Fake 'n Bake

Olive you!

2012-02-13T14:29:00.000-08:00

Materials: Polymer Clay, Spray Paint

Well, it's almost Valentines Day, so I think we should do something romantic here in the Fake-n-Bake kitchen, and what could be more romantic than making fake olives? What's that, you say? 'Almost anything is more romantic than fake olives? Even saving the cherry post from a few weeks ago would have made more sense- at least they are red like valentines!' To you, dear reader, I say this. Shut up! Olives are plenty romantic and, more importantly, I don't have anything else to blog about at the moment. So, there.

These olives, like the hilarious white olives from the Dirty Martinis post, are made from Sculpey, a polymer clay that hardens when baked. For these olives, I decided to start with polymer clay that was closer in color to the finished product. I was hoping that this would be exactly the right color as is, but we will talk about that a bit later.

The first thing I did was to shape the olives. What makes an olive look like an olive?


The oblong shape, of course...


A pit....(I used the hollow end of a pen to make this)


The x shape made by the pitting machine....


...and a pimento!

Hehehe! Olives on parade!

Once I had sculpted the olives, I baked them according to the directions on the Sculpey package. This worked well, but I found that the olives didn't look exactly right. For one, they lost much of their sheen in the baking process. Also, in comparing them to real olives, I found them to a be a bit dark in color. To solve both of these issues, I used a bit of Olive Bright Design Master spray paint to brighten them up, and add a bit of variation of color over each olive. (Part of what often gives fake food away is unnaturally uniform color.)


Aluminum foil olive trough!

Once the paint dried, all that was left was to put the olives in a bowl, and set them on the bar cart next to those maraschino cherries I made.

Olive you 'til the end of time.

Happy Valentines, y'all. Olive you lots.

Taco!

2012-01-29T17:19:00.000-08:00

This blog post is dedicated to the mayor of East Haven, CT. Oh, I'm kidding, calm down. Wait, you're not riled up? You don't follow the news in Connecticut? Oh, well, um....carry on then, never mind.


TACO!

There are people who go into theater with great ambitions. There are actors who dream of moving an audience to tears with an emotional performance, designers who contribute to the elegance of a well told story, and directors who aspire to shed light on the human condition and pay homage to our common experience. And then there's me, and I dream about making fake tacos...

....and my dream came true.

This taco is for 'The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged" which just opened this weekend. It was a quickie, given a bit more time, I might have worked on the shell texture a bit longer, but I think it does the job.

The delicious meaty filling of this taco is made out of good old bead foam. I like the bead foam because of its texture. I carved the rough shape of the taco filling, and then broke off bits of the foam, leaving the lumpy shape and texture of ground beef. I gave this a coating of flex glue to prime it for painting, and then used acrylic paints to make it beef- colored.

Taco blanco.

The shell of the taco is made of Fosshape, a felt-like thermoplastic material. (You can buy it at Dazian.) I cut out the shape of the shell, pressed the Fosshape, steamed it into shape, and painted it with Design Master sprays. Once dry, I used hot glue to attach the filling to the shell.

The shredded lettuce in the taco is fake lettuce that I cut up with scissors, and the fake cheese is made of scraps from the acrylic caulk cheese in the last post. I sparingly used fabri-tac to glue the lettuce and cheese into place, doing my best to place it securely and convincingly. Then, I found a stage management intern on which to test the believability of the taco.

It passed.

Happy Propping, y'all.

Cheese!

2012-01-21T17:35:00.000-08:00

Materials: White Latex Acrylic Caulk, Acrylic Paint, Spatula

Well, all, I promised you cheese for our sandwiches and, unlike most of my other 'Part One' posts, I'm gonna give you the part two for this one!

You might remember another post about cheese that I wrote a while back. That cheese was made with hot pour vinyl. The vinyl cheese has an incredibly 'cheesy' look to it. It looks greasy and wonderful. The caulk cheese (insert 12 year old- like guffaw) can be glued to things, and is a little more shelf stable. Plus, if you don't have hot pour vinyl in your shop, you can make this for a lot less money.

The sliced cheese is actually incredibly simple to make. Basically, all it is is colored caulk left to dry flat. First, tint the caulk to the desired color. I used acrylic paint for this batch, but any water based tint should do it. Then, spread the caulk out until you have a thin, smooth sheet of it. I did my first batch on wax paper, but that got a bit wrinkly. Aluminum foil or plastic seem to be the best way to go, but make sure to avoid wrinkles.

Then, I let the caulk dry to the touch. It's going to have to dry on both sides, so plan to peel the backing off and let that side dry, too. You should be able to judge pretty well when the caulk is dry enough for you to peel off the backing, and you can always test by peeling off a corner. If you let it sit too long, it will be harder to peel off, but it shouldn't be impossible.

Once the cheese was dry on both sides, I cut it into 4" squares.

It's the best thing since sliced bread!

Happy Propping, y'all!

Wunda Bread

2012-01-14T17:16:00.000-08:00

Materials: Latex, White Upholstery Foam, Design Master Sprays, Bread Bag,
Special tools: Electric carving knife

Hey all, I thought we'd start off 2012 here in the Fake-n-Bake kitchen by making some sandwiches, cheese sandwiches to be exact. Let's start off with the bread, we'll get to the cheese later. This bread was made for our recent production of 'Next to Normal' for a scene in which a woman is making sandwiches on the floor. You know, like you do.

I had a lot of fun playing with all of the samples over at Active Foam Products, and I chose an upholstery foam with a color and texture similar to angel food cake. After putting in an order for a thick slab of the foam I wanted, I began plotting my bread loaves.

The first step was to carve the foam into shape. I did this using the band saw, the foam saw, and my trusty Olfa knife. The foam will dull the utility blade quickly, but you can help to mitigate that by putting a little bit of sewing machine oil on the blade to lubricate the cuts. It helps make cleaner cuts, as well. (That's a tip I learned from Marit A. Thanks, Marit!) Otherwise, change the blade often. I also highly recommend using a curry comb for carving. It shapes very nicely, but does leave grooves in the surface of your foam shape. Since the bread was going to be reset in the bag every night, I tried to make the loaf as uniform as possible along its length, and square off the ends to avoid oddly tapered end pieces.

The carved loaves.

To make the crust, I went with my bread crust go-to, latex. I used casting latex from Cementex, but any liquid latex should do the trick. I gave the foam several liberal coatings, letting the latex dry between each. I wanted the crust to be smooth enough to look....well, to look like crust.

Once the coating is complete, it's time to add color. Design Master Sprays are, of course, a staple in any prop shop. I love the Honey Stain- I think it's exactly the color of "fresh out of the oven, golden brown" so I use it liberally. I also used a bit of Glossy Wood Tone to darken some areas, but it's wise to be conservative with this color because it can end up looking dirty. (Insert joke about dirty conservatives here.)

The next step, and the fussiest, is the slicing. I was really hoping to slice these bad boys on the band saw: set up a fence, zing them on through. Alas, the band saw grabbed at the soft material and ripped it to bits. After attempting a few other methods, I found one that worked. After carefully measuring out half inch slices, I used an X-acto knife to cut the thick latex crust on the top of the bread. Then, I very carefully used the electric carving knife to finish slicing through the loaf. The carving knife slices very evenly, but you have to be careful to keep it going straight, or your slices will be all wonky. Once the slices were done, they were still a bit too smooth, so I took a rasp to them to give them some texture.

The one on the right is the real one.

The final touch on any processed-food prop is the packaging. Bread packaging is easy, you go to the store and buy a loaf of bread. You take the real bread out of the package, wrap it, and put it into the green room. This works well for everyone: you get a bread bag to use, and the interns get free toast for a few days. Hurray!

Not bad, huh?

There is something else I should note, here, and that is the problem of oxidation. The white foam that I used yellows over time when exposed to air. It is likely that I won't get more than a show's worth of work out of these slices. I would like to do some tests in the future to find out if a sealer of some sort would prevent this, but I didn't have the extra time on this show.

So there you have it folks, bread ala Anna. I've had a good little run of food projects lately so I've got cheese, olives, and tacos coming your way soon. Happy New Year, and Happy Propping!

Mind Blowing Icing Tip

2011-12-31T14:00:00.000-08:00

I'd like to thank the folks at Reddit Crafts, Dollar Store Crafts, and Karen's Cookies for pointing me to this awesome tip.
Happy Propping, y'all, and Happy New Year, too!

Hi-Ho Cherry-oh!

2011-11-12T12:59:00.000-08:00

Materials: Mold, Casting Resin, Pigment, Mono filament, Spray Paint, Super Glue

(Read this in a Jimmy Cagney voice.)

So we're dressing this bar cart, see, and the cast is making manhattans. Sure, we say, manhattans, gotta have those maraschino cherries. So we give 'em some maraschino cherries, and all but two of them sit in the bowl all night getting dusty. Bad business, see, wasting food and money on spoiled cherries. Bad business. So, my boss says to me,'Miss Anna, hows about you make 'em some fake cherries? Hows about you make em so good everybody thinks they're real?' So I say 'Sure thing boss.'

I get out my trusty cherry mold. Lucky for me, I been down this road before. For 'Eurydice', see, I had to make gallons of cherries, so I made me a mold. I get my mold out, and I get some Smooth Cast 320. I grab my So-Strong Pigment, and I pour me some cherries. It takes me a try or two to get the color right. While my cherries are settin' up, I gotta make some stems. The hard part about maraschino cherry stems is the translucency. I get some thick, clear, monofilament, and I get some red spray paint, and I make me some stems.

All I got to do now is trim the flashing from my molded cherries, give 'em the old drill hole up top, and glue in those stems. Nice and easy. Put 'em in a bowl, and the subscribers don't know the difference.

Spray Painted Turkeys and Brick Brownies

2011-11-02T18:21:00.000-07:00

Hey, Propsters, I wanted to pass along this link that just came across the SPAM net. The fine folks at Deli Garage are making an edible spray paint. Shipping to the US is still a bit up in the air, but the site promises tasteless metallic paints for all of your food gilding needs. Silver steak? Sure! Gilded Goose? Why not? While you're over there, take a look at their blog. I think you'll like the brick shaped brownies (for wall building) and some of the other clever vittles these guys have on offer.

Oh, and is the website only coming up in German? Up in the right hand corner is a little button marked ENG. Just click it.

Happy Propping, dears.

Hand Casting Part 1

2011-09-07T16:18:00.000-07:00

BRAAIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNS!

Alright, readers, I have to admit that there aren't a lot of fake food props being made here in the Fake-n-Bake kitchen lately. For the past few weeks, I've been up to my neck in breakaway plates that aren't breaking and script covers that are being manhandled to death. So, I haven't had much to report. Since there aren't any fake food projects on my horizons, I thought I'd take a look back at some older casting projects, and write a few posts about those.

These lovely beings are the first step in a pair of hands that got crushed in a trap door in 'The Government Inspector.'

Materials: Alginate, Hydrocal or Dentstone (or any high strength casting plaster), your carpenter (or any pair of hands), Petroleum Jelly, and Buckets

The first thing you need to do is convince your shop's carpenter to let you use his hands. Why do you need to use his hands? Because he has the most marvelously huge hands you've ever seen. His hands are like hams with fingers. You can use no lesser hands- only these will do. Our carpenter was pretty easy to convince, but if yours isn't, I recommend baked goods. Real ones. No nerf muffins.

Once you convince your carpenter to allow you to cast his hands (or her hands, but ours is male, so I'm sticking with that pronoun), make sure your set up is comfortable for him. Set up your containers near a chair or stool that will allow your carpenter to easily hold his hands in the alginate for fifteen minutes or more. This make take some adjusting, which is why it is important to do this before you have mixed up your alginate. Uncomfortable models lead to bad life casts.

Once you've got your set up ready, have your carpenter apply some petroleum jelly to his hands. Alginate (of dental impression fame) releases very well from skin, but petroleum jelly will help with any hair on the hands.

Once your carpenter is lubed up, get him settled into his position, and talk about how you want him to hold his hands; we went for a relaxed curl. Then, mix up your alginate (follow the directions) and pour around the hands, and wait for the alginate to set. It's important, when lifecasting, never to leave the model alone. If a fire or other emergency occured, you'd need to be there to help. What's more common is that you'll need to make slight adjustments for the model's comfort. Can you imagine having both hands encased in goo, and then get an itch on your nose? TERRIBLE!

Once the alginate is set (it will be stiff and won't be tacky) have your carpenter start to gently flex his hands and wiggle his fingers. As he does so, the alginate will release, and he can slip his hands off from the mold. Hand your carpenter one of the clean towels you had waiting (ha, gotcha) and send him off to wash his hands. Thank him for his time.

Alginate molds don't keep well for long- they dry out and shrink. You can usually hold on to a mold for a day or so by wrapping it in wet cloths and keeping it in the fridge. For best results, I recommend pouring your cast right away. In this case, we only got one shot at the casting (some shapes allow for more), so we had to make it count.

Mix your casting plaster according to directions, and pour it on in. Jiggle your mold to make sure you aren't trapping any air bubbles. Once your plaster is set, you can remove the mold from the casts. I did this by removing the mold from its bucket, and carefully tearing away the alginate. I did break a finger or two, but a little white glue took care of that. Oh, you can also see on the finger pads where some air was trapped. I sculpted those bits in with clay before making the next mold. There you go! The first step of smashy hands! More to come soon, happy propping.

Whipping Muffins

2011-08-16T21:54:00.000-07:00

Once in a while, your boss will come to you and say something magical. Something like "Anna, (or, you know, your name) I need you to make some muffins to be thrown into the pool every night." These are the moments when you think 'I have found my true calling in life.' If you work in theater, and you don't have these moments occasionally, you should probably start thinking about a job that pays you in real money.

To be fair, these muffins are being thrown 'into the pool' which actually means upstage. There isn't really a pool on our 'Ten Chimneys' set, so I didn't have to make these muffins waterproof. I decided that I wanted to make the muffins out of Smooth On Flex Foam-it X because it's light, durable, and really fun to make things out of. Most importantly, if I made soft, nerf-like muffins, we could have muffin fights in the shop.

