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Aaron Justice

Props Artisan

Stages St. Louis 2018

I Do! I Do!, Madagascar, Mamma Mia, Oklahoma

I Do! Hope Chest
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I Do! Makeup Tables

Madgascar Foosa Spears	We had these spears left over from some other show, but they were 12 feet long, and blue. But made a great start for modifications.	After shortening, a quick paint job, and some faux fur hand grips, they just needed some rafia later to be complete.

I Do! Golden Chandelier	The initial design called for a curved, smaller chandelier, seen here.
		The smaller, curved chandelier was deemed too small lengthwise, and was also too deep for the fly system, so I modified it to be flatter and wider in the second incarnation.

Madagascar King Julien's Rickshaw

I Do! Child's "Bang" Gun The Director wanted either a cork gun, or a cartoony gun that popped out a flag that says bang on it. I opted for the second, as it seemed for fun and more challenging. A video of it firing can be seen below.	The gun works by an internal spring, a string that holds it cocked, and a string that keeps the flag from shooting out the barrel across the floor.	I found a clothespin did not provide enough clamping power to hold the tension spring back, the string always slipped out. The addition of a nail into the clothespin was a perfect, yet slightly scary up close, fix to that problem.

My rudimentary proof of concept for the director. A video of it firing can be seen below.

Madagascar Tranquilizer Gun	The tranquilizer gun started out as a broken paintball gun purchased from a local store. The air tank and hose were removed to make it look less paintball, and then I replaced the barrel with one from a different gun that was much longer to give it an almost comical size.	Straight black was a little too scary for a kids show, so we added some lime green,
The lime green helped, but it was still a little too real looking, so we made the grip, barrel, and stock orange, firmly seating it outside the realm of reality.

King Julien's Throne	The throne started out as this chair from out storage, but it needed arms.	The arms were done in a slice-bending method, then welded in the new shape and ground back flat.
The arms attached. Because King Julien mainly sat with his legs slung over the arm, i made one arm slightly lower to make it easier.	Quick coat of primer before going to paints for the bamboo treatment.

Just some of the many fruity cocktails I made for Mamma Mia. I was basically given free reign to make whatever I wanted here. All are made from different dyed gel wax, and the decorations are a combination of purchased drink decorations, and made/modified fruits from the storage.

Mamma Mia Key Tags	Initially I was asked to make some rectangular painted wood key tags.	They were unsure if they wanted pink or blue, so I made both. Several coats of paint, then several coats of polyurethane to make them smooth and shiny.
Blue was the decided color over pink.	Later, they decided they were not fans of the rectangles, instead wanting seashell/sand dollar looking tags. So I carved and painted these the same as the last.

Mamma Mia Books: The Diary The Diary needed little modifications. Rub-on gold letters to say Diary was all it took.	Mamma Mia Books: Bill's Journal This started out as a nice faux-leather bound journal. Then I hit it with a belt sander, rubbed it on the road, soaked it in a bucket of paint water, and then kind of duct taped it back together.

Mamma Mia Donna's Bed	We had this headboard for a bed, but no rails or matching footboard, so I was tasked with making the matching footboard.	Those flowery details would be hard to make from scratch, but molding and casting that shape is pretty easy.
Shhh....the silicone is curing.	IMAG2344	One of many flowers to come from that mold.
Weld up a matching sized footboard from pipes, add some little decorative knobs for the top, and then let JB Weld do its thing.

Mamma Mia Books: The Diary The Diary needed little modifications. Rub-on gold letters to say Diary was all it took.	Mamma Mia Books: Bill's Journal This started out as a nice faux-leather bound journal. Then I hit it with a belt sander, rubbed it on the road, soaked it in a bucket of paint water, and then kind of duct taped it back together.

Mamma Mia Macrame Decorations

Mamma Mia Broom	Started as just a normal broom from the store.	Removing the bristles on the sides, and adding a PVC tube to force the remaining bristles round.
Scuffing and adding grey paint to the handle.	Some pink fabric to mask the PVC	Some lace to make it a little decorative.
A bit of yellow string and some ribbon and it's done.

Mamma Mia Surfboard	We needed a surfboard that was able to be sat and stood upon while on someone's shoulders. We bought a cheap foam board, that could not do that.	The initial plan was to rout out the bottom of the surfboard, add an aluminum frame on the inside, and mask the bottom.
The bottom routed out. The plan did not work, as the foam of the board was getting shredded by the aluminum, and there was no way to secure it.	The next idea was to basically remove all the internal foam, keep the blue and yellow pretty skin, and then fill the inside with a wood frame and expanded 2 part foam. This wound up working quite well.	Bottom in the process of being reskinned after the foam and wood cleanup.

Oklahoma Butter Churn	We had a butter churn in storage from a past show. However, the director wanted Aunt Eller to fill the churn with "cream" before sitting to churn. This churn is not, and could not be made watertight and still have the churn able to be moved, so I improvised.
	Some watersealing around the edges, and as long as she did not pour it down the center hole, the churn could churn and still hold liquid.

Oklahoma Hay Cart	The initial hay cart as designed had some issues. It turned out to be much too small for what the director wanted, and the steps to get in it caused it to flip dangerously.	The second incarnation of the hay cart was wider, and the steps were removed in favor of a crate that would be lifted out of the cart to serve as a step (on the floor in the background).
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Oklahoma Ali Hakim Cart	False Drawer facade.	Test fit.
Test fit the real drawers, and adding the middle shelf.	Real and fake drawers installed.	Everything together and open
Closed view.

Oklahoma "Little Wonder"	Proof of concept with a popsicle stick and some random PVC tubing.	The real, operable Little Wonder. The blade is released by turning that ring, which allows a clothespin spring to spring the blade out.
The three different Little Wonders. The prototype in the background, the bladeless one standing up for certain scenes, and the actual bladed one on the table.	Trying out color schemes. Red and yellow was first, but looked too much like a McDonalds advertisement. I then changed the yellow to teal, and it was kay, but not great. Finally it was settles on a cherry red and burgundy I failed to get a picture of.	Closeup of the painted wooden blade.

Oklahoma Picture Frame A simple picture from for this printout of a cross stitch.	Making sure the frame fits before staining.

Oklahoma Expanded Bench	This is a bench from our storage. It had definitely seen better days. Instead of just fixing it up, or making a new bench, they wanted me to replace the broken rail, and make the top 4 inches wider, and 16 inches longer.	Not trusting dowels to hold a person standing on this, I instead used half inch steel rod.
I also replaced the 1x leg extensions with this foot.

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