On the Rollercoaster Heading Down.....

I leave for the UK on 23rd of September, which is, co-incidentally, the day my school audit is due. What does this mean? It means that instead of a leisurely and enjoyable few weeks spending evenings: planning my wardrobe; packing and repacking my suitcase; and preparing the house, cats and pot plants for my absence; I will be spending long nights in at work catching up on all the paperwork I should hvae been doing whilst I was gallivanting about in the theatre.
There. I've admitted it.
Mind you, my recent 'theatre free time' has not been completely 'clean'. I made some prop knives the other day.

Play: 12 Angry Men
Brief: Make some identical 'distinctive' knives with ornate carved handles, capable of being stabbed into a table top.

So here is where we started.
Three identical plastic handled folding knives.

First job was filling the grooves with putty to give me a flat 'ish' surface to work on.

Next I undercoated them all in two coats of black enamel paint (the kind you use to paint model aircraft).

Finally I transferred a dragon design on to the handles using an internet design and some 'conte'.

Some red paint (2 coats) and some gold highlights.

A couple of coats of varnish....

I think they turned out ok.

Next step is to take the one which is waved in an actor's face and have the very real blade ground off!