Star Drops

Ever wondered how music tours achieve the “starry night” effect onstage?  Well, for years they have used drapes with embedded fiber optics.  But the fiber optics tended to be bulky and difficult to manuever.

Today, more and more, fiber optics are being replaced by LEDs to produce a stunning light display that mimics the appearance of a gorgeous starry night.  These LED Star Drops are manufactured utilizing a durable black synthetic velour on the face along with a strong but lightweight black lining, with strings of LED lights inserted between the face and the lining.  A controller (which can be used on its own or with a lighting board) is used to manipulate the pattern, frequency (speed) and intensity of the blinking “stars.”

Our sister company, Rent What?, has found these LED Star Drops to be quite popular in their rental inventory.  As a matter of fact, last year they were used by the “So You Think You Can Dance?” tour (among others).  Want to learn more?  Check out the “Starlight LED Backdrops” page on the Rent What? website.

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Pipe & Drape – Beyond Banjo Cloth

The most common fabric used for exhibit booth drapery is Banjo Cloth.  It is lightweight, durable, permanently flame retardant, and relatively inexpensive.  For these reasons, it is used in Convention Centers throughout the country, usually in a neutral color such as black or blue.

However, more and more exhibitors are looking for ways to make their booths “stand out from the crowd,” and one of the easiest ways to do that is to bring their own drapery to the show. 

There are a number of different drapery options available to exhibitors.  The easiest option is to purchase your own Banjo Cloth drapery panels in a different color than that offered by the Convention Center, perhaps  a color that coordinates with your company logo. 

Better yet, take it a step further and purchase traditional exhibit drapery but in a different fabric.  Traditional exhibit drapery panels are manufactured using a single width of fabric (generally 4′ to 5′ wide, but occasionally up to 9′ wide, depending on the fabric selected), with a pipe pocket sewn on the top.  Panels are sewn flat (unpleated) and are “pushed together” on the drape support to create “natural” pleating. 

With traditional exhibit drapery, it is a simple matter to substitute the drapery at the show.  Simply unhook the drape support from the uprights, slide off the Convention Center’s Drapes, slide on your own drapes, and hook the drape support back on the uprights. 

These traditional exhibit drapes can be made from a wide variety of fabrics, depending on the desired look.  One option is to use a synthetic velour/velvet, such as DFR 15oz Encore or PFR 8oz Super-Vel.  These offer a rich “theatrical” appearance and are available in a variety of colors.  They are also durable and can be cleaned without losing the flame retardant properties.  As a matter of fact, Rent What? includes both fabrics in their Pipe & Base Drapery inventory and have recently posted some terrific photos on Flickr.  If the look of velour isn’t quite what you are looking for, single-width panels can also be made many different types of fabrics, from RB Cloth to Satin to Voile, and much more.  The sky’s the limit!

If you want a highly customized look, however, consider moving past the traditional single-width panel to a custom drape manufactured to size.  With custom drapery, not only do you have a wide selection of fabric choices, but you can also choose to have a single (wider) drape for each booth “wall,” you can choose to have the drape pleated, you can even choose a different top finish, such as Hidden Sewn Ties, to give that extra polish to your booth. 

Want something really different and individual?  Consider a specialty custom bias-cut drape or a drape digitally printed with your company’s logo or another image.

As you can see, there are numerous drapery options available that allow you to personalize your exhibit booth and make it stand out in the crowd – options for just about every budget and style.  So consider going “Beyond Banjo Cloth” for your next show!

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Rent What’s Specialty Drapery Series

I love the way that Rent What has organized their specialty drapery into different series – “Silver Satin”, “Rockin’ Red”, “Ivory Scene”, “Industrial Textures”, and “Timeless & Traditional.”  And the way that the series are presented on their website is terrific, too.  Next to each series on the page is a list of the various drapery elements available in the series (such as Austrians and Swags), several photos of the drapes, and a link to a pdf “Profile” with more information, photos, and inspiration.

It makes it so much easier for the client – to be able to choose from a variety of custom stage curtains in various fabrics that coordinate together a achieve one cohesive look.  Rather than having to start from scratch, all the customer has to do is review the information and “Profile” file for each series and then select which series best fits the design vision for the show or event. 

From there, in consultation with the folks at Rent What?, the designer can discuss the different drapery options before choosing the specific elements to rent.

Each series includes beautiful custom stage drapes and theatrical backdrops, but the one that I find the most interesting and innovative is the “Industrial Textures” series.  It’s a little more “rock-n-roll,” a little more funky.  It includes elements such as Metal Mesh drapes, Camo Net backdrops, and Texturelite (a gorgeous crushed fabric).

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Fabric in Shanghai

During Megan’s trip to Shanghai for the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network conference, she had the opportunity to meet up with a friend who lives in China and visit Shanghai’s garment district (including a few fabric mills).

