Carving a Seed Cake out of upholstery foam for Importance of Being Earnest

After carving I began to add details and paint with hand mixed acrylics that I turned into washes

The beginning of adding highlights and shadows to the loaf

Completed loaf featuring one of the slices that must be 'cut off' for every show

Tea Cake mold for Importance of Being Earnest- I took a scrap piece of styrofoam and created a convex dome in the center to create a mold for tea cakes

I wanted the teacakes to be more realistic so I took the styrofoam I dug out for the mold and separated the individual balls into a container of watered down acrylic to make a berry texture for the teacakes before adding the spray foam to the mold

Once the spray foam set I was able to unmold and carve the bun to resemble a teacake you would find at a tea service

A picture of my first few iterations of the styrofoam mold

Making of the education books for The Importance of Being Earnest- We received a donation of books from the local library meaning all of the stamps must be removed before being used on stage

I mixed together paint to cover up the lettering on the spines of the books while also matching the colors used for book binding in 1860's- 1890's Europe

The three education books stacked with Cricut vinyl lettering and accents

Styrofoam for the base layer of set dressing cake- The Importance of Being Earnest

Once carved I used joint compound and acrylic paint to create the frosting

From there I mixed up other colors and used the piping tips we had to decorate the cake

Using Adobe Photoshop to create a book dust cover for the premier of a play called Circle Forward

The playwright liked the cover so much that she took all of the copies made and said she is going to give one to every production of the play from here on out to use in their production

Rough scale drawing for the door chimes in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf

I laminated plywood with luan to create a better texture for the chimes. From there I made a cut list and proceeded to cut all of the pieces I needed for my chime box. For the chimes themselves I cut down shower curtain rods on the gravity feed bandsaw

I needed a way for the chimes to hang but still be secure within the chime box. Upon research I found that the chimes in door chimes would not swing but the director of the play wanted these chimes to swing for a larger effect after they were hit by an actor and a book [see book below]

I needed a way to remove the chimes in case of severe damage done over the course of the run but we had no hinges that would fit, so I made my own

Installation of the chimes

After the stain and paint treatment

The finished chimes

Picture of the door chimes in the space

Creating the "throwable book" for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?- For this project I used cloth placemats that I ironed and cut down to size after using Fraycheck to seal the edges

After cutting the fabric I glued the new cover onto a book that I took the pages out of- I would reinstall the pages later and add front and back binding pages made out of a map print scrapbooking paper

Finished book including cricut detailing and added placekeeping ribbon- I had to make 8 of these books because of the damage being done to them over the course of the run

Restoration of a vintage Saltines canister for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

I made sure to sand all if the chipping paint and rust spots as this would be a prop used by actors every night that also contained consumables

Detailing using acrylic paint to cover rust and chipped paint

I finished the canister by applying a high gloss sealer to all parts of the container

Making A tool organizing drawer for Des Moines Metro Opera production center- The steel frame was made but I cut and added all wood pieces including the drawers and drawerslides