Bringing home the bread and cheese...

Today in our practical lecture we looked into creating light weight and robust props out of polystyrene and polyurethane. This process is messy and our task was to make Belgian bread and cheese based on factual reference. My bread was based on Belgian Abbey bread and my cheese was based on a cheese made by Chimay- a Belgian company specialising in beer and cheeses:

 http://www.chimay.com/en/en.html?IDC=27 The cheese is called The Poteaupre: the cream of the Trappist cheeses.

Step by step:

For bread…

1)      Mark your desired shape with a pen or pencil onto your block of polystyrene and with a retractable knife cut the larger unwanted pieces away.

2)      A. Use a surform to cut/sand away and smooth down the areas of the polystyrene that you want rounded and shaped. Remember the bread loaf is an organic form so there is room for error/random strokes and dents, BUT no straight/square surfaces.

3)      Prop filed down and sanded polystyrene form  on a small bowl and newspaper (away from wood base surfaces as the PVA will stick).

4)      Mix 10% water with PVA glue (for easier consistency) and cover form in muslin (process quite like paper mache) muslin reinforces prop and gives an equal surface.

For cheese…

1)      Mark your desired shape with a pen or pencil onto your block of polyurethane and with a retractable knife cut the larger unwanted pieces away.

2)      For polyurethane only cutting and possible sanding is necessary. You can cut the larger areas with a ban saw, as it doesn’t melt. Smaller details can be made with a craft knife.

3)      For a smooth or even lumpy texture you can coat your polyurethane form in idendon, which is reinforcement and makes your prop fire resistant. You can also cover in PVA mixture and muslin.

* For a lumpy texture I mixed idendon with bits of tissue and covered my cheese form.