She reported that it was a fascinating experience, seeing how fabrics are made and sold in China.  She also had a chance to take some great pictures. 

To me, the most interesting was to see the twists of yarn ready for weaving – quite reminiscent of the yarn used for home knitting and crocheting.

Working in a company that manufacturers custom stage curtains, I am around fabric all the time – and yet pictures like this continue to educate and inspire me.  They remind me that the textile industry operates in so many countries – there are fabric mills and suppliers in so many countries around the world, including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, China, India, and many more.  It really is a small world!

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Great Idea by Rent What?

Portable dressing rooms, for use by artists onstage (or backstage) are something that many music tours need.  Think about those “quick changes” that happen between songs (or even mid-song).  The reality is, there just isn’t enough time for an artist to get offstage, get to their backstage dressing room, get changed, and get back onstage without missing a beat.  But for years, there hasn’t been a good solution to this need.  Yes, pipe and base can work, but it isn’t ideal.  Among other things, a dressing room made of pipe and base components requires several different pieces (uprights, bases, drape supports, drapes) – and if one piece is left at last night’s venue?  Well, the crew is scrambling to jury rig something together for tonight’s show. 

Well, Rent What? recently came up with an innovative solution to this problem.  They combined a durable, portable pop-up frame with a custom cover that stores on the frame.  At the show, all the crew has to do is pop it open and, voila, instant 8′ x 8′ dressing room, in under two minutes!

As Rent What? developed the idea of a portable pop-up dressing room, they realized that the outside of the cover needed to be black (to blend in onstage or in the wings), but that the inside should be white to maximum the light within.  The cover also needed to be opaque, so that the light didn’t bleed to the outside.  And the cover needed to be water resistant, for those misty (or rainy) days at outdoor venues.  With these considerations in mind, they chose Roadura, an innovative fabric offered exclusively by Sew What? Inc.

Not content to rest on their laurels, Rent What also thought about the comfort and ease of both artist and crew.  They added a light and mirror, so that the artist had all the necessary elements for a quick change, and they added a rolling cart for easy transport by the crew.

I am really blown away by the way that the folks at Rent What? identified a need and came up with an innovative solution to fill that need.  That to me is the true definition of an entrepreneur.

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Another cool project for Rod Stewart

I’ve told you about some of the beautiful projects we have done in the past for Rod Stewart – the gorgeous voile drapes in 2009 and the amazing Stewart Tartan drapes in 2006.  Well, we recently provided drapery for Rod’s 2010 tour, and it was seriously cool.

We started out making three 36′ 6″ h x 41′ w Braille Curtains out of Black 16oz Commando Cloth (along with three 7′ h x 41′ w Borders, also in Commando Cloth).  Then, our favorite graphic artist, John Rios of GrafixJam, provided some amazing artwork, which we had scenically painted onto the Braille Curtains.  Who would have thought that a Braille Curtain could also be a Scenic Backdrop?

The drapes alone look amazing, but just as impressive is that John’s artwork was also pulled into the tour’s video content as well.  Note the terrific cartoon of Rod that John did!

All in all, the combination of the scenically painted Braille Curtain and the accompanying video content makes for a really compelling set design, don’t you think?

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Stage Backdrops

I realized today that I have posted a number of times about digitally printed backdrops, but I haven’t spent much time on the other types of backdrops that we make – specifically theatrical backdrops, painters backdrops and painted scenic stage backdrops.

Theatre Backdrops

Theatre backdrops are typically made flat (unpleated) utilizing flame retardant natural muslin.  Depending on budget and the size of the backdrop, the stage backdrop may be made seamless or with horizontal or vertical seams.  Typically, a stage backdrop will have webbing, grommets and ties on top, with a pipe pocket on the bottom (which allows a pipe to be inserted to pull the backdrop flat and taut).

Painters Backdrop

A painters backdrop is basically the same as a theatre backdrop, but is provided as “ready to paint.”  Most often chosen by schools and colleges, these are usually scenically painted in-house by members of the theatre or art department.   Because the addition of paint will render a flame retardant muslin backdrop as non-flame retardant, painters backdrops are typically made with non-flame retardant muslin.  In order to ensure that the finished painted backdrop is flame retardant, special flame retardant chemicals are added to the paint, and the back of the painted backdrop is also sprayed with flame retardant chemicals.

Occasionally, flame retardant muslin is chosen for a painters backdrop (even with the knowledge that it will no longer be flame retardant once painted) to reduce the possibility that the backdrop will shrink once painted.  The addition of flame retardant chemicals to the surface of the raw fabric helps “size” the fabric, thereby reducing shrinkage once painted.  However, the painted backdrop will still need to be treated for flame retardancy in the manner described above.

