I Get Some Odd Requests Sometimes -- Like Ballerina Props

 

I made two swans for science fiction fandom, selling them on my dealers table (though at SF conventions it's called a 'hucksters table').  This one is 3 feet long from beak to tail, has floppy feet and a neck that can bend a bit, though it's too heavy to be wired for posing.  It was fun, I had a blast making it.

 

Thing is, I had a lady contact me by email looking to see if I made them 'life sized'. Do you have any idea how BIG a life sized one is?  And she wanted wings extended on it.  I asked her what it was going to be used for (studio prop?  Display piece? Hanging overhead?) and she said that she was part of a lady's barber shop quartette and they do competitions every year. Last year they were dressed as nuns and singing about loosing weight - at the height of the song one would inflate a life preserver under their habit.  They'd done office secretaries, and several other things, but this year they wanted to be dressed as ballerinas and do Swan Lake, with swans draped around them.

 

After talking to her on the phone (the emails got too long) we determined that the swans could drape down one hip, with the heads resting on their shoulder (which gave me a better idea of the size needed), though one had to have an open mouth to hold their pitch pipe in so the lady could turn her head and blow it.  I came up with a D ring attachment, so they could tie them on around their tutu's with more of the white netting their outfits were going to be made of (she said white corsets, tutu netting, stockings, and such).  AND I wanted to keep the weight down too since they would have a 15 minute performance, but the competitions would require a series of 5 performances.  So I went with foam rubber to fill the bodies with instead of stuffing.  And they wanted the legs to dangle and swing which was easy to do.

 

I got all four done and sent off, and she sent me a GREAT photo of them all in a line dressed as ballerinas with the severe makeup and the hair drawn back, it looked hysterical.  She said that they were a real hit, though they only got second place in their category (it's a fierce competition apparently).   Good for them!  They did other performances that year with the swans, then retired them.