Write Place, Write Time: The Hag

There is a mystery within Write Place, Write Time which involves the character of the Hag playing the part of a ghost of a murdered woman, or so it would seem... 

Design by Katie Pollitt

The director  wanted the hag to be overly ragged, so I went a bit mad with the ragging of the skirt, but to keep the actress' modesty she wore a long night shirt underneath. However because the group only had two of these, they didn't particularly want it all shredded up, unable to use again without rags. So 

I unpicked the sleeves from the shirt, and used them as a template to cut two new sleeves, which I then sewed into the sleeve hole and shredded to pieces.

In order to make the ragging of the night shirt simple to do, I pegged it to the washing line...with perhaps more pegs than needed... and so not dragging the Stanley knife through anything else beneath it.

By the way guys, great way to relieve stress/anger...as long as you're careful...I mean look at the wound I made when making this costume....

Obviously only joking, above is a photo of the stab wound I painted onto a scrap piece of fabric, to later attach to the back of the Hag's ragged and dirtied costume.

Again because I couldn't rag the actual night shirt, for the used bottom section you would see underneath the green skirt I used scraps of white fabric, ragged them and then hand sewed these into place.

To emphasise the rags on the night shirt and the skirt I went over the edges with a graphite stick and then charcoal, as the graphite didn't seem to do quite a good a job as I was hoping. The purpose of this was to make the rags look dirty but when I first did it, up close it looked more like she'd been in a fire...but after rubbing the excess off from a distance it just dulls the white a bit which is good.

The Wound:

The Hag played the part of the ghost of the woman who was stabbed in the back...which therefore meant she needed  a stab wound on her back.

Again because the night shirt was to be able to be worn again, I had to come up with a way that wouldn't damage the original garment, so I decided to make it separately and then stick it to the night shirt once done.

To do this I got two layers of white cotton fabric to match the night shirt, and ripped one layer with the edge of scissors, marking where the top and bottom of the rip would be onto the other layer of fabric, showing me where the wound should be.

I then used matt Impasto Gel to get the raised look of the skin peeling back from the wound (impasto gel is something you can mix into acrylic paint to thicken it).I then brushed the surface of the raised skin with different shades of red, acting like dried scabs/clots at the edge of the wound, with darker reds.

I know things like this can't really be seen from the audience but doing these little details mean that if you can see up close, it looks just as effective as in the audience.

To create the effect of the blood seeping into the shirt around the wound, I watered down the paint quite a bit, running the brush against the edge of the rip, and then dabbed more of the watered down paint slightly further out from the wound.

I then cut out the shape of the blood stain, where the white of the fabric had just started to appear at the edges, hopefully making it look a bit more realistic. I then applied double sided tape to the back of the wound and stuck to the night shirt she would be wearing.

The double sided tape worked well because it acted as if the blood had dried to the fabric and stuck to the wound. I also had some threads frayed from the rip sticking into the wound.

The above image shows photos throughout the process of making the wound.

Below is the front and back of the finished costume and the Hag during rehearsal performances.

Original Performance Photos by Ashley Foster

Links:

Thank you to Ashley Foster for the performance photos, if you want to have a look at his other work or more photos from the adult production please visit his website at http://ashleyfosterphotography.co.uk/  The performance photos I have used I have cropped down to focus on individuals, going to his website will allow you to see full performance shots.

If you are interested in the drama group itself that I do the costumes for please check out their website at http://www.thegrangeplayers.co.uk or their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thegrangeplayers where there are more photos to look at and you can check out any upcoming shows.

Talk to you soon.

~K

Snow White and the Curse of the Ice Queen: The Magic Mirror

Photo by Ashley Foster

To tell you the truth, the first time I saw that the magic mirror had to be a person, and so was classed as a costume rather than a prop, and a movable one at that, I was slightly panicking inside. Wondering how on earth I was going to do this without making it a ginormous monstrosity, that wouldn't be that easy to get out of for the actor.

The actor himself is in a wheelchair, which actually made it easier to make a mirror into a costume, because it meant we had a structure to attach it to. So the costume would consist mainly of the mirror I would be making out of foam board and the actor would wear black trousers and t-shirt underneath, as there were going to be no set flats used. The background would just be the black curtains of the stage, hence using the black clothes (the photo to the left was taken before the mirror was attached; during the rehearsals/performances he didn't have to hold the mirror, he would also be wearing black trousers as said earlier).

For the mirror I decided to go for a Baroque or Rococo-esque styled mirror...basically so it would look fancy pants...I like to give myself a challenge, especially if it goes well and I'll end up with something that looks quite impressive.

