Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Smo-kay Cheese Spread

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!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Far Away Fridge Food in Five Minutes

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.

Categories

props (35) fakery (31) faux (25) food (25) fakefoodfriday (24) theater (24) Fake Food Friday (22) cake (10) foam (9) kitchen (9) caulk (7) Albert Herring (6) casting (6) insulation foam (6) opera (6) Design Master (5) Smooth-On (5) booze (5) desserts (5) drink (5) edible (5) jaxsan (5) microfoam (5) molding (5) acrylic (4) carve (4) ham (4) resin (4) acrylic caulk (3) beverage (3) candy (3) cheese (3) cocktail (3) dressing (3) fruit (3) latex (3) model magic (3) period (3) upholstery foam (3) urethane (3) vintage (3) Helena Mestenhauser (2) Ilana Kirschbaum (2) Sarah Heck (2) acrylic paint (2) appetizers (2) brownie (2) casserole (2) chocolate (2) confection (2) decorating (2) dial (2) ephemera (2) fish (2) flower (2) foam sheet (2) gel wax (2) hot pour vinyl (2) leg (2) link (2) mocktail (2) mother mold (2) pies (2) pizza (2) reference (2) research (2) safe (2) salt dough (2) sandwiches (2) tutorial (2) wrappers (2) Canapes (1) David Russell (1) Dowel (1) Dragonskin (1) Ellie Bye (1) FX (1) Flex Foam-It (1) Fritos (1) Introduction (1) JT Ringer (1) Jess Smith (1) Keli Sequoia (1) Materials Monday (1) Oona Tibbetts (1) Poultry (1) Sara Pool (1) Serena Yau (1) Skylight (1) Smoothcast 325 (1) Turkey (1) Victoria Ross (1) Wonderflex (1) Worbla (1) alcohol (1) alginate (1) apoxie (1) aspic (1) banana (1) bead foam (1) bread (1) bundt (1) cabbage (1) carnation (1) cellophane (1) champagne (1) cheesecake (1) cherries (1) chilaquiles (1) citrus (1) clear (1) coat (1) coke (1) cola (1) contact adhesive (1) cork (1) cotton batting (1) cream (1) drinks (1) dumplings (1) fake steam (1) faux mex (1) flexcoat (1) fondant (1) fruit salad (1) glass (1) great stuff (1) gum paste (1) hands (1) herring (1) hors D'ouevres (1) icing (1) intern (1) joke (1) katie webster (1) kolache (1) labels (1) lettuce (1) life casting (1) liquid (1) martinis (1) marzipan (1) meat pie (1) menu (1) mini fogger (1) mini mister (1) nougat (1) olive (1) olives (1) oranges (1) pan dulce (1) paraffin (1) pastries (1) pastry (1) peas (1) petit fours (1) pickled herring (1) pie (1) pie crust (1) pineapple (1) prosciutto (1) punch (1) restaurant (1) samosas (1) sculpey (1) shrimp (1) small pastries (1) snacks (1) soda (1) sorbet (1) spilled (1) stage effects (1) sugarplums (1) sweetmeats (1) sweets (1) taco (1) tomato (1) tuna (1) tv dinner (1) vacuform plastic (1) violets (1) wax (1) welcome (1)