Tag Archives: cosplay

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Lucky Links for a Lucky Day

Happy Friday the 13th, everybody. Here are some great prop-related stories from around the internet.

The production team at the Clarice in Maryland recently recreated Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne statue using a mix of CNC routing, 3D printing, and theatre ingenuity. Watch this video to see how they did it.

Caleb Kraft and Platinumfungi decided they needed to recreate the flaming sword from the new Fallout 4 video game. Check out videos and photos showing their day-to-day process.

Duo Fiberworks has a nice tutorial on creating a rustic leather sketchbook from scratch. It’s a must for every Shakespeare play (h/t to Propnomicon for the link).

For your third video of the day, you can learn about Shawn Thorsson, the superhero of cosplay. You’ve seen some of his work before on this blog; now you can watch him at work in his shop and check out more of the pieces he has constructed.

Mythbusters is ending its fourteen-season run this January. This week was the final day of filming for them, and Adam Savage live-tweeted the entire day. It’s a sad day for television, since it was one of the few shows that got close to showing what we do in props. Thankfully, Adam is still busy as ever building props over at Tested.

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End of the Week Prop Roundup

The New Antiquarian has a lovely article on the small bookshop that helped the Mad Men props master find all the vintage books used in the show. The characters on the show read voraciously, so the team was constantly hunting down pristine first editions of the books most popular during the time period.

A gallery in LA put on a Guillermo Del Toro tribute show, and Cinema Fantasma made this amazing wooden automata inspired by Pan’s Labyrinth. Check out the video where they transform logs into an intricate moving sculpture.

The Hustle has an interesting article about the women who make a living doing cosplay. It delves into just how someone makes money by dressing up in costumes, and shows how constructing the costumes is just the first step. It reminds me a lot of the new generation of internet “superstar prop makers”, who have fan bases built around watching them work; the actual props are almost secondary, and are never really used in film, theatre or television.

Finally, The Roadbox has a humorous look at how Bosch is marketing their new battery-powered hot glue gun.  I mean, the tool itself looks eminently useful, but hot gluing a chair together is the last thing you want to do.

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Friday Night Links

Here is a special Friday night blog post. I couldn’t write it earlier, because I am in tech for one show, starting rehearsals for another, and oh yeah, my baby just came home after 14 months in the hospital. But here are some fun prop things to read and watch:

I don’t know anything about this, but Comikaze Expo 2015 in LA is having a prop making contest. It looks like you may need to be there in person to show off your prop if you’re selected.

Tested has a very cool article on making a Furiosa Cosplay Prosthetic Arm. What makes it extra special is that it was made for a woman who is actually missing her arm.

TOTL Podcast has a quick interview with Evil Ted. If you’ve never seen his work and how-to videos, check them out!

This is from a few months ago, but has a ton of great photographs of vintage soda bottles from throughout the twentieth century.

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Friday Tech Notes

Greetings from tech rehearsals for the first show of the season here at Triad Stage. We’re starting off with Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The props are very pretty. But let’s talk about what the rest of the internet is doing.

The first big news is that the Society of Properties Artisan Managers has started a Facebook group open to all professional props people, old and new. While the organization itself remains reserved for full-time managers of prop shops, the group is a chance for prop makers and masters of all types to meet and talk shop.

Get Surrey has a news article on Graeme Lougher, a prop maker who has built props for everything from Harry Potter to Red Dwarf.

Make Magazine had two cool sculpting items recently. First, Emily Coleman shows us how to sculpt a fantasy owl with armature wire, Apoxie Sculpt and Sculpey. Second is this great video of Chris Johnson sculpting a monster.

Did you know Abercrombie & Fitch used to sell camping gear? They did. And Internet Archive has one of their catalogs from 1916 available for viewing online. If you wanted to know what kinds of duffel bags or what sort of provisions they carried in the early twentieth century, this is your resource.

Finally, this is pretty cool if you’re into cosplay. The makers of the upcoming Horizon Zero Dawn have released a comprehensive guide for cosplaying the main character. It has construction details for all the little accessories and clear views of all her props.

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Friday Quick Links

Spend twenty minutes to watch this fantastic mini-documentary on the life of a prop master. The American Theatre Wing follows Buist Bickley, Kathy Fabian and Faye Armon-Troncoso as they navigate New York City to prop their shows.

Gabrielle Donathan has a very useful article called “The Cost of Custom Cosplay: Where Does the Money Go?” In it, she takes three complete costumes she has constructed, and breaks down every component and task in the process to show their individual costs. The total is basically what she charges her clients. If you think custom work is expensive, this shows why. And if you do your own work, this is a great primer on how to break down a project and account for all the expenses before you come up with a price quote.

Make Magazine has pictures and videos showing the construction of a wearable Rancor mascot suit by Frank Ippolito for Comic Con 2015. It’s mostly sheets of foam rubber with a killer paint job.

Finally, Bill Tull from Conan O’Brien participates in the Prop Master Challenge. This is how I imagine a lot of prop masters do their job (kidding).