The first thing I did was to try out the material. I grabbed an old muffin tin, one that I won't use again, and gave it a good coating of Universal Mold Release before mixing and pouring some of the Flex Foam in and letting it cure. As you can see, above, the expansion is pretty good, but the smooth, shiny tops of the muffins aren't very convincing. So, I needed to think of something to sprinkle on the top of the foam while it was curing. The first thing I tried was crushed cork which I've used very successfully as crushed nuts in the past. This worked really well on the muffins, or, it would have if I wanted the muffins to look like they had Grape Nuts sprinkled on top. Back to the drawing board.

After a bit of thinking about tasty, tasty muffins, I decided that a streusel top would be the way to go, so I set out to make a good fake streusel topping. Real streusel is made of butter, flour and sugar. My streusel topping is made of sawdust and flex glue. I also tried corn starch, but it didn't work as well, and I was worried that little micies would eat it in storage.

To make the streusel, I just sifted some sawdust and slowly stirred in flex glue until the topping was the right consistency. I let it dry over night before it was ready. When it came time to pour the foam, with a drip of brown tint in it, I waited until the foam was starting to rise, and I sprinkled some streusel onto each of the muffins.

The texture came out just as I'd hoped, but the muffins needed a bit of paint. I used a combination of Design Master sprays and acrylic paints to finish the job. I'll admit, painting isn't my forte, but I think these are passably muffiny.

I used hot glue to secure the muffins into the tin. I also bent a piece of aluminum wire to fit inside the lip of the muffin tin. I glued it onto the tin, in hopes that it will help protect the edge from all of the flinging that's going to occur.

So that's that. Whipping Muffins. Oh, and by the way, my computer kept trying to replace 'streusel' with 'stressful,' and that amused me. Happy Propping, y'all.

My Hero the Hoagie, a Submarine tale.

2011-08-01T19:50:00.000-07:00

So, it is possible that some of you may noticed that I haven't posted in a while. Yup, the summer got away from me. To make it up to you, and long post about a long sandwich. Enjoy.

When you think Opera, you think elaborate sets, elegant costumes, tremendous music, and giant hoagies. Well, maybe you don't, but the good people putting on 'The Last Savage' sure do. When our Master Craftsman was going through the to-do list, and said 'four foot hoagie' I volunteered immediately. Well, okay, by volunteered, I mean that I squeaked like a chipmunk and clapped my hands. It worked, I got to make the sub. It ended up being only a three foot hoagie, in order to fit in the trunk, but who am I to question?

So, what do we need to make a sub? Well, in this case bread, lettuce, tomato slices, cheese, ham, turkey, and olives, or, actually, reasonable facsimiles thereof. Let's start with the bread. I used upholstery foam to make the bread, and I learned a few new tricks while I was doing it.

The first trick is a way to keep your Olfa blade sharp while carving foam. I heard about it a while ago, but didn't really put it to the test until this project. The trick is simple, just put a little bit of oil onto your blade, I used the oil that we use to lubricate our industrial sewing machines. This keeps the blade sharp, which makes the cuts cleaner. The second trick is to use a tool called a curry comb to carve the foam. The curry comb's sharp teeth carve the foam well, but they can also leave grooves in the foam- so beware.

Once the bread was carved, I coated the foam in some old liquid foam latex that we had laying around the shop. The dark color actually ended up being perfect for the fresh baked bread look. I love it when that happens!

So, next up would be toppings. I haven't yet found a good way to make fake lettuce, so when I need lettuce, I just go for the commercial stuff. I wanted to secure the toppings together, so I cut a piece of canvas, and stapled the lettuce leaves to the fabric using an office stapler. Quick, easy, and effective! As for tomato slices, this time I went commercial there too. I grabbed some fake tomatoes from our stock, and sliced them with a bear saw. Since the other toppings were covering the tops and bottoms of the tomato slices, and only the edges were showing, it wasn't necessary to paint the top and bottom.

Then, for the cheese! Now, as I am from Wisconsin, you all know that I'm pretty serious about my cheese. That's why this sandwich has two types of cheese, provolone and cheddar. Both are cut from fun foam, that stuff you buy in sheets at the craft store. The foam is pretty good for the cheddar, but a little too opaque for provolone. Again, the fact that the provolone will be mostly covered is helping me get away with this.


Oh, as you can see, I used a plastic lid to trace the circles out. Resourceful!

Cheddar is better.

So, next up, ham! I really wanted to use materials that were already available in the shop (the budget was tight this season) and I also wanted to get the prop done in a reasonable amount of time. Now, I've made ham slices before (see Hammy Sammies) but that process was pretty time consuming, and I wanted to bang this bad boy out. Luckily, we had some pinkish fabric in stock that worked really well as thin sliced ham. I cut the fabric into ovals, and hit the edges of each with a brown Sharpie to give it a rind.


Sham!

The turkey slices were also fabric from stock. We had some light colored spandex that was just the color of deli sliced turkey. Again, I cut the fabric into circles, but I rolled these cold cuts into tubes to give some variety to the sandwich.

Now, you maybe be asking yourself 'Self, what are those bits of ethafoam rod doing on that sandwich?' Well, I'll tell you. Once the ham and turkey made it onto the sandwich, the weight of the 'bread' was pressing down on them, and the were losing their shape. I cut short pieces of ethafoam rod, and carefully glued them (with low temp hot glue) into some of the turkey rolls and ham folds. It boosted the sandwich slightly, but was not easily seen.

Assembly was mostly done with low temp hot glue. It wasn't my first choice, because I was worried about it degrading in the heat, but it was the only thing I could find to stick to everything. Everything was glued to the lettuce/canvas staple combo in order. Then, I used a contact adhesive similar to green glue (3M Fastbond) to attach the bread to the fillings. It wasn't a perfect adhesive, but it did seem to work.

For good measure, I decided to add a mechanical fastener as well. I used a tufting needle and monofiliment to tie the sandwich together at four places. That's what the olives on top are for! Each one is a wooden bead that I used as a tie off point. Then I stuffed the ends with plumber's epoxy (paper clay is lighter and cheaper, but takes longer to dry. No time!) and painted them to look like olives. Tips for tufting a sandwich? Wear safety glasses and use a leather tufting needle. The blades will help you cut through the foam more easily.

So there it is, WAH-LAH, as they say in France. Want more? Okay, one more pic, just for you.

My boss enjoying the sandwich.

Famous Pies ala LoRyn!

2011-06-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

So, I know that all of you read the Santa Fe New Mexican, and that you already saw this photo of Loryn working on some ginormous pies.

If you didn't, you can read the article online by clicking here.

Here's a little more info about the pies. These pies are a joint effort by many a props crafter. First of all, Mana Butt, shopper extraordinaire bought two vintage pie tins. Then, our apprentices Oona (see the post on Sugared Pansy Cake ala Oona) and Ellie (see Cherries Cake ala Ellie) carved bead foam into the shapes of the pies. Aimee Plant (Chickens Ala Aimee) showed Ellie and Oona to make a pastry like crust by layering tissue paper and flex glue. Then, Loryn Williams (or LoRyn, if you read the article) painted the pies.

See, Collaboration!

Casting Call

2011-05-30T11:39:00.000-07:00

Today on the Fake-n-Bake blog, I'm bringing you a casting project. This is a piece that I just did for the upcoming production of 'Faust' that I'm working on. This little decoration will eventually be part of a mirror stand in a jeweler's window.

*Remember, when using any chemicals, to use the proper safety equipment. Casting materials can be really, really bad for you if used without the proper protection.*

The first step was to draw out what I wanted to build, including the piece that I would sculpt and cast, in full scale. Once that was done, I made a copy of the drawing and taped it to a piece of plywood to use as a sculpting surface.

I used modeling clay to sculpt the piece, with beads added for certain details. Once the sculpting was complete, I built a plywood frame around it to function as a mold box.

I sealed the box and the clay with clear spray shellac. This is partly out of habit (sulphur clays inhibit urethane rubber cure, and I often use urethane) and partly just too add a layer between the mold and the positive. I used Tempo 30 silicone to make the mold. I haven't used this much, but it worked very well. To mix this product, you measure portions of catalyst and silicone together by weight, stir THOROUGHLY, pour, and allow to set overnight.

Once the silicone had set, I demolded by removing the sides of the mold box, and peeling the mold off of the positive. To cast the piece, I used universal mold release before pouring two part resin into the mold. It's always important to have a level casting surface, but especially when the piece is so thin like this. Once the piece came out of the mold, it was easy to trim away any excess bits of resin, and smooth any flaws. The resin will stay soft until it fully cures, so if I had wanted to, I could have bent it to fit around a round surface.

TA-DA! Here it is. I'll try to post some finished photos when the whole prop is done.

Happy Propping!

More Fridge Dressing

2011-05-08T21:57:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more of the goodies from the Salesman fridge.

Jam. These were made by putting tinted hot pour vinyl into vintage jam jars.

Pot Roast. This is repurposed from an old food prop I did a while back. It's chunks of upholstery foam, coated with flex glue, then painted with acrylics. It is garnished with micro-foam onions (one side sprayed red), hot pour vinyl gravy, hot pour vinyl onions (apparently, these people like onions), and silk foliage herbs. It is served on a bed of cotton batting mashed potatoes.

Tuna Noodle Casserole. Just like in the TV dinner! Real noodles, saw dust, flex glue, and mardi-gras bead peas. Yum!

Summertiiiiiiiime, and the living is anything but easy.

2011-05-08T21:16:00.000-07:00

Hey all, as you may have noticed, I haven't put up a post in a few weeks. Well, it's time for my annual summertime excuse. In the summers, I spend the little time that I am not working in the Opera prop shop either gorging myself on green chile, or watching the rodeo. Now, most of you theater folks are off contract anyway, and shouldn't really be reading about props in your free time, so you may not even notice that the posts are slightly more sparse. So, here's the deal. I will try to get in a post a week- but more likely I'll be doing once every two weeks. Now, if you have a beautiful food prop that you've been dying to send me (why haven't you?), this would be a great time to send it. The summer is my favorite time to do guest blog entries. So, I hope you all have a good summer, I'll blog as much as I can, and I'll see y'all back here real soon.

Smo-kay Cheese Spread

2011-04-12T12:38:00.000-07:00

Materials: Hummus, Food Coloring, A Kick-Ass Graphics Artist

Okay, this is yet another post in which the graphic prop artist outshines the food props artist. In this case, the artist doing the outshining is Jill Lyons, the very talented and skilled artisan who does paper props and props painting here at the Rep. It was Jill who did the research on the cheese spread and Jill who made the labels- I just put some hummus in the jar.

The hummus was an actor request. For some reason, he didn't feel like making a greasy, fattening cheese spread sandwich every night. He asked for hummus, and we all thought that it was a fine idea. We bought plain hummus, and used red and yellow food coloring to make it the delightful smoky color you see here.

Ta-da!

Far Away Fridge Food in Five Minutes

2011-04-06T13:08:00.000-07:00

The healthiest story ever told, apparently.

Alright, so I'm dressing a fridge for "Death of a Salesman" (Arthur Miller....swoon) that is going to be open for all of 15 seconds- if that. Now, the fridge should look stocked, and the dressing should look good, but there's no point spending an inordinate amount of time on a prop that will barely be noticeable. Here are two of the quickies that we used to dress the fridge.

I picked Phil's Dairy because my brother is named Phil, and he is awesome.

Cream
How did I make this lovely bottle of cream in less than five minutes? Let me tell you! I pulled a cream bottle and pog top from stock. I filled the bottle with salt. I glued the top on. WAH-LAH!*

I can't believe it's not butter!

Butter
Well, this photo is pretty self explanatory. I cut a piece of yellow insulation foam and put it into a butter dish. Yup.

So, as you can see, this is another post that just highlights my belief that, sometimes, the packaging is the most important part of making fake food look convincing. Salt in a bowl doesn't look like milk, and a chunk of yellow foam on a chair wouldn't look like butter. In the right context, however, sometimes all we need is that little nudge to get our brains where they need to go, and often, the simplest solution is the best. Happy Propping!

*Yeah, I misspelled it on purpose, it's funny.

Chickens ala Aimee, or the funniest food prop I've ever seen.

2011-03-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

Materials: Utility Fabric, Pinto Beans, Poly fill, Pretzels (optional), Plastic Bags.

This week's project comes to you from my good friend, Aimee Plant, who is a free lance propster in and about Chicago. For a production of 'Milk, Milk, Lemonade' by Pavement Group, Aimee had to make a slew of raw chickens. The shtick is that chickens go into the processing machine and, after a poof of feathers, processed, bagged chickens come out. According to Aimee, one of the chickens to meet her untimely fate is also the best friend of the human protagonist- and played by an actress in chicken costume. For her processing, Aimee made a large, turkey sized chicken.

The chickens are soft sculpture- and made from a fabric called Utility Fabric. Aimee wishes it were more specifically named, but she believes that it is used to cover changing tables and other surfaces that need to be wipeable. The stuffing is a mixture of poly fill and pinto beans (for heft) which are very common and useful stuffing choices.

First, Aimee made a prototype out of muslin, to make sure her size and shape were correct.

Once she had determined that she was on the right track, she cut her pieces out of the fabric.

Then she sewed them together and stuffed them while she enjoyed a delicious snack of pretzels.

Filling for chickens and tummy.

Pile of chicken parts.

Then, she pieced the chicken parts together into whole chickens.


Possibly the funniest food prop I have ever seen.

Then bagged them.


BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! I LOVE THEM.

If you've seen a funnier food prop- send me a picture!

Cherry Pie ala Kathleen

2011-03-21T10:51:00.000-07:00

This awesome work of faux pastry was made by Kathleen Ballos, a young propster and one of our neighbors to the north. I'll let her tell you about it.

Katleen writes;

"The cherry pie was something I just something I made at home for fun because I didn't have a job at the time. That being said, I used things that were affordable and very non-toxic (it was too cold to work outside for ventilation). I used salt dough for the pastry - I made the bottom layer like a normal pie (but cut a slice out and put it on a separate pie plate to bake) and covered the bottom with dried beans and foil, then arranged the lattice on top (I also cut a slice of the lattice and placed it on top of foil on the other pie plate).

