Tag Archives: Useful Sites

Useful Sites

March Link Madness

Since I’m juggling four shows simultaneously at the moment, I figured I’d let the rest of the internet do the talking.

  • Woodworks Library – Over 175 complete and free books on woodworking, and related topics such as furniture design, blacksmithing, upholstery, and carving. This should keep you busy for awhile.
  • University of Texas Map Collection – A great collection of historic and contemporary maps from around the world.
  • Turn of the Century – A blog that purports to be “everything strange and beautiful from the 1850s to the 1920s.”
  • An absolutely fascinating photo gallery inside the shop of master gunsmith Nijazi Ibragimov.
Useful Sites

Props a’Twitter

For those of you who are hip with this whole internet thing, I am on Twitter. You can follow me if you want. It’s not as focused on props as this blog, but I’ll occasionally throw up a link to something of interest to the props community. These are some sites I’ve tweetered about in the past:

  • Vintage Printables – A fascinating (and organized) collection of public domain artwork and graphics suitable for printing (and making paper props).
  • Craft Rooms and Organizing – An ongoing series showcasing the spaces of crafters. It’s a great inspiration for setting up work and storage spaces in tight quarters.
  • Photos of my Models – A photo gallery of Michael Paul Smith’s incredibly detailed models of a mid-century American town.
  • 75 years of Band-Aid – A brief history of Band-Aid with a great gallery of their bandage packages throughout the years.
  • Louvre database – A (still incomplete) database of all the artworks in the Louvre museum.

So if you can’t stand missing out on future links like this, as well as my unparalleled humor, go ahead and check out my Twitter.

Useful Sites

Friday’s Link-tacular

It seems like everyone is working on at least one, if not more, shows at the moment. I should have some cooler stuff to write about in a few weeks. Until then, enjoy another list of links!

News

It’s Props Month at Stage Directions

This month’s issue of Stage Directions has a special section on props. One of the articles, “Prop Shop Confidential” by Lisa Mulcahy, is about maintaining a props stock. This is a good companion to my own post on which props to keep and which to trash; it features a lot more thoughts on how to organize a prop storage space from a variety of prop masters around the country. It also touches a bit on keeping track of your inventory, as well as how to provide the props for a show.

Looking at that somehow led me to the homepage for the Dramatics magazine. If you’re not familiar with it, it is a magazine aimed toward high school theatre students. They have published a number of technical theatre articles over the years, including a few useful for props people. They have the full text of these articles on their website, but it’s a real bear to use; I hope they won’t mind that I link directly to the PDFs.

Useful Sites

Wednesday Link-i-mage

This week, we have a visual link-o-rama, focusing on sites with vintage advertisements, posters, and other ephemera. Sometimes, you need to find historically accurate ads for props, other times, you can use them as research sources for your period.

Vintage Advertising group on Flickr

A sprawling hodgepodge of advertising and packaging pictures.

Sprite Matchbook Art, 1960s
Sprite Matchbook Art, 1960s, originally uploaded by Roadsidepictures

Vintage Ad Browser

A very large and very organized repository of ad images.

Budweiser is a friend of mine
Budweiser is a friend of mine, originally uploaded by fidgetrainbowtree

Vintage Ads

A stream-of-consciousness parade of advertisements throughout the years.

Woodbine Blend Dry Cider
Woodbine Blend Dry Cider

The Nifty Fifties

Ads, posters, and photographs from the 1950s.

1951 - Science Discovered It
1951 - Science Discovered It, originally uploaded by clotho98
by Roadsidepictures