So do you mean a drop from the boarder & not the leg?

Or do you wish to breast (tripping) a cloth using two battens?

Anyhow for material the cheapest I have found is calico (muslin) & plastic [latex] paint.

However I'm sure others will have thier own preferences & ideas on the board.

I assume they are not 'cut cloths', therefore a tail batten pocket & even tie offs at the head batten, will cut down on any curling & wrinkles.

With the calico run the panels seems lateraly across, rather than up & down.

Have you made up a cloth before?

 

 

 

 

If you want translucent, consider Chameleon Scrim...won't curl, won't fray, can razor cut the edges and can paint without sizing.  Use dilute acrylic paint.  You can save much time and cost by choosing the color to be the lightest color in your composition.  So lets say that you are painting  these drops to make a framed procenium, framed with leaves and vines.  You could buy the green color, and paint the highlights and shadows of the leaves/vines--presto, very little painting.    Say you needed about 7 feet wide and 20' tall on each side and 40' wide and 7 feet tall across the top.  Finished scrim ready to paint would cost...about...$600 --already has grommets and a pipe pocket on the side pieces.

 

I'm not sure what you mean about what fabric would give a rock look.  You can use several painting techniques to make rocks.  You can also drape fabric over chicken wire to make rocks, so would you explain?

Calico here is available only in 6' widths generaly, as we don't have Scenic Shops or suppliers here in this State, because the theatrical industry is so small.

So sorry if I led you up a gum tree Jill, but i know Vicki would have the good oil on this topic.

However we can get wider calico from upholstry suppliers, but we have to buy them in large bales of loom off cuts, which is more than the average Ameatre group requires at one time.

However we are lucky as we  can pick up smaller lots direct from Lounge furniture manufacturers.

Frankly at the cost mentioned from Vicki's company, I would not bother building up a sweat thinling about making my own drops there.

With the rock portal, it may be better to think on the basis of seperate boarder & leg drops, rather than a single complete masking portal on one head batten [pipe - barrel].

This will give you more logistic flexability on setting the mise enscene.

depending on the sizes of the rock rock structures, I'd think about building a wooden frame to support the chook [chicken] wire & look at mounting/stabising it on a ply or MDF base to make it easier to Bump In/Out.

 

 

 

 

To answer Joe's question, I think he is talking acrylic when you say plastic--not oil-based.

 

He's right that you don't HAVE to size, but if you don't the absorbant fabrics (like muslin or canvas) will use a lot of paint.  So you can spend money on size or paint.  I'd do it this way.  If I was just spraying dilute paint on, I wouldn't size.  If I was painting with full strength paint, I'd size to save money on paint.

 

For rock stairs, build plywood stairs, adding a few irregular upright shapes of plywood (boulders).  Cover with strips of carpet or with chickenwire and then carpet--stapled into place.  While covering add some irregular lumps of wadded cardboard or paper (little rock mounds), and also  put scraps of carpet or carpet padding over those upright plywood shapes (filling out the boulders).  Don't forget to add a few irregularly cut strips of carpet to the steps to make them look rough hewn. 

 

Now paint the whole thing with some scrap grey paint.  Assign some kids, they will slap paint on it.  You can even assign a few kids to throw sawdust at it, while the other kids paint. You can even mix up the odds and ends of old wasted paint.  Anything grey, brown, greenish will look rock-like.  Note: don't mix acrylic with oil based.

 

Give kids brushes and sponges or rags and have them hit the surface with some texture from a darker color paint, by sponging lightly or dry brushing, or rolling the rags across the surface.

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Now have adults or trusted kids add highlights, shadows and moss to the rocks.

 

I've done this before and it turns out great.  BTW if you use carpet, if its a high pile, turn it backwards and use the back--unless you light furry rocks!  If you can't get carpet, carpet padding can be used and covered with canvas.  You use carpet because it actually makes a pretty secure surface, if an actor accidentally walks on a boulder instead of a step, they won't rip through it.

I should have realised to explain about diluting the paint, as one would when appling a skin to a flat, to shrink the cloth & bond the skin at the same time.

The carpet idea is great on rock treads.

 

http://theaterhelper.com/content/view/114/9/ - http://theaterhelper.com/content/view/114/9/

    We did Peter PAn a couple of years ago.   Built the base "rock" shapes out of plywood and interestingly shped 2 X8's stacked up.   Very sturdy and easy to walk on and climb.    Then we used crumpled up newspaper which we spray glued onto the "rocks"  wet some gauze sheets with plaster of paris impregnated in the fibers and covered the paper crumples.  Painted with some slightly different shades of gray and black paint and the effect was really great, from the first row of seats it looked real enough to cause some to ask how we managed the weight of the stone on stage.  My only caution would be that you need to make your climbing and walking lines so that the actors will not kick or step on the facing.   For the overhang on the lost boys cave we used some chicken wire bent and stapled in odd shapes and covered this with the plaster of paris gauze as well, worked well too and after drying is easy to paint.

    Good luck,

Charlie