After it was baked, I cut styrofoam to fit both the large pie and the slice and used Crayola Model Magic to form the cherry filling over the styrofoam. While I was doing it, I could tell that the foaminess of the model magic wasn't going to be the most accurate way to recreate the cherry filling, but using a tiny bit of water to smooth the edges of the cherries helped a bit. However, when it dried little crevices formed, but were hidden by paint and the lattice. On the plus side, the model magic allowed the filling to stay light-weight.

The lattice was a bit tricky - when I baked it, I didn't think to press the intersections together or to use water to help strengthen them, so it was pretty fragile. The salt dough reacted alright to hot glue, but it wasn't very strong. Finally, I painted the cherry filling and the shell, then glued the layers together."

Delightful! If you'd like to see more of Kathleen's craft work, you can visit her Flickr page here.

Bonus Post- Coke Bottles

2011-03-20T16:52:00.001-07:00

Hot Pour Vinyl Fishies

2011-03-13T19:30:00.000-07:00

Materials: Hot Pour Vinyl, Plaster, Vaseline, Acrylic Paints, Mold Box (wood or other), Modeling Clay

The mold for these herring was made for our production of 'The 39 Steps', by our clever and hilarious intern, Jess Smith, with guidance from yours truly.

Intern shown actual size.

It is a simple two part plaster mold made from a fake fish that we had in stock. See! Casting and faux foodstuffs in one convenient post!

The Original.

The first thing that Jess did was to determine where the seam of the mold wanted to be. With a symmetrical piece like a fish, this is a pretty easy task, especially when the fish you are using is a cast piece that already has a seam! Using a wooden mold box, Jess built up clay around one side of the fish, taking up the space that one half of the mold would eventually fill. Before applying a release agent, she built up clay near the mouth to form a pour spout, and carved a trough with a carving tool to act as a registration. (A registration is made to keep the two pieces of the mold in the correct alignment.) Once the clay dam was complete, Jess used petroleum jelly (good ol' Vaseline) to coat the clay dam, the wooden sides of the box, and the fish. This acted as a release agent so that the plaster would not stick to any of the surfaces and prevent the mold from being removed. Jess then poured the plaster into the first side of the mold, and allowed it to cure.

Here you can see the first half of the mold and the clay dam that has been removed.

Once the plaster set, Jess removed the whole thing from the mold box (some disassembly required), flipped it, and settled in back into the mold box, plaster side down. She then removed the clay dam, built the second half of the pour spout, and gave the whole shebang another coat of petroleum jelly before pouring side two. Once side two was poured, she removed the mold from the box, removed the fish from the mold, and gave both pieces of the mold a good scrubbing to remove the release agent.

See the registration trough/ridge?

The next step was to pour the castings. We used pigmented hot pour vinyl to do this (see last weeks post here). After securing the mold halves together, Jess heated the vinyl until it melted, and poured it into the mold. The vinyl itself isn't sticky when it's dry, so no release agent was needed. Then, once the vinyl had cooled, we popped it out of the mold, trimmed the sprue from the pour spout and painted the fishies silver with acrylic paint. We did try to brush silver bronzing powder into the mold before casting, and while it looked good, the powder came off on our hands too easily when handling the herring- so we went with the paint instead.

The best thing about these fishies is their floppy quality.

Thanks for your patience!

2011-03-12T18:48:00.000-08:00

Hey all, you may have noticed that I haven't posted yet this week. Please accept my apologies. There is a lot of bad, bad business going down in my home state right now (as well as with my car) and it has had me a bit distracted. Not a good excuse? Maybe, but it's the one I have. And don't worry, I'll put up that post on Hot Pour Fishies tomorrow, cross my heart. Happy Propping to all, and peace and safety to all of the people in the world right now who need it.
-Anna

Materials Monday- Hot Pour Vinyl

2011-02-28T12:49:00.000-08:00

Beef in Hot Pour Vinyl Gravy.

Hot pour vinyl! If you've been a faithful follower of this blog, you've probably noticed that I like to use a product called Hot Pour Vinyl on a lot of my food products. You also probably need to get out more. It's one of my favorite products because of it's translucency and shine- you can get really faithful representations of things like gravy, pie filling and cheese sauce. It's also nice and jiggly.
Hot pour vinyl is the same stuff that fake worm fishing lures are made out of. It comes in a liquid form, in clear or white, and is set by heating it to 350 Degrees, and then cooling it. It can be poured into a mold, or drizzled on top of fake food as a sauce, or anything else that your heart desires. I’ve used it in plaster molds, and I believe it can also be poured into silicone or urethane molds as well, though I have no experience with that. It can be re-melted and reused many times, you can put sawdust or other texturizers in it for a chunkier look if you wish.

You can buy plastic pigments to dye it, and they’re available in a wide range of colors. I’ve had mixed luck with painting it with acrylic, though I know the Guthrie had good luck using acrylic paint on some cast meat for a butcher shop scene this season. I think the luck has to do with how well you set the stuff, if it isn't heated fully before cooling, it seems not to work quite as well.

The downside is that it’s hard to get it to stick to anything, and that it can leach some oily residue over time- so it doesn’t hold up real well in our warm and muggy basement prop storage. The best part is that it is shiny and translucent- so you can make very convincing sauces with it and jiggly, so you can make hilarious jiggly food with it.

The manufacturer recommends heating it in an oil double boiler, but as that sounds terrifying to me (another prop shop I know of had a spill with theirs, ick), and I usually mix mine in small batches, I just do it over low(gradually increasing) heat, and stir constantly. It’s pretty stinky, so better to do it in a ventilated area.

We buy ours here:
Burman Industries (search for Hot Pour)
and you can buy the pigments (M-F plastic color, it’s called) that we use here:
Fishing World- Plastic Pigments
(though I do not have personal experience with this company)

I'll post a step by step next week on some hot pour fishies, but in the mean time, here are some things I've done with the hot pour. Happy Propping!

Leftover cheese on platter.

Cabbage Pie

"Something Brown made of Cabbage"

Mr. Laurel's Meat Pies

2011-02-22T14:43:00.000-08:00

In this season's production of 'Laurel and Hardy,' Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy had to chow down on a plate of meat pies. Well, if your goal is to ask your actor to eat something greasy, crumbly, messy, and high calorie every night, then a meat pie is right up your alley! Your actor can pack on the pounds and your wardrobe staff can start scraping grease. Now, if you don't want your poor performers and costumers to hate the meat pie bit, you can always sub in these delightful meat free pies. This is one of my shortest posts ever, because these pies are really, really easy to make. Here we go:

Step 1) Buy some of that pastry dough in a tube.
Step 2) Make it into pie shapes.
Step 3) Bake it. (Bake it at the recommended temperature until it looks golden brown.)

Ta-da! We opted to make a massive batch during tech, freeze them, and re-thaw them a few at a time- and it seemed to work beautifully. I won't claim that the calories issue was completely solved, but it sure beat a pocket of ground beef every night. Also, our savvy director blocked the scene so that only two of the pies were eaten each night. These two edible pies sat atop a towering pyramid of foam meat pies, so the joke still had its punch.

That's it! There you go! Meatless Meat pies! Easy as.....yup, pie.

Happy Propping!

Materials Monday- Jaxsan

2011-02-14T06:47:00.000-08:00

So, today I'd like to do a little rave about one of my all time favorite products, Jaxsan 600. Before I start this article, I should mention that I am in no way affiliated with the fine people at Plastics Coating Corporation, I just love their stuff! If you've spent any time around me in a prop shop, you've probably heard me refer to Jaxsan as 'the magic prop goo' or constantly suggest it for every type of project imaginable. What makes it so great you say? Well, let me tell you!


Within this bucket lies magic beyond your imagination! Well, actually,magic in direct proportion to your imagination. Still, not too shabby.

Jaxsan is a great coating. It can be troweled or brushed on (there is also a spray grade, but I haven't used that one yet.) You can thin it with water, tint it (with acrylic, Cal-Tints, etc.), and mix in textural materials like sawdust. It will coat wood, metal, fabric, foam rubber, and insulation foam. When it dries (air cure) it is strong, flexible, waterproof, fire resistant, and paintable. If you stipple it on, paint it black, and then hit the points with silver Rub n' Buff, it looks like cast iron. If you schmooey it onto microfoam and paint it, it looks like sliced meat (see the ham and beef photos below.)

Now, there are a few downsides. The stuff isn't cheap, but for small applications it goes a long way. Also, if you're trying to get a smooth finish, this might not be the stuff for you. It's got some texture on it's own, and you're not going to get a satiny finish with it. Once it's dry there's no sanding or carving possible.

Now, as Levar Burton used to say on 'Reading Rainbow,' you don't have to take my word for it. Laura Salvaggio over at Theater Helper has posted a good overview of Jaxsan 600. Click here to read it.
Also, the fine folks at Plastics Coating Corporation have a known history of sending samples to theater professionals. They've figured out that we use it, even if they aren't entirely sure what we do with it. You can visit their website by clicking here.

Where to buy it? Well, you can buy it directly from the company, you can buy it from RoseBrand, or you can look around online- a few other places do carry it.

I have some examples of Jaxsan use in my fake food work below (you can click on the caption to see the full post if you like):

Fauxsciutto

Strawberry Cream Cake ala JT

Sugared Pansy Cake ala Oona

Hammy Sammies

Roast Beef

So how about you? What do you use Jaxsan for? Send photos!!!! If I like the photos, I'll post them, and you can have the prestige of having your work displayed on a blog that is read by tens of people daily!

Happy Propping!

Something Brown made of Cabbage

2011-02-05T13:54:00.000-08:00

Hello all! Thank you for being patient with me lately as the winter has stood in the way of my posting to this blog! The blog has been getting quite a bit of action lately, so thank you to all who are spreading the word. This week, I'd like to bring you something truly disgusting- and I hope you'll enjoy it!

Last season we put on a production called "The Government Inspector." It's a pseudo-period piece that takes place in Czarist Russia. We find our protagonist at the inn. He has spent all of his money, and is begging the innkeepers wife to allow him to charge one more meal to his account. She offers him a variety of dreadful things (including cabbage pie and 'something brown made of cabbage' ) from which he chooses a bowl of soup. Only the bowl of cabbage soup (with chicken feathers) is eaten on stage, but the rest of the menu is pulled out for display.

The soup was a bowl of chicken broth containing a preset feather, but the cabbage pie and something brown were up to me.

Mmmmm. Delicious. Who wouldn't want to eat that?

For the cabbage pie, I started with some hot pour vinyl that I found in our kitchen. Our previous craftsperson had made up a batch of the vinyl with sawdust mixed into it, and I liked the texture. I re-melted the vinyl and poured it out onto a cookie sheet. Once it was cool, I used scissors to cut it into thin strips, like sauerkraut. I made the crust from Great Stuff. I like to use it as pastry sometimes because it has interesting texture, and is strong and lightweight. I made a blob of it on a sheet of plastic, and cut it to shape when it was dry. Before painting it, I gave it a coat of white glue so that the paint would stick

As you can see from the photo, the pie is sewn together. I still have not found an adhesive that works with hot pour vinyl, especially when it is in such small pieces The stitches were not apparent onstage, and allowed the towering pie slice a bit of wiggle.

The 'something brown' was made with hot pour vinyl also, but I wanted it to have a different base. Under this pile of vinyl sauerkraut and sauce, there are several patties made from baked salt dough and spray painted with Glossy Wood Tone. The result is a delightful "ewww" from most people who see it. The hot pour vinyl really gives it the oily sheen that terribly greasy food needs, and the different tones and textures seem to remind people of the worst casserole of their lives. Mission accomplished!

Serve Something Spectacular

2011-01-17T19:37:00.000-08:00

This weekend, I was shopping with a friend, and we stopped into a local thrift store. While surveying the offerings, a stack of magazines caught my eye, and I was immediately shoveling handfuls of old cooking serials into my arms. I would have guessed that these magazines were from the 60's or 70's, but I suppose I'm not a good guesser of period food styles yet. These phenomenal booklets were published in 1985, and offer photographic evidence of some pretty ridiculous and unbelievable dishes. While it's true that these dishes are not fake food, but real recipes, it's hard to believe that some of them could ever exist. I'm going to share some of these photos with you today, I hope that you enjoy them as much as I do.

Note: Please note the foods that are 'Gelee' or covered in Aspic. Aspic is a savory gelatin glaze; think meat flavored jello.

Breast of Turkey and Sliced Tongue in Aspic and Pate-Stuffed Chicken Breasts en Gelee. Yum!

Poached Fish with Cucumber Scales

Turkey Breast Galantine

Pear Feuilletes with Caramel

Roast of Beef en Gelee


Vanilla-Ice-Cream Bombe Surprise (The surprise is grapes, apricot jam, and kirsch)

CAKE!

2011-01-09T19:47:00.000-08:00

Materials: Insulation foam, Acrylic Caulk, Design Master Spray, Acrylic Paint, Hot Glue, Fake Flowers

Here is another Fake-n-Cake for your enjoyment! This one is for the graduation party scene in Renaissance Theaterwork's upcoming production of ' Crumbs From the Table of Joy ' The show is a memory play, and so certain props are embellished to show their importance in the main character's memory. One of these props is her graduation cake, made by the bakery where her father works.

This is another of my standard foam and caulk cakes. I used Ivory colored Design Master to get the color, and used hot glue to attach fake flowers. The one misstep was adhering the two tiers together before icing. I should have iced them separately, allowed them to dry, attached them, and then applied the decorative icing. Ah well, hindsight is 20/20.

If you'd like to learn more about decorating fake cakes, you can watch the videos from my first cake posts here:
Cake Tutorials

and here:
One More Cake Tutorial

Hammy Sammies aka Hammy New Year!

