You may recall that in a recent post I told you about the outsize flea I had been asked to make for the play “Flea the Pandemic”. About a month ago the director of that play asked me to make a prop for one of the three one act plays he had written which SNADS have just performed under his direction. He asked for a dead fox!
In fact the play called for a vixen which had been killed by hounds and he wanted it to be as gory as possible.
Once again I asked Mr Google for some assistance with basic reference images – of live foxes. From these I determined the colours of fur fabric which I would need to use.
Having spoken to our wardrobe mistress and acquired some bits from our stash, I realised that I was going to have to get some paint as we didn’t have much in the way of correct colours. I was able to obtain some “match pots” of acrylic decorating paint in tan, and dark greyish-brown together with a “fresh blood” red and a “drying blood” red. I collected together other items which I usually find helpful in making props – some of my non-woven cotton cleaning cloths, empty milk bottles and other plastic vessels and a couple of plastic tubes of different diameters.
Mr Google next helped me with the size of a vixen carcase (though from whose website I cannot now remember) and the shape of a fox’s skull.
The basic skull shape I made from some pieces from an opaque white milk bottle and masking tape.
I made an approximate size body using one of the non-woven cloths, which I stuffed with some recycled polyester stuffing and I covered that with fur fabric, but leaving the “belly” open. I covered the skull with fur fabric using PVA glue and some strong thread, and stitched it to the body. I added two back legs in fur fabric, one full length front leg and, as I was then running out of the fabric, a short one leaving the paw end open and painted red, inserting some more of the opaque white plastic cut into “shards” to represent a bloody shattered bone.
I was lucky with the tail, as amongst the bits in the fur fabric stash there was a piece which was stitched into a vague tail shape and it was darker and fluffier than the rest of the fur fabric I had found. So I stuffed it and added a white tip to it. I stitched that onto the fox’s rear end.
I added some ears to the head, using scraps of the fur fabric stiffened with PVA and paint. I didn’t bother adding teeth to the open mouth as the head was likely to be less visible to the audience. I painted a black nose and black eye sockets.
I then had to brush over the rest of the light tan coloured head and body with a darker tan, which I had mixed from the new paint and some in my paint box, using the dry brush method, to represent something more fox-like.
Next came the gory bits. I fashioned some organ shapes from the plastic bottles, and some entrails from some of the tubing and a couple of the milk bottle handles.
I noticed that a couple of the non-woven cloths which had been through the washing machine several times were beginning to break down. Stretching them pulled the centre into holes which began to look a lot like caul fat. So I cut some sections out and wrapped the “organs”. This would make them more realistic although the full effect would be unlikely to be seen by the audience.
Then I got busy with the “blood”! The paint covered the “organs” and the “entrails” quite well, although I later found that it would flake off the milk bottle handles and would need touching up. I also treated the open belly, the short front leg and the mouth with lots more “blood”.
The fox was to be fixed to a black board, which would hopefully blend into the black flooring that was to cover the shiny wood floor of the stage. Once this had been delivered to me by the Producer, I stuck the body to the board with more PVA (what would we do without it?) and then arranged and stuck down the organs and entrails.
But something was wrong, it didn’t look right. Then I realised that there wasn’t enough blood. If the fox had been torn apart by hounds there would be blood everywhere. So I got the paints out again and spread a good deal of it over the board and added lots more to the body.
I have now seen the play and at the end the poor fox was accorded a solo spot on the stage.
The End.