Introduction: How to Make a Prop Cocktail or Rather a 'Proptail'

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About: I'm an un-repentant mess creator... I'll turn my hand to anything and providing i get my fingers back... I'm happy.

This year in the show I have been asked to produce two cocktails on a tray, now, a lot of theaters don't like actual liquids on stage, so i decided to play around with glue and paint until i came up with something that looked vaguely like a cocktail...

In this Instructable, i will show you the steps I took to make two props which my not look like any cocktail i have ever drank... but certainly something i would consider drinking.  Again apologies to those who follow my Ible feed, this is yet another project where i do not possess pictures of the finished article... my camera died during manufacture, so you shall have to make do with what few pictures i have, you get the idea of it i suppose.

If you like it rate it if you make one show me

Toodles

Jay

Step 1: Ingredients

What you will need:
  • A glass
  • Paint
  • PVA Glue
  • Paint Brush
  • Something like a bowl to mix your paint in
  • Various cocktail decorations (eg paper umbrellas, straws etc)

Optional extra: Paper mache Pineapple ring
  • Craft knife or Scissors
  • Glue
  • Pencil or pen
  • Cardboard
  • Tissue paper
  • (something round to draw around)

Step 2: Stirred Not Shaken

set your cocktail glass to one side, you must first mix your paint with a small amount of PVA glue, this aids the paint to stick to the smooth glass surface...

Step 3: Lay It on Thick

Paint your glue and paint mix onto the inside of your cocktail glass, you may need to either lay it on thick or add a few coats... Because i did layered drinks i layed it on thick, which led to the colours running like an ordinary drink would do... however, this will take AGES to dry, be warned

Step 4: Wipe Off Any Excess Splodges

Do what it says on the title... ;)

Step 5: Add Second or Even Third Colour Layer

As with both proptails i added a second colour, this worked well for the pink cocktail, not so much with the purple and green one... oh well we  live and learn, i think i may have been too soon with adding the second thick layer of paint, perhaps leaving it to dry would help

Step 6: Is It Finished?

once your paint is dry feel free to add any cocktail decorations you think suit the design, here i just simply added a paper parasol to finish off the drink, which i hot melt glued to the glass.

The green and purple one eventually ended up with a mock pineapple ring, two umbrellas and a few straws, but i have no pictures of that

Step 7: Optional Extra

as mentioned at the beginning this is where i began to loose my photo's, i have the pics of me making the pineapple ring, but none of the finished article nor the completed cocktail... i am trying to find one though from the performance.

here's a brief into how i made it:
  • Firstly cut two circles out of cardboard
  • Cut the circles into a C shape, but square off the outer edge like a pineapple
  • Glue both C sections together
  • Papier mache
  • Add paint
simple as sin no?

Now all you need to do is affix it to your cocktail

Step 8: Finished

I promise as soon as i find pictures of them being used in the performance i shall post them here, i loathe not having pictures to show off what i have done but i can't help hardware failures, hopefully this may come of use to someone at a later stage. we shall see...

Cheerio

Jay