Designs by Katie Pollitt

I had an idea in my head of what I wanted it to look like, but wanted  it to look authentic, style-wise, because I knew I couldn't make it authentically out of metal etc. Although I'd be up for trying to make one properly at some point, that could be quite fun and interesting actually...yeah...anyway. To make sure I had the right style in mind, I went on the internet to look at lots of different mirrors from the periods and used one as inspiration; but making it slightly simpler in order for it not to be too hard to cut out the intricate detail.

One of the adult members of the group offered their help with the production of the mirror, which would be supplying the materials and cutting the overall shape; I would then draw the design onto it, he would cut out the shaped edges and then I would paint it, however it didn't really end up going like that.

 

During one of the weekly sessions we discussed the dimensions of the mirror and the next week he brought a prototype in, made of cardboard. When holding up the oval to the actor we decided to make the inner oval the size of the outer edge, and whilst showing him the design I said where we would need to add more on the top and where to have the sides reach out to, to fit the shape onto. The next week he came back with a prototype made out of MDF, holding up to the actor, the inner oval was the right size. However there wasn't enough added space at the sides to fit the shape of the mirror needed. So I showed him the design again and we measured how much more we'd need and I asked that he just cut the new dimensions to a rectangle, and then he could cut the shape once I'd drawn it. The following week he had left me a piece of foam board (he'd gone on holiday, so I was unable to speak to him that week), however it wasn't a full rectangle; it was a rectangle with another smaller rectangle taped to the top, but not as wide as I had asked.

At this point we were getting close to the performance so I wouldn't have time to get him to make a bigger board for me then to have to draw the design on; pass it back to him to cut out the shape; to then give it back to me to paint; to give it back to him to attach to the wheelchair somehow. Instead I had to try to solve the size problem; draw and cut out by the next week; to then check the director was happy with how it looked, to then take home and paint. So to get started with the problem I traced the inner oval from the MDF prototype onto the foam board, using the outer shape as a guide as to where on the foam board to position it. I made the inner oval neater and more symmetrical,  then started to draw on the design to see if it would fit; but the width was not quite big enough, and was actually not as wide as the prototype, which I had asked to be wider.

As I didn't have enough of the foam board to fit the whole of the design on, I decided to cut out the inner oval of the mirror with a craft knife. I then cut the oval in half lengthways and attached these to both sides, where the design would stick out the most.  I did this by sticking duct tape down the seams on the front and back of the foam board. I used duct tape as this is what the adult member had used to attach the top part, he then wallpapered  one side for me to draw onto, so I re- wallpapered the front of the foam board  and the back just to make the sides I'd attached more secure.

I left the wallpaper to dry overnight and then went back to the easel to draw the design on again, using the extra space I had created. Once I was happy with the symmetry of the design it was then time to cut it out...ahhhh!

I cut out the edges of the mirror using a sharp craft knife, which took a while, but I don't think it would have looked as good if it was cut out as an oval and then the shape of the edges was just painted on.

I decided to paint the drastic shadows on first; going for drastic because of it being on a stage, and so being seen mainly from quite far away.

I was honestly quite scared about ruining it, but I thought it wouldn't look as good if it wasn't gold and expensive looking, so I just went for it. When painting the gold over the top I was still thinking it looked awful, until I took a step back, and it actually looked...pretty damn good, and effective.

On the day of the dress rehearsal the adult member had a go at attaching the mirror to the wheelchair, using segments of a pipe which would be attached to the lower section of the front of the sides of the chair. Two pieces of wood were then duct taped to the back of the mirror on either side and then slotted into the pipes at the bottom, to hold up the mirror, making it quick and easy for the mirror to come off and for the actor to get in and out of the wheelchair when needed. However when we came back later on in the week I noticed that the wood had fallen off the mirror, and so he would have to go through the positioning of the mirror again on the day of the production in a few days time. 

Luckily the mirror stayed attached for the performance and everyone thought it looked brilliant, so it ended well, even though it was a bit panickedy at times...

Links:

As always, thank you to Ashley Foster for the character portrait photo, if you want to have a look at his other work or more photos from the junior production please visit his website at http://ashleyfosterphotography.co.uk/  

If you are interested in the drama group itself that I do the costumes for please check out their website at http://www.thegrangeplayers.co.uk or their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thegrangeplayers

Anyway that's all for this week. Next week will be the last instalment of the Snow White and the Curse of the Ice Queen posts, ending with Prince Charming and his Page.

Talk to you then.

~ K