Props, Scenery, Costumes and Makeup: Smashing plates

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Smashing plates

Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Props, Scenery, Costumes and Makeup
Forum Discription: For how-to's and where-can-I-find
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4091
Printed Date: 5/15/25 at 8:11pm
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Topic: Smashing plates

Posted By: Kurtin
Subject: Smashing plates
Date Posted: 6/22/09 at 8:43pm

Hi guys. I have to make some faux "china plates" that get shattered by a bullet fired by a character.

I've got some ideas, but I thought I'd ask if anyone here has any clues to offer.

The plate will be standing on a shelf with a back, and I was going to make them out of very thin plaster, with an eye-hook set into the back side, attached to a wire that someone offstage could yank when the "shot" is fired.

It will be a matter of lots of trial and error, but I've only got one week. So any hints that will save me some time would be very much apreciated.

Thanks,

Kurt

Replies:

Posted By: pdavis69
Date Posted: 6/23/09 at 12:07pm

For all the time it will take to make the plates you may find it cheaper and less time expensive to just go to Goodwill or something of that line and buy used plates. If you are going to make them yourself I love the eyehook idea.

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Patrick L. Davis
Fort Findlay Playhouse

Posted By: sartori92
Date Posted: 6/23/09 at 2:15pm

i agree with pdavis69. it is probably just easier to purchase the plates at a thrift store or see if someone can donate some to you. and i like the idea of the eyehook. try gluing the eyehook to the plate if you get it from a thrift store and your idea with shattering the plate will probably still work. as for what type of glue to use, i suggest going to the home improvement store and tell them what you will be gluing to what and they should know just what to use. good luck and please post pictures of whatever works for you

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"All the world is a stage"

Posted By: Kurtin
Date Posted: 6/23/09 at 6:40pm

Patrick and Sartori:

Actually, I haven't actually described the "plates" properly. I only said "china plates" to keep my question simple. Now I see I made it inaccurate and misleading.

Actually, the plates will be heart-shaped, and are meant to be a kind of trophy mounted on a wooden base and put on a shelf for display. Sorry for being obscure, but I thought, "a plate" was a the easiest way to describe them. I'll try to describe them better without getting confusing.

They're a "trophy" owned by one of the characters. They have to be a heart-shaped flat plate, set on a base and displayed on a shelf. When a character fires a gun at them, they have to shatter as if hit by the bullet.

I thought I'd make them of plaster, very thin, (say 4 mm), and score the backs with random grooves. Then set them on a fixed wooden base secured to the shelf.

I've had second thoughts about my idea of pulling sharply backwards on an eye-hook embedded in the back of the tropy. The hook might merely pull right out of the plate and leave the rest intact!

What I need is some hidden mechanism that will strike or even warp the plate from behind so that it shatters into fragments, but the pieces don't come flying forwards.

Once again, sorry for the misleading info. Thanks for your suggestions, guys.

Posted By: pdavis69
Date Posted: 6/23/09 at 8:39pm

Sounds like you have a solid idea of what you are looking for. To solve the problem of the eye hook pulling out I might try using a stiff wire set into the plaster while liquid sort of like an internal frame. That way you are not just pulling out of the plate at the eye hook but also in a wider area of the plate.

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Patrick L. Davis
Fort Findlay Playhouse

Posted By: Kurtin
Date Posted: 6/23/09 at 10:07pm

Originally posted by pdavis69

Sounds like you have a solid idea of what you are looking for. To solve the problem of the eye hook pulling out I might try using a stiff wire set into the plaster while liquid sort of like an internal frame. That way you are not just pulling out of the plate at the eye hook but also in a wider area of the plate.

Patrick, I've just managed to find a couple of those older style mouse traps, (didn't think they were still made), and I'm working out a way of incorporating one into the base that holds the plate.

I'm thinking now that when a plate is hit by a bullet, bits and pieces would probably fly in all directions, not just backwards. In the movies, when they use squibs, things more or less explode when they're hit by a projectile, so audiences are used to seeing that.

But thanks for the suggestion. If this mousetrap thing doesn't work, I'll have to go back to the wire-pulling idea, and I will try what you suggested.

Cheers,

Kurt

Posted By: haven academy
Date Posted: 6/24/09 at 1:37pm

Hi, You can also make them out of candy, we just did guys and dolls and used a candy plate to break over some ones head. We did have to wrap part in plastic to keep it from going everywhere. With either the plaster or the candy make the plate and when you make it put a pull wirer in it, so that it is firmly in.

Hope this helps

cj

Posted By: Kurtin
Date Posted: 6/24/09 at 7:05pm

Originally posted by haven academy

Hi, You can also make them out of candy, we just did guys and dolls and used a candy plate to break over some ones head. We did have to wrap part in plastic to keep it from going everywhere. With either the plaster or the candy make the plate and when you make it put a pull wirer in it, so that it is firmly in.

Hope this helps

cj

That sounds like an idea, cj. Do you mean that hard candy that easter eggs are made of, (looks like it's made of plaster anyway)?

How do I make that?

More importantly, how long does it take to set hard?