I.B.M. Ring 362
Dr. James William Elliott Ring
Bangor, Maine

Many magicians have discovered that the best way to get props that perfectly suit their act is to make their own. This can be as simple as making your own card gaffs or as complex as building illusions in a full workshop. Dealer items can be repainted or modified in other ways to fit a particular theme.

These notes are meant to accompany the teaching table on prop fabrication given at the August 2006 meeting of Ring 362.

Quick and Simple Props. Some props are used as visual gags, to dress up a set, or to aid in storytelling. They don't have to do much except be seen. People have to understand what they are right away. It is easy to build props like this in a hurry with cardboard, foamcore, masking tape, paper, and acrylic paint.

For example, for the All-Star Magical Revue, we needed a magic book that Admiral the Clown could use to look up the magic words to get back the lost traveler. This prop has to look like a book, open like a book and have pages, and be visible and immediately understood by the audience a good distance away in theater seating.

I started with the pages. Well-made books have pages sewn together in bunches which are then bound together. I thought that a folded newspaper was about the right size for this prop, so I went through a stack of newspapers to get double pages that didn't have any color pictures on them. I put together five double sheets, stapled them along the horizontal fold, then trimmed off the edge so that the pages would separate. Three bundles of five double sheets made enough pages for the book.

Then I cut some black foamcore to the right size for the front and back cover. I used masking tape to make a tape hinge attaching the front page to the front cover and the back page to the back cover. The "spine" is just masking tape. I painted the masking tape on the outside with acrylic paint (I use Liquitex high viscosity acrylics), then painted "E-Z MAGIC" on the front cover with white acrylic.

From start to finish this prop took about 45 minutes to make; most of the cost of materials is the foamcore, which is pretty cheap. This prop probably cost about $2.

It is possible to get very creative with cardboard, foamcore, and masking tape. I once used cardboard and masking tape to make a ray gun for a Halloween costume. When I was all done making the thing, I gave it a couple of coats of white acrylic paint (high viscosity), which does a lot to cover the edges of the tape, then painted details in various colors using acrylics. This is a great alternative to paper mache, because it is instant. The prop will not be very durable, but for small props like this that usually doesn't matter. On stage, they look great.

Painted Props. Some props just need paint to fit the show. For the All-Star Magical Revue, we needed some unattractive luggage that would be covered with travel stickers when the traveler returned. The prop is a "found object," a canvas shopping bag from the grocery store. I covered two of these with gesso, a base for acrylic that makes subsequent painting easy. The background design is from a book of Art Deco design motifs from Dover. The travel stickers are based on designs or photographs that I found on the web.

I scanned the art from the Dover book, then used Photoshop to enlarge the design to its final size. I did the same for the travel stickers. I printed out the artwork on regular white office paper, rubbed a pencil on the back to make poor man's carbon paper, then traced the basic design onto the prepared canvas. I painted everything in acrylics, which gives vibrant color while being durable.

At our August meeting, Kim Hawkins described another approach to tranferring artwork to another surface. From a Xerox copy, it is possible to use a solvent pen, containing benzene and other solvents in the ink, to transfer an image directly onto fabric. Kim also showed props that were enhanced through the use of "stickers," graphic elements printed on a wax color printer, glued to a prop using acrylic gesso as an adhesive.

Brother Don suggested yet another approach: the use of heat-transfer inks in a computer printer to make "iron-on" graphic elements that can be transferred to cloth or other surfaces.

Each of these approaches gives a specific look, which should be taken into account when designing a particular prop or show.

I used a similar method to make the signs that Sign Girl used for the All-Star Magical Revue. The signs are black foamcore. I printed the lettering at final size on office paper, taping several sheets together to make the template. I rubbed the back with pencil and traced the outline onto the foamcore, then painted the letters with white acrylic. The "Chaos" sign, is, of course, done freehand.

Simple Magic Props. There are some excellent ideas for magic props that you can make in Tarbell, in the Rice Encyclopedia of Silk Magic, Mark Wilson's Course in Magic, and other sources. I built U.F. Grant's Fantastic Production device (shown in the photo) from the Rice Encyclopedia. This is a sort of fan folded into three sections from which you can produce anything. The ribs on the fan are 19" long. What I really like about this piece of apparatus is that the volume of items produced is huge in comparison to the size of the device, which makes it look really magical.

I experimented with a few different kinds of materials before building my final version. The sections of the fan are cut from poster board, which is just the right stiffness for this prop. I used a mat cutter (used by frame shops and artists) to make really nice straight cuts. Each section was then sprayed with spray adhesive and placed down on handmade paper. After the adhesive set, I trimmed the excess paper and repeated the process for the other side.

The sections are hinged together with bookbinder's linen tape and polyvinylacetate (PVA) bookbinding glue. All supplies are from Dick Blick.

I also built Percy Abbott's Oblong Square from the Rice Encyclopedia using the same techniques. Each panel of this device is 6" x 13", made of mat board and covered with handmade paper using spray adhesive. The two sides of the device have different colored paper on them, so that it is clear to the audience that they are seeing both sides before the production. The panels are hinged with bookbinder's linen tape and polyvinylacetate (PVA) bookbinding glue. This is a really nice piece of production apparatus that will hold a 6' x 6' silk. We have used this as the finale to our silk sequence in Miller & Wilson's Theater of Marvels.

Paper Mache. You probably used paper mache to make things in grade school. It is not very strong, but is cheap and easy to work with. There is a tremendous improvement that you can make to paper mache that makes it very much stronger: instead of glue or wallpaper paste, use Sculpt Or Coat. This is available from:

I used Sculpt Or Coat, newspaper, cardboard, masking tape, spray foam ("Great Stuff"), and an instant paper mache called Celluclay to make a prop pumpkin for a Halloween show. I took photos of the entire process, posted on my web site as the story of the Paper Mache Pumpkin.

In the discussion at our August meeting, I pointed out that set designers have discovered that Sculpt Or Coat can be used to add texture in set design by adding sand, bark, cornmeal, cornflakes, and other materials to Sculpt Or Coat for a final coating for basic props or set pieces. The textured surface is then coated in acrylic gesso and painted.

Epoxy Putty. There's nothing like epoxy putty! I use POR-15, direct from:

http://www.por15.com/

Epoxy putty is easily worked with fingers or simple sculpture tools when freshly mixed. It sticks to anything. I have used it to attach things to wood or metal. Once it hardens, it can be drilled, sanded, or painted. It is very strong but somewhat brittle.

Much of my Flea Circus is made of epoxy putty. The cannon is epoxy putty over PVC pipe with a couple of pieces of hardboard for the sides. The platforms for the high wire are mostly epoxy putty with some sheet metal, wire, and matchsticks added. The pool is a plastic dish from the pet store, covered with epoxy putty. Inside the trunk, a lot of the secret workings are held in place with epoxy putty.

Performers who like bizarre magick know that it is all about prop fabrication. They have elevated the humble medium of epoxy putty to great heights. Please Ed Solomon's lecture at:

http://www.dragonskull.co.uk/lecture1_es.htm

This Christmas Gift Box was built for a holiday show. It is an oval hat box from the craft store, made of cardboard, that has been decorated with epoxy putty, using a Dover book on Victorian scrollwork for inspiration. The epoxy putty was sculpted by hand and with small sculpture tools. Brother Don pointed out during the talk that molds for cake decoration might be used to make a job like this a bit easier, provided that a way could be found to keep the putty from sticking to the mold.

A water-soluble metallic gold paint was used on the scrollwork. The piece was then painted completely with cream-colored acrylic paint, defining the edges of the gold by painting carefully.