I Never Rest or How I Spent My Vacation

After three none stop months of shows, I decided to take a week off to visit my folks. My visits always seem to have some work related thing involved. My Dad and I build props for the show and typically my Mom is busy sewing something for the show. Over the years my Dad and I have built a sub-trunk, a tip over trunk, a number of smaller effects and refurbished a few older ones. My Mom has sewn mostly drapes for my tables, though one time she sewed a bag that I use in a magic routine. And this time she sewed another bag, but a very special one for my show. I wrote an article about it over at the Magic Detective site.

This time my Dad and I set about building an 'illusionette', which basically means it's not a large scale illusion, but rather a small scale illusion. This particular one involves cutting my arm into three pieces and then zig-zaging the center section of arm up and out of the way of the others. It's a wonderful effect.

The photo to the left is a very early construction photo. The upper boxes and sitting on the middle box and the lower box was not started. All the magic happens in the upper three boxes, but due to the shape of a persons body, you have to do something to increase the height of the three boxes to be sure they are level or fairly close to level with your arm.

The next photo you'll see all three boxes stacked together. The center box has a door which opens to allow you to see all the way through the box. The row of boxes on the top is, again, where the magic happens, the other two are just to raise it up.

Quite a bit of work went into the building of this piece of apparatus. The great thing about working with my Dad is that he and I continually double check with each other before moving forward. So if one of us measures, the other goes back and double checks it. This saves a lot of having to go back and do things over. When I'm building stuff on my own, I take a similar approach of double and triple checking measurements and making sure I've followed all the proper steps before I cut/saw/or glue something. Needless to say, even with all those precautions, this prop did throw a couple curves our way. Even when we thought all major construction was finished, I discovered another 'flaw' that needed to be fixed.

When I say flaw, I am not referring to anything we did wrong, but rather, a design flaw that was left out of the original plans. There are actually quite a few things left out of the original plans that is up to the builder to figure out. We departed ways on a couple things, one of those was the way the blades were designed. The blades that are described in the building plans would have been troublesome at best. The blades designed by the original creator solved a host of issues, so we went with the original blade design. If you're wondering what makes the creators design better, well it's the fact that the metal blade has two pieces of wood running down the side edges. This makes the blade more durable (prevents it from getting bent accidentally) and it also acts as a guide for the inner box when it's sliding upwards. 

The photo below is a shot of the box with the blades inserted (no arm included however) and the middle box zig-zaged. As much as I was thrilled that the major construction was complete, I had no idea until I got home how much work is yet to do. Besides some sanding and painting, there are some internal 'fixes' that must be done. Plus, this prop will be part of my Steampunk Show, so after the base coat of paint, I have to figure out the steampunk design for the illusion. Right now, I'm only planning on steampunking the upper row of boxes. When the prop is finally complete, I will post a photo of it on this blog and probably over at my Steampunk blog.

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OMG, This prop is driving me insane!!! Just when I thought I was done, it's pulling me back in! It's truly amazing to me the intricacies of these kinds of props. I'm looking at the insides, the guts, and I'm wondering "why did we cut that board the way we did?" "why did we go with bolts and wingnuts instead of glue?" "why was I so slow and deliberate with most of the building but then rushed on two things, both of which now are flawed". Why why why? But with every error comes a solution. With every defect, comes a better way of doing it. As it turned out the wingnuts was a brilliant idea as it makes traveling easier. As for cutting a board the way we did, I know exactly why we cut it the way we did, but looking at it now, we didn't need to do it that way.......but we made our best guess and went with it. Did I mention above that the construction was finished? Not hardly. I think the construction will be done tomorrow. I need to cut two boards and install them. The blades are finished and will be painted tomorrow. The center box will get it's first coat of paint and stain. The lower box should also get it's paint job done tomorrow with any luck. The upper row of boxes will remain unfinished for the time being. They require more work and attention.

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OK, as of now, the construction is officially finished. But again, more fine tuning. The prop is about 95% finished so you can finally get a view of the completed project. Believe it or not, everytime I say this thing is done, I realize there is another tweak that needs to happen. NOW, I've got something else to paint, so tomorrow, more painting. I also decided to add two more decorative things to the prop, but that is an easy fix. When it's done, it will still basically look like the image below. Hope you enjoy it!