2011-01-01T09:50:00.000-08:00

Materials: Upholstery Foam, Liquid Latex, Microfoam, Fake Tomatoes, Jaxsan

Hey, all. Sorry that it's been a bit since my last post. I've had a perfect storm of three big shows at work, one freelance show on the side, and the holidays! Boy Howdy! Well, I'm two weeks away from opening one big show and one side show, and the holidays are....well, tomorrow they'll be over. So, here I am, bringing you another fun and exciting post about food fakery.

These Dagwood sandwiches were fun to make because they are meant to look a little over sized and proppy. They are for our upcoming production of 'The 39 Steps,' a humorous take on the Hitchcock film of the same name. We're not going for realism here, we're going for humorously over sized, fake sandwiches that are obviously made of ham and tomatoes.

The bread is foam and latex. I cut out a vague bread shape from upholstery foam and coated the 'loaf' with several coats of liquid latex. After a quick spritz of Design Master for that oven browned look, I sliced up the loaf with my trusty Olfa knife.

Next up were the tomatoes. Commercially produced fake fruit and veggies can sometimes be a good starting point for built food. In this case, I had fake tomatoes with foam cores. I sliced the tomatoes (as you would a real tomato) which gave me the correct size and shape of a tomato slice, as well as a finished edge. Then, I coated the foam with flex glue, and painted the surface with acrylics to look like a tomato slice.

The ham is made from microfoam packing material coated with Jaxsan and painted with Design Master and acrylics. I spray painted the pieces with Dusty Rose, and then painted the edges with Burnt Sienna for that ham skin look.


Hehe. Ham stack.

Once all of the components were created, it was time to assemble! I wanted these sandwiches to be as sturdy as possible, so I stitched them together in layers with nylon thread, after using green glue to hold the folded ham slices together. Since I didn't want the stitches to show on the top and bottom slices of bread, I used rubber cement to glue the last pieces of bread on.

Now, if these sandwiches were supposed to be more realistic, I would have done a few things differently. First, I would have worked to make the bread look more convincing by trying different types of foam and adjusting the color. My approach to the ham would have been similar, though I would have taken more time with the paint job to make it look more realistic. Perhaps I would have pepper crusted the edges. The tomatoes? Well......thinner slices and fewer of them. Also, I would have added some more details. These sandwiches are rather cartooney. Some purchased fake lettuce goes a long way towards adding texture and interest to a fake sandwich. Also, I would have dressed them on a plate with chips or potato salad, something to help with context and realism.

As it is, the sandwiches are pretty funny. I had a good time walking around the shop with them before they were assembled and letting them explode and bounce all over the floor. All in all, not a bad way to start the year in the Fake-n-Bake kitchen. Coming up soon (most likely) a floofy graduation cake, Garibaldi biscuits, and the epic tale of life casting, failed materials, and a fast approaching deadline.

NOM NOM NOM

So, from me and the sandwiches, Hammy New Year. May your 2011 be filled with excellent food, both real and fake! Happy propping!

Holiday Pies ala Sarah and Anna

2010-12-08T10:54:00.000-08:00

Well, it's still Christmas Carol season over here at the Fake-n-Bake kitchen. The show is open, but the standard little repairs and maintenance are coming over to the shop. You know, a $400 piece of electrical equipment was installed incorrectly and fried, the dead body's lead shot is leaking out of it's shroud, the usual stuff. No one has caught on fire yet (this year) so we're still pretty hum-drum on notes.

This week, I want to bring you two examples of salt dough pies from two very different Christmas productions. The first set of pies are from our production last season of "The Seafarer." The second act of this play centers around a Christmas day card game between a group of bachelors. Of the men at the table one is blind, one is playing for his soul, and the only man who isn't an alcoholic is actually Satan. So, obviously, they have some very festive refreshments including smoked salmon and store bought mince pies. By the time we see the men, they have devoured most of their treats, and we see only the remnants of their Christmas feast.

I started out by researching mince pies, it turns out that they are a British tradition, and that frozen and packaged mince pies are readily available. We purchased a package of little mince pies from an online British Grocer for research, and also to use the packaging as a prop.

The pies themselves are made of salt dough. You can find all sorts of salt dough recipes online to fit your taste, but basically, salt dough is salt, flour, and water. Thin sculptures can often be air dried, but baking tends to be faster. I mixed up a batch of salt dough, and sculpted it around some 1" long cut-offs of curtain rod. I just wanted to make sure that the dough wasn't too thick to dry out thoroughly. I used a muffin pan to give me a good bottom shape, and cut out little Christmas trees for the top of each pie. I then baked the little pies at 250 degrees F for about an hour, or until they seemed to be dried completely.

For paint, I just used watered down acrylic paints, and then coated the pies with flex glue or acrylic medium ( I don't remember which.) Though there are six pies, only two made it out onto the plates. On one, I broke the pie open and filled it with hot pour vinyl, as if it were half eaten. Do I have a photo of this hilarious half eaten pie? Yes, but I can't find it. Sorry about that.

Sarah's Christmas Carol pies are also made out of salt dough. In fact, her pies are entirely salt dough, with no filler in the middle. This seemed to work out just fine, though the dough did seem to contract some during the baking process. The edges of the dough pulled up just slightly from the pans, but not enough to be problematic.

Sarah had a much nicer plan to color her pies than I did. She used amber shellac on the pies which gave them a delightful golden brown color and a sealer coat in one go. She did use multiple coats of the shellac in the middle and along the edges to give the color some depth and make the pies look like they were fresh from the oven. You can see a photo of Sarah with her festive pies up at the top of the blog. Darling, aren't they?

A Christmas Carol Coffee Cake

2010-11-29T09:44:00.000-08:00

Materials: Great Stuff, Tissue Paper, White Glue, Design Master, Acrylic Caulk, Gloss Medium, Fake Holly

So, is everyone feeling festive yet? If you work in a theater in America, chances are 64% that you are about to open your Christmas show. (Statistic not based on fact) Whether it be 'A Christmas Carol' (yay, public domain!), 'The Best Christmas Pageant Ever', a Nativity play, or some multi-denominational holiday extravaganza, you're probably picking glitter and pine needles out of your clothes at the end of each day. Well, here in the Fake-n-Bake kitchen, we are no exception. Now, I feel like I should say that I love our beautiful production of 'A Christmas Carol,' but one does tire a bit when most of the notes involve bow fluffing and holly gluing.

This prop is a rebuild of a smaller coffee cake that wasn't reading well. I started by making a ring of Great Stuff foam. Now, I'm having a bit of a falling out with Great Stuff right now (See upcoming posts on life casting traumas) but I like using it for baked goods because it is lightweight, readily available, and it carves well.

Once the Great Stuff was cured, I trimmed away the funky bits to smooth the shape a bit. Then, I did a papier mache treatment over the foam, to give it a more 'pastry like' surface to paint. I used tissue paper and white glue for this.

Once the papier mache was dry, I painted the cake with Design Master spray paints. The Honey Stain and the Glossy Wood Tone worked to give the cake that fresh baked golden look that looks so good on stage. The icing is made from a mixture of Acrylic Caulk, Acrylic Gloss Medium, and Water. I drizzled it over the top. The first time, I put on way too much and had to wash it off. The next time was a little bit better, though I would have liked to have achieved skinnier drips, so I'll have to practice that in the future. I also could have spent a bit more time and attention to a more symmetrical coffee cake, but as my real coffee cakes usually turn out asymmetrical also, I thought I'd let it go.

Then, I glued it to the plate, and hot glued a metric buttload of fake holly and fruit picks to it, and WAH-LAH! Christmas like Charles Dickens intended it!

Meat Buns aka St. Lucia Rolls

2010-11-14T13:10:00.000-08:00

Materials: Upholstery Foam, Liquid Latex, Acrylic Paint, Sawdust, Flex Glue

These are another prop from our recent production of Cabaret. As I've mentioned before, it was my job to create a smorgasbord of (inedible) German treats for the engagement party scene. I had recently seen some beautiful prop rolls created out of latex coated upholstery foam, and so I wanted to give the technique a try. I did some poking around to find photos of German foods, and I found a photo of some beautiful rolls over on familyoven.com Now, this might be a good time for a disclaimer. I cheated a bit, St. Lucia buns are actually Swedish.

Swedish, actually. Don't tell my boss.

Making these buns is very straightforward. First, use an Olfa knife (or other utility blade) to carve upholstery foam into the appropriate shape.

After carving the rolls, give them a few coats of liquid latex. Once dry, use some thinned acrylic paint to give them some color. I mixed my paint with matte medium.

Finally, stuff the little divots in the buns. I used a combination of sawdust, flex glue, and acrylic paint. Once they are dried, put them in a lovely basket, and put them onstage!

Pretty easy, huh?

The only thing that I don't like about this technique is that it is very difficult to get the rolls to be nice and smooth. Perhaps I just need more practice, or perhaps I'm missing something. Does anyone have a surefire way to get upholstery foam to carve smoothly? If so, please comment below, I'd be happy to hear it!

Did you like this post? For another delightful type of roll, visit the following link:
http://tinyurl.com/tastyrolls

Sarah's Festive Balls- Sugarplums/Sweetmeats

2010-11-02T20:33:00.000-07:00

Materials: Celluclay, Food Coloring, Spray Paint, Cork, Spray Snow, White Glue, Garnish

Well, the time has come once more for our beloved production of 'A Christmas Carol' to be dragged from the filthy warehouse, lovingly cleaned and pieced together, and presented as a gift to the whole city. But, alas, this year, a few of the props needed special attention. The sweetmeats. Yes, the faithful sweetmeats that have served us, lo, these six long years, have seen their better days. It is time for a new platter of sweetmeats to grace our stage, and who better to confect these Victorian beauties than one of my favorite propsters, Sarah Heck?

Sarah is my co-crafter at the Rep, and she's a propster of the highest caliber. She specializes in fake taxidermy, leatherwork, and other crafts; she is a gentlewoman, a scholar, and a judge of fine whiskies. Also, I envy her for being tall. There, I said it.

But enough kissing up to Sarah, let's talk a little bit about sweetmeats. Sweetmeats, according to my favorite reference website, http://www.foodtimeline.org/ , are a British term for confectionary. Basically, what we call candies. Confections back in Dickens' time were mostly very sweet mish-mashes of honey, nuts, and preserved fruits. One of these types of sweetmeat is the famous sugar plum, which according to Saveur Magazine, look like this:

Sarah started these sugarplums by making round lumps of Celluclay colored with brown food coloring and allowed them to dry. Celluclay is nice because it is lightweight and paintable.

Next, she put pieces of rolled cork (the kind you buy to make cork board) into a blender. Once the cork was minced to a desirable size, she used spray paint to add some color to batches of the chopped cork. She dipped each of the Celluclay lumps into white glue, and rolled them in the cork schnibbles. Once the cork dried, she coated each sugarplum in white glue to seal and bind the cork even further.

Once all the glue had dried again, she dusted the top of each with spray-on snow, a sweet substitute for powdered sugar.

Once the 'sugar' was dried, there was nothing left but to pile them dramatically on a wooden platter, and garnish them with holly.

Awwwwwwwwww.

Dirty Martinis

2010-10-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

Hey all! Sorry for the delay in a new post. I worked on a commercial shoot these last two weeks that completely took up my time. Please enjoy this week's post!

Materials: Acrylic Water (the kind florists use), Martini Glasses, Toothpicks, Sculpey, Acrylic Paint, Spray Paint

So, this is a project with a couple of issues- one was an I-D-10-T error (I was being an idiot) and one was more about being unfamiliar with the materials. I'll explain both when we get there. These martinis were made for Milwaukee Repertory Theater's production of 'Cabaret.' We needed spill proof champagne and martini props for the Kit Kat Klub patrons to wave about while they caroused. I did a few samples before I settled on the Acrylic Water. Neither Smooth Cast 325 nor the year old Zeller Opti-Kleer that I had in stock was water white or bubble free, so I ran over to my favorite floral wholesaler, and picked up a bottle of Acrylic Water. This is a two-part acrylic resin that is used in the vases of silk floral arrangements to simulate water. It is easy to work with, water white, virtually bubble free, and has a beautiful refractive quality in a glass. I've never used it before, but I was eager to give it a shot, and I'm glad that I did. (There was no MSDS, and I didn't have time to request one, so I took the same precautions as I would with any two part resin. I used the appropriate PPEs, and worked in a ventilated area.)

Jim Guy, my boss, and Props Director Extraordinaire, found these acrylic martini glasses at World Market. Aside from having a nice look, the thick stems are sturdier than a typical martini glass, which helps to keep them from breaking or tipping when the acrylic makes them top-heavy. Aside from the glass, the most important identifying characteristic of a martini is the olive. These olives are made from white Sculpey brand polymer clay.

Aren't they hilarious? White model olives!

White was the only color of Sculpey that I had on hand, so I had to paint them.....but I'll get to that later. I shaped the olives by hand, and used a pen cap to give them the round impression that looks like a pimento. I decided to put two olives in each glass, to add color and help take up volume. Then, I made a stupid mistake.

I decided to put the two olives on skewers before baking them. This was not the stupid mistake. I went down to our stock hoping to find metal toothpicks. Faced with the decision between wooden toothpicks and plastic toothpicks, I chose plastic. The voice in my head said "Don't do it, they'll melt in the oven," but the tired part of my brain that had been working too hard said "Nah, it'll be fine." STUPID! Here's something I've learned in theater and life. If that little voice in the back of your brain pipes up, it's usually right, don't ignore it. So I baked the Sculpey olives on their plastic toothpicks, and I melted the plastic toothpicks. I didn't melt them entirely, just enough to make them misshapen and saggy. Stupid. Since I was working with limited time, I did my best to straighten them out, painted them silver, and carried on, hoping that the refraction of the acrylic in the round glass and the distance to stage would help me out. Luckily, for the most part, they did.

Olives before baking.

I also painted the olives. For the green of the olives, I used Design Master spray paint, for the pimentos, I used red acrylic paint. I probably should have given the spray paint a bit more time to cure, but as I said before, we were pressed for time. I dropped a skewer of olives in each glass, mixed the acrylic according to the directions, poured the martinis, and left them to cure for 24 hours.

