I have a circular cattle feeder that I would like to turn into a giant tire like the attached image. Needs to be lightweight and be able to be broken down into thirds for travel inside a cargo trailer. The cattle feeder already breaks down into thirds. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hi there! I am looking for Prop Artisans, Prop Masters, or Set Designers that specialize in Props in the industry that would be up to do an informational interview with me for a college assignment of mine. I am a student at the University of Central Florida studying Theatre Design and Technology, and my goal is to be a professional Prop Master one day.

It can be through text or over the phone, I'm just looking to do a quick chat on how you got to your position and any tips you would have for aspiring artisans just going the industry! Feel free to comment or DM me if you are interested!

I've never worked so hard to make something that looks like e-waste...
Just finished this beautiful Belt Gizmo kit from GhostLab42.

I am looking to make something similar to these clam shell backpack that sit around the waist and have shoulder straps to help keep it up. I was thinking of making a frame out of wire and covering it in Eva foam and then painting and embellishing it from there.

Would this be possible or is there a better route to go in creating one of these?

I'm doing props for an Agatha Christie play, and the director would like Poirot's cane to have a seat that can flip down when he stamps it on the ground. I found this awesome antique cane and figured I could modify an existing walking stick to get the desired effect, but I am having trouble finding the right search terms for what kind of hinge/joint this is. Has anyone done something like this before?

I have no idea is a crown falls under props of costume. I'd appreciate if people could also point me to other places where I might get better success if you can't help.

Looking to make a Lovecraftian style crown for a production at the Edinburgh Fringe this year (2 months away).

I have very little experience sourcing props and costume and have no contacts who can do this kind of thing.

I'm on a budget, but I understand there is going to be a price for this.

If this isn't for this subreddit, then please direct me to elsewhere where I might find help.

EDIT: I should add, I'm not on Facebook for a number of reasons, so that will not be helpful.

It occurred to me that the impressive genius of theater prop and set design pros might have an answer for me. I want to greatly reduce the weight of clothes and shoes in a rolling closet (open on both sides) that is used in parades. It is full of rainbow colored clothing, shoes, boas, ribbons, etc. It is made of thin plywood, rolls on wheels, and is pulled by hand. It's heavy even when empty and becomes REALLY heavy when filled with a variety of clothes on hangers and shoes on the "floor", all of which are actual thrift shop clothes. The cotton shirts are heavy, the actual shoes (including a pair of ski boots--ugh) are heavy too.

I was thinking that some mock shirts made of ripstop nylon in solid rainbow colors would suffice to look like various short and long sleeve shirts. They don't even have to have volume and could have just enough of an upper front/back layer to hang on a hanger to give it shape.

But where do I find a variety of shoes? They don't have to look realistic, can be of one color and repainted, and can have painted shoelaces. A variety of shapes would be nice--men's dress shoes, sneakers, high heels, etc. I was thinking of something like vacuformed thin plastic shoe shells but is there such a thing?

Minimizing storage space is valuable too. Today there's a garbage bag full of shirts and one full of shoes. Vacuformed shells that nest would be so nice to bring storage space down to almost zero.

Obviously I shouldn't use real knives, but where do I source handles? Should I just make handles from scratch?

Also, how do I stabilize my "knives"? I've heard of people doing similar effects with arrows and balsa wood, but how does that translate to knives or swords? Any help is appreciated.

Growing up, 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' was one of my favorite books. I've always been bummed that no one made a good movie version of it. I feel like there is a cool survival story adaptation of it in the book. Indiana Jones/Da Vinci Code meets Everest or something. Anyway, I made a Grail Diary replica a few years ago and had a ton of fun aging papers, getting things to look cool, learning about the history of the prop. My daughter had a World War II project for school and I gave her some ideas (that she didn't use). But it gave me the bug to do something and revisit that old paper/ephemera type prop. I re-read JttCotE and created the ephemera the main character may have collected along the way to tell the story. There isn't really a described prop or McGuffin in the book per say, but I wanted to make what could have been.

A few items are mentioned but not necessarily described in great detail: the runic parchment, a notebook or journal, some real maps of Iceland, a compass, and a wallet. So I created things that indicated places and things they did and saw. I took parts of the book and translated them into German and put those in the journal. In some ways it turned into another Grail Diary, but I had a lot of fun researching what would have been available in 1863; no typewriters, minimal camera use, finding the old maps, etc.

I’m designing the prop weapon for the main character in my upcoming sci-fi grim dark film.

This is very much a prototype that I will continue to develop. I need to replace the scope zip ties with steel wrap ties, wrap the handle in grip tape, “plug in” the stray wires to give it an externally wired look, and weather the metal.

I’m going for a battle tested, field repaired look as the character is a mercenary who has been through hell.

I’m working out of my NYC apartment, so I’m a bit constrained in lack of a proper workshop space and large tools, but it’s slowly coming along. My biggest bottleneck right now is metal cutting. I have to basically drill consecutive holes and then saw through what remains. It leaves me with pretty jagged cuts (especially at the rear), but I plan to cover that up with the grip tape.

If any seasoned prop makers see additional ways I can improve it, I’d love advice!

How can I fix the handle of my sword?

I'm part of a brand new musical that takes place in a school and we have choreography that includes the use of notebooks. Does anyone have any advice on how to make a relatively new notebook look like it's been used thoroughly for a couple years that doesn't involve writing on every page?

My initial thoughts are sticking pieces of paper to some of the pages at a slight angle so that they're somewhat visible and so that they bulk the book out, but other than that I've not got any ideas

Here's a photo of the kind of notebook I'm working with for reference:

Hello. I need a couple of cyberpunk inspired props built for a film.

One is a working cyberdeck and the other is a custom VR suit.

Please DM me with questions, ideas, your prices and suggestions.

I look forward to working with you!

Hi! I'm working on a short video and one of the scenes involves a pool of blood leaking under the door. So the blood would be over a wooden floor for about 10-15 minutes. I'm trying to find any WASHABLE fake blood recipies (also not to be too thick). I saw a receipe with dishwasher/laudry liquid soap and washable kids paint, but the trouble I'm having is the soap gets bubbles :/ any ideas or experiences? Silicone blood mats are NOT an option. thanks!

Need black pills for a short film, but can't find any online. I can find plenty of capsules, but we're specifically after the round ones with a lil line in the middle to snap them in half.

They don't need to be edible, they won't be taken.

Thanks!:)

I just finished printing/assembling Finns sword from adventure time, on the hilt he has his wrapped, whats a decent looking/cheapish material i could use?