Dandelion fairies

I have a ton of pictures to show...I'll do them by project and then the finished shows. When I finished the scrim it was onto the Dandelion Fairies for A Midsummer Night's Dream. These were a bit of a challenge due to the fact that the heads had to be lighted. It was a collaborative project between me and the head carpenter, with a little of the TD as well.

This was the drawing given to me to work from:


And here they are almost ready for me:


The poles look like birch trees because they were recycled sonotube from another show. We reuse as much as possible. The torsos came from this place.

I started draping the girls...it took a little while to get a good technique down. It makes it much easier to drape when you can staple right into their bodies. Most people won't let you do that. I padded out their hips with some batting. I also had to leave flaps in the back to access the light switches for the heads.



When they were all draped I coated them with Sculpt or Coat to attach the fabric to the torsos and give it a little more stability. I try to make things bomb proof, especially when they are being handled by students. Then it was sprayed with a coat of flat white.



Then came the fun part. I sprayed the green. The taller ones were a bit of a challenge trying to maneuver the spray gun and my pregnant belly on a ladder. Since I was using a small detail sprayer I kept having to refill often. Hey, it's better than a stair-master.



I also painted the leaves as I did the bodies. I didn't want to have to keep cleaning the gun as I changed colors. Having the sink so far from my working area makes me plan this things out a lot more.



Then onto the blue spray. After I did some more touch up with the green.



And here's a finished lady sans head. The lining on the leaves was done with an airbrush.




Here's the frames for the heads, including their nifty light sources. Around these frames I shaped and sewed polyester batting. Our head carpenter then spray glued another layer on, which I fluffed. I don't have process pictures of that. You'll see when I post the show pictures. They did have a neat effect though.



And here's the dirty mess my paper was after the scrim, some white panels (we ended up cutting) and the fairies. I didn't want to lay my next project down on this, so I flipped the paper over. I try to make it last as long as possible. Theatre isn't the most earth friendly business so I try to do what I can.