Once cured, the acrylic is beautiful and durable, The overall effect from stage is actually very good. There was no reason not to send these martinis on stage. There was, however, a swirl of paint coming off of the olives into the martini. It looks pretty cool actually, but it isn't part of what I intended the martini to be.

See? GRRR!

I think that if I were to duplicate this project, I would use green and red Sculpey instead of attempting to paint white Sculpey. As it was, we said that I meant to do it, called it a dirty martini, and sent it onstage. I highly doubt that the audience, or even the performers, noticed that anything was amiss. It wasn't the perfect prop that I would have liked it to be, but I learned a few things, and got to try a new product, so I can't complain too much. But hey, if I did it perfectly the first time, what would be the fun of doing it again? Cheers!

Pickled Herring with Onions

2010-10-03T19:21:00.000-07:00

Materials: Paraffin Wax, Candle Pigments, Microfoam, Fake herbs

This is one of the dishes that I made for the engagement party scene in 'Cabaret.' In the scene, the counter is covered in party food; punch, sausages, St. Lucia rolls, fruit bowls, and pickled herring. This pickled herring is made of a material newly discovered to me- paraffin wax. Well, okay, I knew about paraffin wax before, but the idea of using it to replicate translucent foods is on the newer side. My boss suggested it last season for a smoked salmon platter that was on the list, and I decided to use it for this project. The paraffin is nice because it is easy to carve with an olfa knife or carving tools, easy to tint with candle coloring, has a great translucence for things like fish, and you can buy it at the grocery store. Also, you can melt it down for re-use.

I started by finding a few research photos.


This is one of them.

Next, I went out and bought some candle pigments. Okay, I asked our shopper to go out and buy me some candle pigments. Candle colors come in packets of small, intensely colored wax diamonds, like tiny diamond shaped crayons. I bought my pigments from a candle supply company in my neighborhood which I will now shamelessly plug. Not only can you find candle and soap making supplies at The Candlemaker, you'll also be dealing with a small, local and web-based business run by a delightful woman that boosts tax revenues in my neighborhood. Also, she's really nice. Please check her website out for all of your candle making needs. Again, that's www.thecandlemaker.com

Okay, the shameless promoting is over for now. After buying the pigments, I carved the paraffin wax into pickled herring shapes. I carved the shapes with my trusty Olfa knife, and used a clay carving tool to smooth them.

Like this.

Once the shapes were carved, it was time to add some color. Using a makeshift double boiler (tin cans in a bath of boiling water) I made three wax washes; one yellow, one gray, and one black. The yellow was just to cut the bright white color of the wax, the gray and black were to give the appearance of skin. Keeping the colored wax warm and liquid, I used acid brushes to paint it onto the pieces of "herring."

Like this!

Once the herring was finished, it needed some garnish to make it believable. The dill was easy, I just pulled some plastic fish tank plants out of our stock. The onions were more fun. I cut microfoam packing material into thin strips, and glued it into rings using rubber cement.

Neat, huh?

Once I had herring, onions, and dill in hand, I just had to glue them down. I used a combination of hot glue and rubber cement to do this. Turns out, rubber cement doesn't stick to wax, and hot glue doesn't stick to microfoam. Fun, no? Anyway, once it was all together, I was very happy with the effect.

Not too shabby.

Proppy, Proppy, Punch Bowl

2010-09-22T21:27:00.000-07:00

Materials: Punch Bowl and Ladle, Artificial Fruit Slices, Clear Acrylic Sheeting, Design Master Spray Paint

Behold the proppy, proppy punch bowl from our current production of Cabaret*! This one surprised me, folks. I went back and forth with my boss about what should be in this punch bowl. The conversation went something (nothing) like this:
Me: Jello?
Boss: Spoilage
Me: Acrylic? Resin?
Boss: Heavy and expensive.
Me: Punch?
Boss: Now you're not even trying.
Me: Well, what do you suggest, smart guy?
Boss: We used to do this trick in opera with Plexiglas and spray paint.
Me: BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Boss: You got any better ideas?
Me: ..........................

And that is how the proppy, proppy punch was born. Frankly, its success surprised us all.

First of all, I taped a fill line around the inside of the bowl. Then, I cut a piece of acrylic to fit into the bowl at the fill line, and cut out a notch along the edge for the ladle. Once this was done, I spray painted the inside of the bowl, and the bottom of the acrylic. I used design master paints, Cherry Wood Tone and.....one of the berry colors. Cranberry, maybe. I wanted it to look more like a wine punch than Hawaiian Punch, so I tried to keep the color subdued.

All that was left was to assemble the punch. I used snot tape to hold in the fake orange slices and ladle, and even to hold in the acrylic top. I most likely could have used something more permanent to hold in the acrylic, but I wasn't sure what was a better option. At least this way, I can disassemble and reuse the pieces when the show comes down. A few orange slices on top completed the punch (one small slice behind the ladle hides the notch.)

And that's it, the proppiest punch you ever did see! It sat on top of a buffet counter loaded with treats, and surrounded by beautiful people in their undies. Did it steal the show? No. Did it do the job? Yes.

If I were going to put a punch bowl smack down-center, this technique might not cut the mustard. Scratches in the paint give it away, as well as the tell tale clear edge of the acrylic, (though perhaps this could be remedied with some judicious Sharpie action). It is by no means a perfect solution, but it is light weight, simple to make, and effective from afar.

*(I will not title this post 'Punch and Jew-dy Show', I will not title this post 'Punch and Jew-dy Show')

Sunday Hot Links- Menus and Food Timeline

2010-09-12T11:04:00.000-07:00

From the LAPL menu database. Part of a menu from the Seven Homes Restaurant in Denmark, circa 1960s.

This week on the Fake-n-Bake blog, I bringing you two new phenomenal links that I have recently stumbled upon.

Los Angeles Public Library Menu Collection
The first is a database of period restaurant menus at the LA public library. You can search for menus by Keyword, Restaurant, Cuisine, and Date. This is useful in many ways. Not only is this a gem for ephemera buffs and paper props creation, you can also us it to research food history! Wondering what was popular in New York restaurants in the 1930s? Pop onto the database and browse menus from that period. Some of the menus even have images of their restaurant decor and meal selections, what more could you ask for? Take some time and poke around, I'm sure you'll be thrilled with what you find.

Food Timeline
Reference librarian Lynne Olver has put together this database which is an invaluable tool for food craftsters. From "a la carte" to "zweiback" hundreds of articles discuss the history of food, and a timeline dating back before the beginnings of agriculture lays it all out. Whether you need to know what Christopher Columbus was lunching on or need a recipe for popcorn balls, you'll find what you need here.

Happy Propping!

One Last Herring Cake

2010-09-06T08:32:00.000-07:00

This cake is the last of the opera's Albert Herring food-stravaganza, and it happens to be the one that I made. Here is the research image:

Isn't it darling? You just know that whoever baked it was wearing pearls and a crinoline!

I started by using the band saw to cut a bevel into my bead foam base, and then cut a hole into the middle of the cake. I then sanded the edges to soften them. Next, I mixed some color into my acrylic caulk, and frosted the cake.

Once the frosting dried, I decorated the cake using items I found in stock; some foam lemon slices that I painted orange and some little silk daisies. Ta-da!

Note: There is actually one other Herring cake, a lovely strawberry number by Keli (of the Sham ala Keli entry.) Unfortunately, I do not have photos of said cake. If I come across any, I will post them!

Cakes ala David

2010-09-01T06:26:00.000-07:00

This is another lovely foam con-caulk-tion! David Russell is our Master Craftsperson, and boy, can he fake some cakes! This one is a lemon cake based on a research photo from County Living.


See?

David's other cake is a lovely sugared violet number. Here is the research image:


Is this not the most precious cake you've ever seen? Thanks Kids Cuisine.com

He started out with an insulation foam base, and added little foam lady fingers around the edge. To texture the lady fingers, he coated them with Elastomeric and sand, and handed them off to the painters for that fresh-baked look.

The frosting is our good old standby, acrylic caulk. Unfortunately, the caulk took a while to dry, and before if was cured, some curious performer left a few fingerprints in the top. No worries, though, a few judiciously placed violets solved that right quick. The resulting cake was far sweeter than this photo shows.

Lord, I need a new camera.

Cherries Cake ala Ellie

2010-08-22T07:51:00.000-07:00

This is another of the 'Albert Herring' cakes. As you can tell, we put together quite a spread for the picnic. This lovely cake is the work of props apprentice, Ellie "Biceps" Bye, another talented and sweet young props artisan. Ellie used the standard recipe of insulation foam and acrylic caulk to make the base of her cake. The cherries on top are purchased artificial cherries from our stock.

Ellie is just nuts for fake cakes!

The real charm and cleverness of this cake is in its nutty exterior. Ellie used cork crumbles to simulate copped walnuts, pressing them into the caulk before it dried. The result is a cake that is beautifully textured, and looks good enough to eat. Yum!

If you'd like to read more about Ellie, you can take a look at this article at PhillyBurbs.com

Sham ala Keli

2010-08-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

This lovely ham is yet another picnic prop for 'Albert Herring.' Crafted by our resident sculptor Keli Sequoia, and painted by our talented painters, this ham is a vision in foam and flex glue. The body of the ham is carved from bead foam, and the slices of ham are microfoam sheeting- that thin, translucent foam used for packaging. I believe the bone is made of bamboo. Keli did something very clever here, which was to reinforce the edges of the ham slices with wire, allowing the slices to gracefully drape from the ham. The slices of ham were attached to the body with green glue, and the ham was coated with flex glue (I believe) before being painted. The final touch is the real cloves, which you can see Keli placing in the photos. Well done, Keli, another beautiful prop from a talented lady!

Herring-Do Part 3- Sugared Pansy Cake Ala Oona

2010-08-08T19:53:00.000-07:00


Lovely Oona and her lovely cake. The photos don't do either of them justice.

This is a fine example of pastry fakery from a lovely young woman who claims to be a costumer/couturier but is just aching to let her inner propster out. Oona Tibbetts created this lovely bundt while overhiring in our shop this summer. I hope you'll all forgive me, my sub-par camera has led to some sub-par photos of this lovely cake. I assure you, the 'real' thing is far more scrumptious looking than these pics give it credit. If any of you many wealthy readers want to see better photos, please send a Canon Rebel EOS to Anna Warren, C/O Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and I'll do what I can. Now, back to Oona's cakery.

Here is the research image that Oona was given:

She decided to make a few adjustments based on size and the flowers we had available in our stock. The cake that Oona made is taller and has a smaller diameter than the source photo, and she used violets instead of pansies. You see, my friends, adaptability! Oona started by carving the cake form from bead foam. After patterning the cake, she set the bandsaw table at a 10 degree angle, and cut the cake with a lovely bevel. From there, she used an Olfa knife to carve away the scalloped pattern around the edge of the cake, and sanded the top to a graceful curve.

Once the shaping was done, a coat of Jaxsan (the magic prop goo) was applied to seal the foam and provide a paintable surface. One of our talented props painters (Ilana Kirschbaum, I believe) painted the cake. Once dry, Oona glittered up a few silk violets (mmm sugared flowers) and applied them to the top of the bundt. Et, Voila! Another darling addition to the Albert Herring picnic table.

Herring-Do Part 2, Strawberry Cream Cake ala JT

2010-08-06T16:04:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember my first guest contributor, JT Ringer, from his earlier post Canapes ala JT. Well, he is back on the Fake-n-Bake blog with his towering strawberry cream cake! Yet another picnic delicacy for 'Albert Herring', this cake is a delight for the eyes.

JT based his cake on this research photo:

We decided against the grapefruit.

Each layer of the cake is carved from bead foam, which lends itself well to the spongy nature of the angel food cake. After a coating of Jaxsan, the layers were painted by the talented Ilana Kirschbaum to give them that golden brown, fresh-from-the-oven look.


JT assembling the cake layers. Notice his use of splash proof goggles, nitrile gloves, and a respirator. You can't tell from the photo, but he's working outside to spare his co-workers the fumes. How considerate!

The cream in this cake is made with Great Stuff expanding foam. The foam is adhesive, so it holds the layers together, and holds the (purchased) fake strawberries to the top without additional glue. It is lightweight and durable as well, and is very useful in the making of food props. The thing to remember, though, is that Great Stuff expands as it cures, so it's important to plan ahead. Notice how the prop cake is slightly more towering than the research photo? Yup, expanding foam. Luckily, this precarious tower of angel food cake is the perfect opera prop- scrumptious looking, and ever so slightly larger than life.

Herring-Do Part 1- Candy Sticks

2010-08-02T20:53:00.000-07:00

Hey all! I've just returned from my summer gig and boy do I have some sweet fake sweets for you! The next several posts will be dedicated to the talented props artisans and apprentices of the Santa Fe Opera, and their sumptuous creations for our production of 'Albert Herring.' This opera is the story of a young, innocent man who comes of age during a rum-fueled night of debauchery following the Loxford May Festival and his crowning as May King. Naturally, the picnic table at the May Festival is an operatic smorgasbord of delightful treats, but we also find a few faux edibles in the Herring family grocer's shop. To start us off, we have some of the candy treats from the shop, a sweet little piece of set dressing on a grand wall of propliness. These confections are the work of John Daugherty, a young man who volunteered in our shop after his hours in the Orchestra Services Dept.

These candy sticks are simply made, but oh-so-sweet! First, John cut some 3/8" dowel (painted white) down to 6" lengths, and lightly sanded the ends. Next, he used hot glue to attach varying types of ribbon to the dowels, spiraling each ribbon around the dowel to create the swirled look of the candy.

Once the candy sticks were decorated, John wrapped each one in cellophane, twisting the ends and using a bit of Scotch Tape to secure the wrapping. Such a simple process for such adorable treats! The candies went into jars onstage, just one more finishing touch on the lovely set.

See how proud John is of his tasty treats? Hip Hip Huzzah!

Short and Sweet- Candy Links

2010-07-19T22:42:00.000-07:00

Hey all, I was looking online for vintage candy wrappers when I found these two websites. I haven't given them thorough scrutiny yet, but they both seem to be worth a peek.

http://www.candywrappermuseum.com/
This is one person's collection of candy wrappers past and present. A good resource for your propping needs.

http://mistertoast.blogspot.com/2006/06/candy-bar-wrappers.html
This is just a short, fun blog post with some sweet old candy wrappers.

