Mentor

I have been blessed with several mentors since discovering toy theatre. One of them is Gigi Sandberg, who runs an amazing website called the Toy/Model Theatre Information Center. It's chuck full of information for those starting out, for reference purposes, or for finding out contact information if you want to network with fellow enthusiasts.

Gigi and I have been corresponding for the past few weeks, and I thought I'd post a few excerpts from the emails that others might find useful...

Gigi: Here are a couple of tips for you.....I often mount my figures and even my theatres on aluminum (like you can get from some printers for free)....They are more durable, easier to cut the detail with scissors AND I can bend the edges slightly to give a bit of a dimensional quality. While water color is traditional, I use Prismacolor Pencils and a blending pencil and my scenes turn out to look like oil paintings. You can get great unusual effects with layering the colors....and the whole project is so tremendously portable...

Later...

Trish: I was able to get sheet aluminum from a local printer, 2 30"x40" sheets - your tip was good! Didn't cost me a cent. I'll be trying the technique out eventually.

Gigi: One quick thought...I use wall paper paste (there is a great new liquidy kind that really holds. Then just use ordinary small scissors to cut....it is easier than cardboard...

Trish: So you paste the paper theatre directly onto the sheet metal? Interesting.

What kind of scissors can cut through both the paper and the metal? I would think it would have to be something special to cut through both...?

If I don't want to put the theatre onto a wood frame, how else are the individual pieces 'constructed'? Or is a wood frame essential? Living in an apartment like I do, I don't have a wood shop handy!

Gigi: Try it!!! Just cut a small piece of paper and paste it (flour & water or glue stick might even do for an experiment) on a small piece of your aluminum and cut it out. Actually it is easier to cut through both ...particularly if "detail" is important...like when you are doing the performers etc. I don't have a wood shop either and wouldn't know what to do with it if I did....but I do have a small band saw and some Dremel tools. Plan to get a Dremel scroll saw sometime. I belong to the Miniatures club here and they have good small tools to work with small objects too. You just mostly use your own ingenuity and mess with stuff....that is one reason why your blog where people can exchange "messes" would be so much more valuable than our "enthusiasts" section.

Well, hopefully people find their way here and take advantage of the ability to post comments here to communicate with each other in this forum.

Speaking of which, at the bottom of this entry, you'll see 'Comments' - just click on it (it's a link) and you'll be able to comment on this post, or on toy theatre in general. Feel free to use it any way you wish - comments, questions, suggestions, whatever. You do NOT have to have an account to post - anonymous posts are allowed...