It’s time for the first round up of links of the year.
Matthew D. Jordan pointed me to two of his sites. The first is a scenic-shop blog. I know some of you who work in smaller theatres have to do both scenery and props, so you’ll find it interesting, but even those of you who focus more specifically on props can still find some crossover in the topics this blog covers. His second is a Stagecraft Wiki. Like Wikipedia, this is a site you can edit and write yourself. The only way for a site like that to grow is for everyone to add a little bit of their own knowledge and tell their colleagues to check it out as well.
Sugru shows some promise as a useful material for props. It looks like it’s similar to epoxy putty, in that it can be used as both a filler and an adhesive. The difference is that Sugru air-cures, rather than having a separate hardener, and it remains flexible, so it can be used on items like textiles. If only I could get my hands on a sample for testing…
Amateur woodworker has a quick rundown on distressing wood. They add some neat tricks to the repertoire of techniques, such as adding cup rings.
Finally, the costume design blog has a post about putting together a design portfolio. Though aimed toward costume designers (obviously), it is still very applicable to the props artisan.
Welcome back from Thanksgiving (if you went somewhere)! Here’s a quick round-up of some new sites I’ve found.
Letters of Note – These are some great scans of old historical notes and letters. Besides the sheer fascination of exploring them for their own value, they are also a great source of historical typography, paper styles, and other details of ephemera.
Square America – Vintage snapshots and vernacular photography. What sets this apart from other vintage photograph sites is how it tags them by the contents and decade, so you can quickly search for useful images.
The Daily Scrapbook – A collection of scrapbook pages. It’s great to see some well-preserved ephemera which is usually thrown away, though it’s hit or miss what you’ll run across.
How to Use a Handsaw – The Art of Manliness has a nice post illustrating the various types of handsaws and how to use them.
My computer is still broke, so I’m having trouble keeping up with this blog. Until then, enjoy some websites on carpentry from elsewhere around the web!
The American Woods by Romeyn B. Hough, contains photographs of some 350 North American lumber types. You can browse by common or scientific name as well.
Lumberjocks has a number of great resources. In addition to projects and a blog, they also review woodworking tools and feature a heavily-visited forum.
I’ve been following the weekly tips at Woodsmith for awhile. They feature some good tricks for your shop and tools.
New Woodworker, like Lumberjocks, also has articles, reviews, tips and tricks. Their tips and tricks are organized by topic, making it easy to browse.
In honor of the Mad Men season finale (and since my computer broke and I didn’t have time to write anything lengthy), I thought I’d point out some great mid-century vintage sites I’ve found lately. Of course, Mad Men takes place in the early sixties, and most of what I’ve found is from the 40s and 50s, but it still inspires that period. Additionally, the objects people had in the 50s would still be around in the 60s. With that in mind, here we go:
The Retro Planet Museum has a great collection of vending machines, soda coolers, gas pumps, and other items of that ilk with photographs online. They also run the Vintage Vending blog, which has continually updated content about the same.
Atomic Addiction is about a couple trying to decorate their house in a completely mid-century fashion. Though somewhat focused on replicas, it also has great resources for researching this era.
Retro Renovation is similar in that it is more concerned with using retro inspiration for modern decorating. Still, it points to historical information, and it has great ideas on which vendors offer vintage or vintage-inspired items.
Making and finding props for theatre, film, and hobbies