Enjoy!

Spilled Cokes

2010-07-14T22:32:00.000-07:00

Just a quickie this time, folks. My friend's mom is decorating the lobby of a theater where she works, and asked for a few spilled sodas. These sodas are just Smooth Cast 325 casting plastic with a little bit of brown So-Strong pigment. I poured them onto plastic wrap, and removed the plastic wrap once they were cured. See those flaws in the one in front? That's where there were wrinkles in the plastic wrap. Smooth out your plastic wrap!

Safe Dial Part 2- The Casting

2010-07-08T12:03:00.000-07:00

I cast the dial from Smooth Cast 325 using what they call a 'cold cast' technique, or what I call, schmooeying bronzing powder into the mold. This technique gives a metallic look to the resin. Here is how the process works.

Once I finished demolding, it was time to reassemble the mold. The bumps and ridges formed by the cured rubber actually act as registration points for the mother mold. There are three important things to remember here. First, make sure the mold is seated well into the mother mold. The rubber should be solidly seated into the plasti-paste, without any wiggle. The seam should be flush, and almost invisible, you don't want any leakage. Second, the mother mold should be clamped/taped/banded together- whatever it takes to get it secure and level. Leveling is very important for this casting, more so than usual because the back of the dial needs to sit flat on the safe, and the large surface area makes it harder to sand flat. Third, RELEASE RELEASE RELEASE. I used a liberal amount of Universal Mold Release in the mold before applying the bronzing powder. Release agent is important! Urethane resin is adhesive, and it will stick to all sorts of things- so I like to get some release agent pretty much anywhere I think I might get casting resin.

After the mold release was applied, I brushed bronzing powder into the mold. The idea here is that the resin will trap the powder in its surface and the finished casting will have a metallic look. Bronzing powder is another dangerous substance though, so before you use a soft brush to apply an even coat of powder to the inside of the mold, make sure to wear proper respiratory protection.

Once the bronzing powder was in place, it was time to pour the mold. Following the directions, and wearing the proper protective equipment, I mixed the Smooth-Cast 325 and poured it slowly into the mold. It's always good to pour into the lowest point of the mold, and slowly allow the resin to rise. This will help prevent bubbles from forming in the casting.

Once cured, I demolded the dial by gently removing the mother mold and peeling back the urethane rubber mold. TA-DA!

I actually made two castings of this piece so that we could cut the center piece from the outside ring, and mount them to the safe so that the interior could spin. To store the mold, I like to keep the mold in its mother mold, in a cool, dry place.

Safe Dial- The Mold

2010-06-09T11:37:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't blogged about many of my casting projects here on Fake n' Bake yet, even though apparently this is some sort of blog 'dedicated to casting and molding....blah blah blah.' The reason is that fake food is just so much more fun. Sure, sure, casting is great, I love my job, but who doesn't love fake cocktails? Or fake TV dinners? Am I right? That said, casting and molding really are a large part of what I do, and there are some fascinating things to be done with casting and molding- so I thought I'd start to share a few fun things with you.

This first little project is a dial for a safe. We have a beautiful antique safe dial in stock, it just happens to be permanently attached to one of our other prop safes. So, what to do? Our carpenter, Erik (a props GENIUS) asked if I might lend a hand by taking a mold of the existing safe dial and casting a new resin dial for our new vaccuformed safe.

Materials: Visqueen, Universal Mold Release, Smooth-on Brush On 40, Smooth-on Sonite Wax, Smooth-on Plasti-paste, mixing containers and utensils

Safety Gear: Splash Goggles, Apron, Sleeves, Nitrile Gloves, Ventilation Hood, Respirator

I started by making sure that my original was clean, and by shielding the things that I did not want to cast. I placed a layer of visqueen on the safe, cutting a hole for the dial, and taping the edges of the opening down with packing tape. Next, I applied a release agent. This is so incredibly important in casting and molding, especially when working with adhesive mold materials like urethane rubbers. I applied two liberal coats of Universal Mold Release, making sure to cover all of the nooks and crannies of the original.

I made the mold out of two layers of Smooth-on Brush on 40. I like the Brush-On 40 because it is brushable (who would have guessed), strong, and just the right amount of flexible. Also, you can really glob it on to get nice thick, strong support for undercuts, and spread it thinner where you need more flexibility. Be sure to read all of the directions carefully, and don't forget about the MSDS. Although they play it down in the literature, and although the Smooth-on guys do demos at trade shows without any Personal Protective Equipment, all two part urethanes are bad for you. They contain sensitizers, which means that the chances of allergic reaction increase each time you are exposed to them. While you may never have a reaction, why risk it? I say, err on the side of safety. So yeah, read the MSDS, read the Technical Bulletins, and protect yourself.

Once both layers of the mold were cured (I tinted the second to ensure coverage, hence the pink), I began on the mother mold. Before smearing on the Plasti-Paste, it was time to put on another release agent.Smooth-on Sonite Wax is a petroleum based wax that works as an excellent release between the cured Brush-On Rubber and the Plasti Paste. Because the rubber will not be fully smooth, the Plasti-Paste can register into all of those little nooks and crannies- making it difficult to de-mold. The Sonite Wax is thick and slippery, and helps the de-mold process immensely. I made the mother mold with Smooth-On Plasti-Paste, a thick, goopy two part plastic which hardens into a strong mother mold. This is another Urethane, so use that safety gear! Also, the Plasti-Paste can become very sharp if it is peaky when it dries, so try to smooth it as much as possible. The mother mold is made in two parts to allow it to come off of the mold easily. I waited for the first half to cure, then applied more Sonite Wax and spread on the second half.

Once the mother mold is cured, it's time to de-mold. I removed the mother mold, and then used an X-Acto knife to carefully cut a slit in the mold....just enough to allow the head of the safe dial to slip out. Any seam in your mold is a potential flaw in your casting, so it's important to plan ahead and cut carefully.

Next, the casting.....stay tuned!

Canapes ala JT

2010-05-25T11:54:00.000-07:00

Hey afauxcionados, welcome to this week's blog. This week, we have a special guest contributor. My friend JT is a propster in Texas, and has some lovely canapes to share with us. I'll just let JT take it from here:

For a recent production of 'Much Ado About Nothing', the director requested a tray of simple canapes. I decided to go with a cheese spread on bread garnished with vegetables. Some were fake and some were consumed.

For the project you will need:
- Bread (I bought Pepperidge Farms pre-sliced stuff)
- Cheese spread
- Matte Acrylic spray
- White Acrylic caulk
- Tint (yellow ochre for this particular cheese)
- Oregano

I wanted to seal the bread that was not going to be eaten, so I let it dry out over night then sprayed it with four coats, or so, of matte acrylic spray. As a warning, the bread did shrink and warp a little when it dried so it’s probably not a good idea for close distances.

Next, I spread some cheese on two pieces of bread and enjoyed a snack while analyzing the cheese for color and texture.

I put some caulk in an appropriate mixing container and added just a little bit of the yellow ochre tint. I guess it was my lucky day because I was able to match the color without adding too much tint.

To simulate the herbs in the cheese spread I liberally added some dried oregano to the gourmet caulk mix. The oregano helped with texture, but was not visible as herbs in the cheese. So, after spreading some caulk mixture onto the bread I sprinkled more oregano on top and mixed it just enough to lightly coat the oregano in caulk but so the green color still showed. After the caulk cured I sprayed a little bit of satin acrylic spray over it to give it a little gloss.

The (almost) end result was:

Left to right, the first 2 pieces of bread are real cheese and the third is caulk. For the show all of the canapes were dressed with shreds of real carrots or cucumbers, which were (obviously) replaced each night on the fake canapes.

Anna again-

So, propsters, do you have a lovely food project that you would like featured on the blog? Send it on over to propsanna@gmail.com along with photos and an explanation of your process. If I like what you sent, I'll put it on the blog. Happy propping!

Thai Take Out

2010-05-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

This project was for our production of “Happy Now” last season. The couple is unpacking their take out Thai food while they have a fight, and the noodles end up spilling all over- with an instant clean up, of course.

These noodles are the ones that stayed safely in their containers, and they are a very simple recipe. The noodles are made of thin slices of translucent visqueen. I added some tofu chunks (upholstery foam), some cilantro (plastic herbs), and some fake peapods, and then tossed it all in the sauce. The sauce is flex glue, with a little bit of raw sienna acrylic paint mixed in. The flex glue works well, because not only does it give the look of sauce, it also helps to hold everything together.

The spillable noodles were made from hot pour vinyl, also cut into thin strips, and tossed in baby powder to keep them separated. They were also garnished with fake cilantro and peapods. To keep the lid ready to fall off, I filled the lip of the lid with hot glue, which made it sit on top of the container without latching. The noodles spilled convincingly, but also were easily swept back into the container for clean up. Once the containers were preset in the take out bag, the couple was all ready for their fight.

Getting Settled

2010-05-06T09:37:00.000-07:00

I have arrived safely for my summer opera gig. My internet access is very limited right now, but I'm trying to remedy that. It is my hope to be posting again soon- I have a safe dial casting project, a nativity casting, some thai food, and other treats coming up, so check in soon.

Happy Propping,
Anna

Hitting the Road

2010-04-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

Hey all, I'm hitting the road for my summer gig. Please forgive a bit of downtime, I'll try to get my internet up and going ASAP, and bedazzle you lovely people with new posts just as soon as I can.

Happy Propping
-Anna

Fauxsciutto Part 1

2010-04-23T21:06:00.000-07:00

The real deal. Check out that awesome stache!

So, sometimes I like to take a break from my job of making fake food to spend a little bit of down time making fake food. I also like to tout new, exciting things that are happening in my neighborhood- especially new foody propsy things! A few weeks ago, some good friends, my husband, and I toured a new meat curing facility in our neighborhood. Bolzano Artisan Meats is the first dry curing facility in Wisconsin, and is owned by a charming couple who are clearly passionate about their product and their process. After touring their facility, and sampling several of their delicious products, we got to talking. While we enjoyed our lesson on the history and process of meat curing, we wanted more, we wanted visual aids! So, we mentioned this to the Bolzano Meatsters, and they mentioned to us how they'd been dreaming of a display prosciutto, and we mentioned to them that Jen and I made fake stuff for a living, and somehow an idea was born. We decided to create a fake prociutto, modeled off of Bolzano's speck prosciutto. I would do the sculpting, and Jen would do the painting, as Jen is a far better painter than I. So, step one is completed, I have carved the prosciutto, and I am handing it off to Jen today. Here is the process thusfar:

Materials: Insulation Foam, Green Glue, Dowel, Jaxsan, Cheesecloth

Step 1) Research Photos
I was lucky enough to get some in person research for this one. Scott (see above photo) was kind enough to allow me to come in and photograph one of his prosciutto from every angle. I also took measurements on the prosciutto, noting them on a quick sketch in my notebook. (Note the gloves, beard net, hat, and white jacket. These guys are serious about sanitation.)

Like so.

And so.

Step 2) The Foam Blank

This project, like so many, is carved from pink insulation foam, which is available at most home improvement stores. Pink foam, like blue foam, is easy to carve with a band saw, hand saw, utility knife, etc, and can be sanded smooth when the carving is done. It is lightweight and durable, and is an invaluable theater material. If you've seen a play in America, there is an 84% chance that you've seen insulation foam carved into something else. (Ok, I made that statistic up.) I decided to place a dowel through this piece as well, to give the thin part of the leg some extra stability. I layered the foam in the usual way, sticking the layers together with green glue, having first cut a v shaped trough for the dowel. Once the layers were together, I trimmed the sides on the block so that the blank was nice and square, and traced the basic shape of the prosciutto onto the faces of the blank.

Step 3) Carving the Shape
When cutting, it's important to remember this: It is always easier to remove more later than to add material back on, so err on the side of caution. Because I squared off my blank, I was able to do most of my cuts on two planes. What I mean is this, I carefully cut away the excess from the ham shape. Then, I taped the excess foam back onto the shape, as if it hadn't been cut away. I then rolled the blank over 90 degrees, and cut the profile shape of the ham. When I removed all of the excess, I had a basic shape cut into all four sides of the ham.

Ta-da!

Once I had the rough shape cut into the ham, I used the research images to lay out the details. I used my trusty Olfa knife, a hand saw, a Japanese saw, and course sandpaper to whittle down to the correct shape, before smoothing it all with some medium grit sandpaper.

Step 4) Coating and Texturing
This coating was a tough one. I was hoping to try out some casting latex, but none was available. I considered flex glue, but decided that it wouldn't give a tough enough skin. I finally went with my old stand by, Jaxsan. For the bottom of the prosciutto, or the top of the leg, whichever you prefer, I used cheesecloth covered in Jaxsan to give a striated look. I also used a bit of cheesecloth up over the hoof to give the little toes a bit more stability. Once I had the Jaxsan on, I used a spray bottle of water to wet down the Jaxsan, and smooth it out more. Then, I hung the whole thing to dry overnight.

For the most part, the project went really well. If/when I make another, I'm interested to play around with new coatings, and also to get more detail on the hoof. Once I have photos of the painted item, I will post them! Also, if you like the fake ham, you should definitely try out some of the lovingly crafted Bolzano products, available in Milwaukee, and at their online store.

Roast Beast in Gravy

2010-04-13T14:35:00.000-07:00

Materials: Upholstery Foam, Jaxsan, Paint, Hot Pour Vinyl, Hot Pour Vinyl Pigments, Foil Tray

In this season's production of "Yankee Tavern", we come upon the remains of a funeral reception. Tables are littered with empty beers bottles, overturned cups, dirty paper plates, crumpled napkins,and a buffet table of picked over catering trays. One of the requested items was a foil tray with roast beef and gravy, pictured above. (You can see the cheese platter here.)