Scenic Stage Backdrops

A Scenic Stage Backdrop starts out as a regular stage backdrop or painters backdrop, but is handpainted by an artist at the time of manufacture, according to artwork supplied by the customer.  Scenic artists use a variety of techniques and paints to achieve just the right look as desired by the customer, will apply all the necessary flame retardant chemicals and will provide a Certificate of Flame Retardancy for the completed piece.  With this option, the customer receives a “turnkey” piece without needing to find an artist or worry about applying flame retardant chemicals.

As you can see, there are a variety of types of theatrical backdrops available to choose from – plain and ready to paint and painted (and, of course, digitally printed, as I’ve posted on before) – and something for just about everyone’s budget.

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Speaking of Portfolios…

Recently I posted about our new Digital Printing Portfolio, and in writing that post, I took a few minutes to review our other portfolios.  It seems that I don’t get the opportunity to review our portfolio pages as often as I like, so there is always something new to see.

The page that really impressed me this time was the Video Portfolio.  Since I last looked, a number of really cool videos have been added.  One that stood out was the video of the Alice in Chains Poly Silk Kabuki.  Not only does the video show how terrific poly silk is as a projection surface, but at the end of the video, it shows the kabuki dropping.

In prior posts, I have explained how a kabuki works, but it can be difficult to understand in a written explanation.  I think this Alice in Chains video is a great visual demonstration of the operation of a kabuki.

There are a number of other videos in the portfolio as well, highlighting a variety of custom stage drapes (including an Austrian curtain), stage backdrops, and much more.  Check it out!

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Sheers and Silvers for Celtic Woman

Last spring, I was lucky enough to see Celtic Woman live at the Orange County (Calif) Performing Arts Center, and it was really a lovely show. Well, Celtic Woman is back in the US with a new tour, “Songs from the Heart,” and Sew What? was proud to be asked by production manager Scotty Ross to provide custom stage curtains to the tour.

The focus was on an ethereal look that could be transformed through lighting.  We started with the unique drum risers, which were comprised of three layers.  The top layer was White Voile, digitally printed with the client’s artwork (modeled after the “Songs from the Heart ” album cover art).  In the middle was White Iridescent Sheer, gathered at 200% fullness.  The bottom layer was Black 16oz Commando Cloth to ensure that the drum riser behind was masked from view.

The same White Iridescent Sheer fabric was used for upstage sheers, complemented by a swagged border and midstage swagged legs in Silver Velvet, along with legs in a White-Silver Sparkle Velvet. 

As I’ve mentioned before, silver  or grey fabric (along with white fabric) is ideal for colored lighting.  Check out how the drapery looked under a purple / blue lighting scheme:

And then how it looked under a red / gold lighting scheme:

It’s hard to believe that these are the same drapes – and that under natural light, they are actually white and silver!

I think the drapes turned out just gorgeous, and evoke just the right romantic, ethereal mood for the beautiful music of Celtic Woman.  Want to see (and hear) more?  Check out this video of the tour at Radio City Music Hall.  And if you’ve never seen them live, try to get out to see them this spring – they really do put on a great show.

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Stretch Shapes

Recently we got an e-mail from Brandon Reed, Director of College Ministry at Grace Community Church in Clarksville, TN, raving about the custom stretch shapes that we made him.  His e-mail made me realize that I haven’t posted much about this item, so I thought I’d do so today.

What are stretch shapes?  Also known as Tension Fabric Structures, they are geometric shapes (triangles, squares, rectangles, stars, etc.) made from a stretch fabric such as Cambio! 

The most simple stretch shapes are two-dimensional and frameless.  With these stretch shapes (we offer a number of stock shapes), the shapes are hemmed on all sides, with reinforced grommets placed at the corners or points.  The shape is then displayed by hanging from a batten or truss and then tensioning the sides (by attaching to the side of the proscenium or a moveable upright) and/or bottom (by attaching to sandbags or directly to the stage floor or the back of the stage deck), often with clear monofilament (fishing line).  Some great examples of this type of stretch shape are shown on our website, on the Special Events Portfolio page – check out the Bridal Table by Details Ottawa.

In addition to hanging stretch shapes, stretch shapes are also made by combining stretch fabric with metal frames in either two-dimensional or three-dimensional configurations.  This creates a stretch shape that can be easily moved to a variety of locations onstage without having to worry about attaching the piece to the stage itself.

In the case of Grace Community Church, two-dimensional metal triangles were custom-made for the church by another supplier.  Sew What? then made custom stretch pieces to fit the frames.   The fabric shapes were attached to the frames using Velcro (loop velcro sewn to the perimeter of the shapes and then adhesive hook velcro attached to the frame).  With targeted lighting, the church is able to create a variety of interesting looks to provide a backdrop to the show.

Photo By Heather Kennedy

The best thing, though, is that stretch shapes are a really affordable option (especially frameless shapes) – which makes them a great option for organizations (such as churches, schools, or event planners) who want to create a really dramatic look to a show or event but have a limited budget.

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