florescent, but I also finished this beauty.

[planeturi]

staff number 2: the moon staff!

this one was made with a metal pole i found on the street, styrofoam hollow egg, a lot of airdry clay, and a fancy ribbon.

infodumping abt the creation process under the cut

the clay i used for the egg was new to me, so thats why you can see some cracks on the moon; it tended to fall apart if i didnt apply glue on top of it while it was still wet, so i had to work in bits and bobs and didnt figure out that i could blend the clay with water until i was a third way into the sculpting process. oops.

the pole was originally red, and either sandpapering it until it lost all colors or getting some paint remover which might not even work seemed like too much work, so i just wrapped it in silver wallpaper. my clumsy hands struggled too much with applying it on smoothly, but im actually okay with that, as it created a pretty cool wobbly effect.

as for keeping the egg connected to the pole, i used once again hot glue, and some kinesiology tape i had laying around and wanted to use for chest taping, but the stripes were too narrow to work for my body, so instead i just used them as support for the moon.

however, the bodytype color had this yucky orangey skintone color, so i covered it up with the fancy blue ribbon. gluing the ribbon onto the prop wouldve been too messy, so i used a whole lot of sewing pins to keep the fabric in place. i mightve overdone it a bit, but it looks quite pretty in my opinion.

lessons learnt from this project:

airdry clay is better for small details, as the moon turned out a bit heavy. im going to try paper machete instead for bigger sculpted parts on my next staff.

using a mix of black clay and water for detailing the moons crevices and curves was a bad idea. i shouldve used a color that flattered the pastel tones the moon was painted in better. maybe a blue or purple

use thicker wallpaper the next time i decide to cover a part with it. the silvery stuff i got is very thin and tends to scratch up very easily

using white acrylic to prime black clay for painting takes forever. using white spray paint to apply a base layer was my most effiecent move in building staffs so far

even if you think you know your material, if youre using a new brand or type of it, give it a test run. save yourself some work in the long run

[5ftgarden]

A sneak peak at the poster for The Wickerman that i’m working on. Type isn’t finished yet, and it needs more smoke on it, but it’s coming along nicely :)

[crowzlaughter]

I know it's not mando'an text but it still translates.

[5ftgarden]

The Wicker Man • Prop Creation • Kutztown University - Advanced Typography Copyright Justine Metzger 2017