The roast beef and gravy was actually a fairly simple process. I cut upholstery foam into a roughly beef-like shape on the band saw, and then sliced that chunk into thin slices. I used Jaxsan (AKA the magic prop goo, one of my favorite products) to coat each of the slices, using a toothpick to trace in the major marbling texture. Once the Jaxsan had dried on both sides, I painted the beef. Research images show that beef slices have a dark brown rind on the outside, pink centers, and brownish gray cooked meat in between. I used an initial spray of Dusty Rose Design Master spray paint, then washes of acrylic paint to get my color. Even though the beef is almost entirely covered with the gravy, it is still good to get the base at least close to correct.

After arranging the beef slices in the tray, the final step was to make the gravy. The gravy is clear Hot Pour Vinyl, tinted with M-F Plastic Color. I believe I used Brown and Root Beer color, but I don't remember exactly. Hot Pour Vinyl is liquid when heated, and a sticky, shiny gel when dried. It is used to make plastic worms for fishing. While pouring the vinyl, I tried to make it look as if people had been serving themselves. I got as much 'gravy' as I could on the sides and corners of the tray, even dripping some over the edges. Though it is not pictured here, I also put some of the gravy on a serving utensil, which was left in the pan.

Pride and Prejudice

2010-04-05T09:35:00.000-07:00

Historic Food Website
Last season, I had the pleasure to work on a production of 'Pride and Prejudice' designed by the incredibly gifted designer, Michael Ganio. For a brief ball scene, we created a table of Regency era treats, a bowl of punch, plates of delicate cookies and little marzipan fruits. While I was doing my research, I came across this website, with its galleries of period food, table settings, and delicate sugar sculpture. It is a must see for anyone working on a Regency period piece. The images in this post are just a few of the beautiful photos from this site.

Also, check out this recipe for George the Fourth's Punch, a staple of the Regency ball.

Edible Flowers at The Skylight

2010-03-29T07:05:00.000-07:00

Every so often, a script comes along in which the characters are chowing down on some non-edible item. Flowers are actually a fairly commonly eaten prop, believe it or not. I base this highly scientific conclusion on the fact that I've only been doing props for a few years, and this is not the first time this has come up. Now, in the case of flowers, there are a few options. The performer can fake the action, the performer can eat a real edible flower, or the props dept. can provide something edible that looks like the proper flower. Once, for an evening of opera scenes, the shop I was working in made a large Datura flower out of Fosshape, and substituted a piece of flour tortilla for one of the petals. When it was time for the performer to eat the deadly flower, she simply took a bite of the tortilla petal.

In The Skylight's current production of "A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine" Harpo Marx (Ray Jivoff) eats a carnation. You know, like you do. The very talented ladies of The Skylight's prop shop offered Ray several options for his edible flower. Here is what Lisa Schlenker, Properties Manager, said about it:

" (The) performer preferred sugar to real carnations. This particular guy is rather infamous for his sheet cake addiction, so we were not surprised. (We used) vanilla fondant. Very user friendly. It has a modeling consistency sort of like warm fresh Apoxie Putty.The gum paste ended up being stickier and a pain to work with, and not as easy for the performer to bite and chew when it hardened, so we went with 100% fondant for all the flower parts. For the green petioles at the base of the flower, we just used food grade paste food coloring and mixed it into the white fondant."

Chase Stoeger, a performer in the production, made a short video about the flowers, which he has posted on YouTube. It is a fun little look at Ray sampling the edible carnations, and you get a peek into The Skylight's prop shop.
You can see the video here.

If you like what you see, please check out "A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine" which is running at The Skylight for the rest of the week.

Boozey Resources

2010-03-22T14:21:00.000-07:00

I asked my boss, notorious Props Director Jim Guy, to give me the names of some books that he uses as alcohol reference. For you young artisans, books are like the internet, except they are printed on paper, and it takes longer to search them. As excellent a reference as the internet is, sometimes, you just have to go straight to the horse's book.

Now, I'm linking to Amazon here, but for goodness sake people, patronize your local bookstore. Please.

Jim has recommended these tomes:

The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Wine, Beer, Spirits, and Liqueurs
by Stuart Walton and Brian Glover
This is a large volume packed full of information on different alcoholic beverages. It has plenty of photos, so there is some good label research as well.

Mr. Boston Deluxe Official Bartender's Guide
Jim has the 'New World Wide Edition' which has a wealth of vintage cocktail recipes and, even more importantly, hilarious vintage photos of Old Mr. Boston liquors.

Whisky The Water of Life, Uisge Beatha
by Helen Arthur
Now, far be it from me to say that Jim is a man who likes good scotch, but Jim is a man who likes good scotch. My husband is a man who likes a peat bog in a glass, and I enjoy one or five good Sazeracs from time to time. All of us can find the history of our liquor here in this beautiful book, which is full of lovely photos of labels and advertisements, and plenty of information on Whiskies and Distilleries.

Mocktails!

2010-03-21T16:05:00.000-07:00

Booze!- It's booze week here on the Fake-n-Bake blog! This week, I'll be pouring you a measure of what I know about getting people "drunk" onstage. Enjoy, and, as always, please throw in your two cents!

For obvious reasons it is rarely, if ever, a good idea to give performers alcoholic beverages to drink onstage. That said, it is incredibly common for shows to involve alcoholic beverages. Luckily for us, many different things can be substituted for alcoholic drinks.

Water- For any clear liquor (Vodka, Gin, Light Rum, etc.) water is the perfect substitute. Tasteless, odor free, non-staining, and it doesn't do anything to inhibit the voice of a performer. If you can't get a performer to drink water onstage, chances are, they won't be drinking anything.

The Diet Cola Cocktail- My boss, and famed Properties Director, Jim Guy swears by this concoction. Simply dilute flat diet cola with water, a good start is 1 part cola to 4 parts water. It gives a nice caramel liquor color, which works well for whiskey, bourbon, scotch, etc. There are no calories, and you can make it using caffeine-free diet cola if your performers prefer.

Colored Water- This one is pretty self explanatory, food coloring can be used to color water. Caramel-colored food coloring can be purchased at most places that sell cake decorating supplies. Keep in mind that most food colorings, especially red ones, can stain fabrics.

Tea- Lipton tea is very commonly used as liquor onstage, as it can be diluted easily with water. Beware though, the slight foamy ring that can give it away. Herbal teas can also work very well. Orange herbal teas have a nice red color that lends itself well to playing cognac or sherry. Hibiscus tea has an incredible red color, and is non-staining (test your fabric to be sure), but has a very tart flavor.
Juice- Grape juice, red or white, is a common substitute for wine onstage. Be careful, though, as some performers do not like the way that sugar affects their salivary glands, and thus, their voices. Also, beware that juices can stain. Sparkling juices can be a good substitute for champagne.

Ginger Ale (Regular or Diet)- This is a good substitute for beer or champagne, if your performers don't mind the taste/sugar content. If you can't get the "beer" to hold a head, a spoonful of foaming bar sugar preset in the glass before pouring should do the trick.
Non Alcoholic Beer- Yup, pretty much exactly what it says it is.

Some Things to Consider:
As props providers, it is part of our job to facilitate the performers. It can be very frustrating to find the right thing to give a picky actor, but imagine being onstage, trying to sing and dance in a heavy costume, under hot lights, with hundreds of people watching, and have your voice catch in your throat because you just had to guzzle down some syrupy fake champagne. Or imagine being asked to down 4 ginger ale "beers" a night- and still fit into that size 4 dress. Performers have real concerns about what goes into their bodies on and offstage, and we should do our best to accommodate those concerns. Of course, we are faced with budgetary and time limits, but some work up front can save money and frustration during tech. Have a conversation with your performers early on in the rehearsal process, giving them some options. Let them know that they can choose between colored water, tea, or diet soda, or whatever the prop calls for. Your stage manager should be able to facilitate this conversation- and it will make the performers more comfortable as well. There will always be some difficult performers, but heading them off at the pass should make everyone's job easier.

Some things that can make performers uncomfortable:
Calorie Content- Whatever they are consuming onstage, they may have to do it up to eight times per week.
Sugar- Sugary drinks can be hard on the voice, but some performers prefer to have a little blood sugar boost mid show.
Dairy- Dairy products turn mouths and throats into gooey messes, making it very hard to sing or speak well.
Caffeine-Some performers would like to get a good nights sleep after the show.
Artificial Sweeteners- Some performers prefer natural foods.
Quantity- In 'State of the Union' one actress had to down six cocktails in fifteen minutes- and then sit onstage for another half an hour with no bathroom break. In that case, we used a false bottom and a handful of fake ice to make her job easier. Finding glasses with thick bottoms and employing fake ice is way easier than asking the costume department for a catheter. ;)

The bottom line is, communicate with your performers. Everyone has different needs and preferences. Allergies, medical needs, and tastes should all be considered when deciding the right solution for your props.

Happy pouring!

Label-rama.

2010-03-18T11:22:00.000-07:00

As I'm sure you've discovered, the liquid in the bottle is only part of what makes fake booze believable. Like so much of what we do, the packaging is what sells the prop. The label, the bottle, the cap, the opener, all of these things clue us in to what we're looking at. Often, the brewery or distillery (now, more often, the corporation) will have product history on their website. If you are willing to dig deeper, some companies have historians that you can contact for information. Here are some links that I've come across doing label research. These sites have lots of items available for purchase, and they also can be excellent resources for research. I hope you enjoy them, and please feel free to add your favorite links in the comments.

Beer
Tavern Trove
This is a collectors' website with an extensive collection of all things beer. From cans to bottles to ads to matchbooks to caps, this website has almost 40,000 items. An excellent resource for the propster or breweriana collector.

Breweriana.com
Another extensive collection of beer cans, etc.

US Beer Labels
Pretty self explanatory, a large collection of American beer labels

Lemarkbbc
Lots of photos of bottled beer from around the world.

Wine
Winegirl
Hundreds of wine bottles and labels.

Antique-Wines.net
Wine bottle and label photos.

Spirits
Tias.com
Lots of labels, including some liquor labels.

Bottles
Antiquebottles.com
Guess what they have? Antique bottles! Cooooool.

Picked- Over Cheese Platter

2010-03-17T18:04:00.000-07:00

In a recent production, the second act opens on the remains of a party. The guests have left, the bar is littered with empty cups and cans, dirty paper plates, and crumpled paper napkins. A buffet table sits in the corner, covered in trays of picked-over roast beef, bread, pasta, and cheese.

The cheese platter is a good example of how dressing can make or break the prop. The most convincing part of this prop is probably the black plastic deli tray, followed by the garnishes. The only part of this prop that I fabricated was the cheese. I used hot pour vinyl, colored with yellow and orange tint, poured thin, and cut into triangles. To cut down on the sheen of the vinyl, I dusted the "cheese" lightly with talcum powder, my go-to for de-stickifying things.

As I said, the real key to this prop is the dressing. The black deli tray was purchased at Sam's Club, and boy, does it sure say "we picked up some party platters at the local grocery store deli." The grapes and lettuce are other clues, and were easy to pull from stock and hot glue to the platter. They definitely give the party platter look.

A note: I can't find a darn thing to get cooled hot pour vinyl to adhere to that darn deli tray. Hot glue, epoxy, liquid nails, vinyl adhesive, silicone, more hot pour vinyl, nothing worked. If you have a solution to get that stuff to glue down to something, I would love to hear it, drop it in the comments. Better yet, write it on the back of a twenty dollar bill, and mail it to me.

One More Cake Tutorial

2010-03-14T11:47:00.000-07:00

Here is the last of the cake tutorials. Enjoy!

Cake Tutorials

2010-03-07T09:06:00.001-08:00

Well, I promised to post some more information about how I did the piping on that little flower cake, so here it is! Special thanks to Meghan S. for her camerawork.

First, How to Prepare a Pastry Bag

Second, How to Pipe a Shell Border

Third, How to Make an Icing Rose

There is one more coming, I'll have it up as soon as technology allows. Enjoy!

Penny Drinks aka Ladies Night

2010-03-04T22:38:00.000-08:00

Well, thanks to a lovely recommendation from Mr. Eric Hart, and you lovely people, this blog has just made it's first penny! Now, don't worry, the entry on cake decorating is in the works, but I wanted to take a moment to celebrate what I hope is the first of tens and tens of pennies! What better way to celebrate this occasion than with a drink, especially one that you can't drink?

When Act I ends, our actor has been dressed in drag for our amusement. When Act II begins, we find that he has spent intermission at a bar across the street, taking advantage of ladies night. Now, if there's one thing that musical theater thinks that 'ladies' like to drink, it's fruit cocktail in a glass. Right?

The fruit is actually serving two purposes here, visual and practical. For color, clarity, and cuickness (that's right, I said it) we decided to use Smooth Cast 325 for our drinks. The problem with cast resins is that they aren't particularly light, and top heavy stemware makes for tippy, awkward props. The fruit, which was purchased and pulled from stock, is considerably lighter as it is either hollow or made from lightweight materials. Since we're going for the girly drink joke anyway, it fits right in.

There are two little tricks with this drink, not that anyone would ever notice by looking at it. Because that darling little umbrella is incredibly fragile, and because my boss is holding out hope of finding a funnier straw, both the umbrella and the straw are designed to be removable.

So, here's how I did it. First, I pulled two glasses from stock (one is for a back up.) Then, I loaded the glasses up with fruit and fake ice. Since I wanted the resin to stick to the glass and the fruit, I didn't use a release agent. The umbrella (as you can see only slightly in the photo) is floating freely in a small red cocktail straw that is embedded in the resin. This was simply done by putting the straw in the glass before filling. Urethane resin is adhesive, so it's very easy to do embeddings like this. Making the bigger straw removable was only slightly more complicated. First, I used hot glue to plug the bottom of the straw. This prevented resin from creeping up the inside of the straw and sticking. Then I used Sonite Wax liberally on the straw. Sonite Wax is a petroleum based wax that is made by Smooth-On, and is releasier, beefier, and gooier than the spray on Universal Mold Release that I am generally fond of. Once the straw had a thick coat of release agent, I placed it in the cup as well.

The decision to make the drinks pink was based largely on the fact that I had red So-Strong pigment in stock. Just a tiny dab of this pigment was enough to color the resin this fruitylicious shade of pink. As per the directions, I measured out equal parts of Smooth Cast 325 A&B, added the color to part B, and then mixed the two thoroughly, and poured. (Using proper safety gear, of course.)

About 1/4 of the way into pouring, I remembered something important. Buoyancy. The sealed straw and the hollow fruit started to float to the surface, basically voiding my careful arrangement. No matter, with my gloved fingers, I was able to hold the items in place long enough for the resin to set initially (about 90 seconds.) Note to self: light stuff floats.

Luckily, the schmooeying of the straw was a success, as was the awkward holding of the fruit. The fruit stayed in the drink, the straw came out. The embedded cocktail straw made a perfect little nest for the umbrella, and the cabaret show got just a little bit girlier. Hot glue a fake slice of orange to the rim of the glass, and bottoms up!

Fake-n-Cake

2010-02-28T21:11:00.000-08:00

Project: Fake Cake

Materials: Foam (Insulation or White Bead Foam), White Acrylic Caulk (4-6 Tubes), Acrylic Paints, Green Glue (3M Fastbond Contact Adhesive.)

Tools: Spatula, Disposable Pastry Bags, Decorator Tips 32, 104, 4, and 352, Lazy Susan/ Cake Decorating Turntable (Optional)

First, a word about tools. Cake decorating is a perfect example of a project which uses real food preparation tools with non edible chemicals. Always be sure to store food safe tools/containers separately from non food safe tools, and label them well. If you are storing actual, food-safe, prep supplies in the shop, make sure they are stored in closed containers to protect them from contamination. Remember, once a tool or utensil is used once on something that is not food-safe, it is no longer to be used for edible food preparation. Now, back to your regularly scheduled blog.

Foam is a really good base for onstage cakes, it is lightweight, easily shaped, and fairly durable. Best of all, it doesn't crumble like real cakes do, so it is easy to frost. For this cake, I used white bead foam, first cutting it to size (9" Diameter circle) on the band saw, then gluing the two layers together with green glue. Before frosting, I rounded the top edge slightly with sandpaper.

The frosting is white acrylic caulk. The caulk is easy to work with, can be colored by adding acrylic paint, and can be smoothed with water when wet. When dry, it is paintable, durable, and somewhat flexible. When frosting a cake, you want to start with a big blob of frosting on top, and spread it outwards with even strokes of your spatula. If you need to add more frosting, add it to the center blob, and work it into the frosting that is already down. This helps to make a smooth finish (and, in real cakes, keep crumbs out of your frosting.)

When you get to the edges, let the frosting fall down the sides of the cake before smoothing it down. To get the sides straight and smooth, hold your spatula upright, at a 45 Degree angle to the cakes edge and, in one continuous motion, gently smooth the frosting around the cake. See how the blade is tilted away from the cake in the photo? Don't do that....hold it straight. (It's hard to take a photo and frost at the same time.) This is where the Lazy Susan really comes in handy. Being able to turn the cake while you smooth is a big help.

Like real butter cream frosting, acrylic caulk can be smoothed with water for a nice, finished look. Wet your spatula lightly, and smooth over any folds or lines. Keep the blade of your spatula clean by wiping it often with a damp rag. No frosted cake is as smooth as glass, so some imperfections will give it a realistic look.

Once the first layer of frosting is complete, you can start piping. For this cake, I used a simple shell border on the top and bottom of the cake. (See my next post for more details about decorating this cake.)

After the caulk had dried, I dusted it with Design Master Butter Cream paint, to dull the white down a bit. Then, I mixed small amounts of white caulk with yellow, orange, and green acrylic paints to make the colored frosting for the cake's decorations. (And by the way, this isn't an incredibly awkward bundt cake, the hole in the middle is the fixture I installed for the fake candle that is taken out of the cake during each performance.)

I piped the decorations on, let the cake dry, and TA-DA!

Some cakey links:

Wilton Cake Decorating

As I mentioned earlier, I plan to do my next post detailing the decorations on this cake. However, if you just CAN'T wait to see how it's done, I recommend visiting the Wilton site for more information.

Cooks Cake and Candy Shop

While you can buy a decent selection of cake decorating supplies from the big box craft stores, I always like to frequent local businesses when I can. Your local cake decorating store will most likely have a larger selection of tools and, more importantly, staff who actually decorate cakes and can answer your questions. If you don't have a local cake decoration supplier, and you have the time to order online, please consider Cook's Cake and Candy Shop, located in Milwaukee and on the internets. They have thousands of items for cake and candy making, and helpful staff who know what's what about cakes. When I needed silver edible ink to write on sheets of dried seaweed, these ladies pointed me towards silver fondant glaze. When I retire, I hope to be a Cook's Cake lady.

Cake Wrecks

If you are looking for some hilarious cake failures, this is your site. You can spend hours looking at fail cakes, with the occasional success thrown in for good measure. I promise that you won't be disappointed here.

Turkey Leg

2010-02-17T18:55:00.000-08:00

Ah, the turkey leg. What would Ye Olde Renaissance Faire be without one? And, of course, what would the Ghost of Christmas Present be without one? So felt our director of "A Christmas Carol" this season. The request was for a turkey leg, partially eaten, that could be removed from a dressed plate which is part of a bedazzling display of festive foods. Our version of A Christmas Carol is in it's sixth year, so my involvement in the bedazzling display was limited to gluing on stray berries and shuttling stray glitter back to its intended home. However, the turkey leg was a new addition this year, and so the crafting fell to me. Before I begin, I think it is fair to mention that our Carol is performed in a large proscenium house, and not in our usual, more intimate thrust space. The aesthetic of the props in Carol is more theatrical than the work we usually do, true to life detail is often wasted in this space.

First things first, research images as usual. What surprised me the most about the photos of the turkey legs is what a bright pink center most of them have. I expected to see more of the whitish gray that you tend to see in breast meat, but these guys are bright pink.

I started with the bone, which was simply a piece of hardwood dowel that ran through the entire "leg." I whittled down the end to give it a bone-like appearance, and sanded away any splinters or sharp bits. In my experience, actors have dainty, soft hands, and they will find ANY imperfection in a prop and injure themselves on it.

The flesh of the turkey leg is made from upholstery foam. I cut a vaguely- turkey leg shaped chunk of foam on our table top bandsaw, cut that in half, and cut a groove down the center of each half for the bone. Using 3M Fastbond Contact Adhesive (commonly called Green Glue), I joined the foam together with the bone inside, sandwich style. Next, I used my trusty Olfa knife to carve the foam into the shape of a turkey leg.

Once the carving was complete, I covered the foam with acrylic caulk. Acrylic caulk is a very good props coating as it can be colored by mixing in acrylic paint, is paintable when cured, and becomes tough and flexible when dry. It can also be smoothed with water before it dries. I happened to have some caulk that was already colored with fuschia paint, so I used that. I would recommend using caulk that is already tinted, as it made it easier to do the final paint job.

Once the caulk was dry, I painted. The golden brown look of the skin was achieved with layer after layer of Glossy Wood Tone, the king of Design Master spray paints (trumpet fanfare). I used acrylic paint and gloss medium to try to simulate the tissues in the bite, and did some shadowing on the bone as well. If this turkey leg was for one of our more intimate spaces, I would have done more as far as texture, possibly using hot glue to help with the gristly look where the bone meets the flesh.

Once the turkey leg was all dry, it was basically like a nerf turkey leg with a tough coating, so the best part of this project was walking around the shop hitting things with it. Here in Milwaukee, we play with our food!

Links:
3M Fastbond Adhesive 30NF, AKA Green Glue
This is a great contact cement for joining foam. Remember, paint it onto both surfaces and allow to dry before adhering.

Olfa Knives and Tools
I love these tools. The Utility L-1 is my go to knife for most jobs.

Design Master Woodtones
I have yet to meet a prop shop that doesn't depend on these paints for many uses. Glossy Wood Tone is basically magic in a can. On the downside, the spray pattern is usually pretty uneven. Like all spray paints, these should be used with proper ventilation and respiratory protection.

TV Dinner

2010-02-09T11:54:00.000-08:00

I have to admit, there wasn't a research image for this one. This TV dinner came mostly from the memories of the rare evening when my brother and I were allowed to have microwavable TV dinners. Black plastic compartments separated our chicken nuggets from our crinkle fries, and a thin layer of plastic covered the greatest of the treasure, a sticky 'chocolate' brownie that baked in the microwave. What luxury technology had brought to our lives!

This TV dinner was for our production of Almost, Maine, and was simply a piece of set dressing. I decided that this character seemed like the tuna noodle casserole type to me, and what goes better with tuna noodles than peas? Our shopper, Pete was kind enough to buy me a real TV dinner, so that I could use the iconic black divided tray. I dispatched the dinner, and washed out the tray.

The peas were easy as pie. Easy as peas? Hmm. I simply took a strand of cheap mardi gras beads, spray painted them green, cut them apart, and glued them into the tray with Alene's Jewel It glue. This glue is excellent for holding round items to smooth surfaces and, as it dries shiny, I also spread it around the compartment to simulate water. Mmm...watery peas.

The tuna noodle casserole is actually sawdust noodle casserole! I mixed up some egg noodles (dry, not cooked) with sawdust, flex glue, a dab of ecru acrylic paint, and a few of those mardi gras peas. The benefit of the flex glue sauce is that it holds the pasta down on its own. I sprinkled a bit more sawdust on top for extra texture.

The gooey chocolate brownie was a bonus. I happened to have a few tablespoons of Smooth-On Flex Foam it left over from a previous project. Using Smooth-On's So Strong brown pigment, I colored the foam, and poured it into the tray.

Once it was all together, I glued a fork in, and we sent it to stage!

Chocolates

2010-02-08T13:33:00.000-08:00

Project: Chocolates
Materials: 1/2" insulation foam, brown and white acrylic caulk (with silicone), plastic baggies, Krylon Crystal Clear

The show we're about to open calls for a tin of chocolates to be hidden in a drawer. While we have a few little bon-bons in stock, I've been asked to create a few chocolates to supplement the collection. Chocolates are often faked onstage, as real chocolates melt easily under theatrical lighting. Fake chocolates are readily available if you have the budget, but as this is a fairly simple and straightforward project, you can save the money by faking your own.

The first thing to do is find a research image. A quick search on the internet can provide us with a plethora of chocolate photos. Since I have a small, square chocolate in mind, we'll go with this lovely morsel.

Second, gather your materials. I am assuming
that you are working in a space stocked with the basics, so I haven't included basic tools and supplies on the materials list. Let's begin!

1. I used 1/2" thick insulation foam as a base for these chocolates. It is cheap, readily available, reasonably durable, and lightweight. I started by cutting the foam into 1" squares with a utility knife. Then, I sanded the top edges and corners with 100 grit sandpaper to round them over, as the top of most dipped chocolates is not perfectly square. I always find it helpful to make a few extras of whatever I'm creating, if possible. That way, I can make some mistakes along the way.

2. Next, I coated the edges and the top of the chocolates

with brown acrylic caulk. I like to wear gloves to keep my hands from getting messy, and use a tongue depressor to spread on the chocolate. Once the top and sides are covered with a good layer of caulk, I dipped my finger in water and used it to smooth the caulk out. Then, I placed the chocolate on a piece of tin foil to dry.

3. After allowing the caulk on the chocolates to partially dry, I piped on the decoration. When doing small projects like this I've found that snipping the tip off of a plastic baggie makes a great disposable pastry bag. The piping took a bit of practice to get the feel right, so those extras that I cut came in handy. I did most of the piping in brown caulk, but I also tried the white, for a different look.

4. After the tops and sides were dry ( a few hours), I flipped the chocolates over, and coated their bottoms with caulk. Once the chocolates were completely dry, their color looked good, but the caulk was a little dull. I used a light spray of Krylon Crystal Clear, Satin Finish to give them just a bit of a sheen.

5. Presentation. My Dad once told me that food is 90% presentation. This may not be true in real life, but it certainly is in food fakery. These chocolates were each placed in a candy cup (available at candy making shops or big box craft stores), and placed in a tin with our other chocolates. The tin, painted by Margaret, is partially empty to allow a deck of cards to be hidden inside.

TA-DA!

Need more info about chocolate? Here are a few links to some good propsy info. Enjoy!

Here is a link to Hershey's company history, with a few good pieces of graphics reference for you ephemera hounds.

http://www.hersheys.com/discover/history/company.asp

Cadbury Chocolates made in Bourneville, UK are a favorite around the world. You can read about their products at this site. If you have time, read about the history of their company. The early Cadbury company was revolutionary in caring for its employees. To this day, the whole town of Bourneville smells of the chocolate factory there. Yum!

http://www.cadbury.co.uk/cadburyandchocolate/Pages/cadburyandchocolate.aspx

Welcome to the Fake 'n Bake Kitchen

2010-02-06T14:24:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the wonderful world of culinary fakery!

My friend Eric Hart has a lovely props blog where he expounds on all things props. Since I saw his blog, I've been wondering about how I, too, can contribute to the general knowledge of prop artistry flying about the internets. So, I've decided to do a blog of my own, specifically related to fake food craftsmanship and casting and molding - the two things I specialize in here at the good ole MKE Rep. I am by no means the leading authority these topics, but I have a few years of propping under my belt now, and ever-mounting experience in the dimly lit props kitchen. I think it's time to share some of my successes (and some of my hilarious failures) with you lovely people.

The first step was choosing a name, and I have to say that my friends were full of helpful suggestions. As promised, Sarah Heck (a propster extraordinaire herself) will be rewarded with a plate of (actual, edible) chocolate chip walnut cookies for her suggestion of Fake 'n Bake. Special mention should also go out to Linn Elliott for her hilarious, if cumbersome, Pate de Faux Gras. Other contenders included Sham Cast Bakery, Inedibles, Easy Fake Oven, Fresh Faked Goods, and Kitchen of Lies. Thanks to all.

I hope you'll find this blog to be helpful and amusing. Please send comments and questions, I'll do my best to answer you or to point you in the direction of an answer. So, let the fakery begin.