gibbothegreat Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/mad.gif..Hi all, following recent amateur production of Sweeney Todd, our (not far off new) cyc is bedizened with black emulsion paint (I suspect a too-hasty touch-up) and stage blood from (again I suspect) an over-enthusiastic throat cutting. Does anyone have any tips for cleaning these without taking the whole thing down or damaging the fabric? It's a canvascotton cyc. Cheers all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinntec Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 I have hired theatres where you would be charged for damaging the infrastructure beyond acceptable wear and tear. I have paid up for a desk lamp that drooped onto the lighting desk and damaged one of the knobs (thanks Strand for a big bill), cables stretched when one of our stagehands was over zealous lowering an LX bar before the overhead cables had been slackened, items that unaccountable just vanished into thin air such as 16A-13A adapters. If I painted the cyc at our local Theatre Royal (or even my own theatre) I would expect to be in B I G trouble even though chief tech Spatz is the greatest guy you will ever meet. I am interested in this answer too in case our 1 year old cyc gets damaged as we build the sets in situ. I suspect it might turn out to be a specialist cleaning job more expensive than a new cyc (which will be in the hundreds unless there is something odd about it). However there might be some old tricks which still work or a way of getting someone to clean it which is reasonable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gibbothegreat Posted June 8, 2015 Author Share Posted June 8, 2015 Thanks Vinntech, and, as they say, I'm ruling nothing in or out at this stage in terms of how much of this I pass on. I suspect too that you're right about repair options, but I'm hoping the old Blue Room magic might just twinkle up a solution... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Pearce Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 What material is the cyc made of? And what sort of paint? Hard to make suggestions without knowing the details. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 The problem is that "dirt" of age and use is usually general and evenly applied, BUT Stains and Paint will be in spots dots or blotches, so cleaning a paint spot may reveal the only (now) clean place on the canvas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImagineerTom Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 If it's splatter of paint that's stayed on the surface then you may be able to scrape it off with a blade (like you would ice on a car window) but if it's gone in to the fabric then you're basically screwed. Stage blood is (with an odd, expensive exception) very staining - certain stain-removal type products may shift enough of it to make it un-noticable but to be honest with this and the paint you run the risk that by focusing on specific areas you end up creating water-marks / cleaning marks in the area concerned that draw even more focus than the stains. If you cannot remove them in under 30 seconds then you do really need to consider dropping and cleaning the entire cloth to ensure consistency of colour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 If it's as bad as it sounds from your post, I reckon you'd do best to drop it and get it professionally cleaned. If there's no doubt that the damage was caused during the amateur company's residency at the venue, I see no reason why they shouldn't be expected to foot the entire cost of the cleaning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gibbothegreat Posted June 8, 2015 Author Share Posted June 8, 2015 Thanks again all. It's a canvas cotton cyc, and the paint is water-based emulsion, but it does look to me like it has gone into the cloth. Haven't yet had an answer as to the composition of the blood, but Sweeney's hands were well stained and not even extensive scrubbing shifted it at all quickly. Ignorant question, is it possible to get something the size of our cyc (7.10m drop x 9.5m width) cleaned, and if so, is the chain in the pocket an issue? Is going over it with spray paint an option anyone has tried? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImagineerTom Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 Being water based doesn't make any difference re the paint - aside from "washable" paints devised for kids to used virtually every other paint you'll encounter undergoes some sort of irreversable chemical reaction when it dries so that simply adding the solvent back to it won't turn it back in to liquid paint. Broadly speaking you should consider most paints (when dry) to be plastic, forming a complicated and very thin 3D layer over whatever is underneath. Take the chain out (you'll probably have to un-pick the seam an inch or so) and the whole thing could be launded by one of the larger dry-cleaning companies, also try contacting local marquee companies as they have to get linings cleaned periodically which would be a similar volume. You can over-paint a cyc with white but you have to do the entire cyc evenly and when you're done you end up with a brittle cloth that can never be folded or moved again so should really only be considered as a last result. You'll also find it uses a lot more paint than you'd imagine - I'd expect it to take something in a region of 40 ltrs to get a consistent coat on an unsealed cloth that size. t Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 The venue should really be charging the visiting company for a replacement cloth. After a production of lord of The Flies at the beginning of this year we had exactly that situation- blood spatters across a fair portion of the cloth. The company alerted me to it promptly and without prompting said add the cost of a new one onto their bill. Which I did and it was promptly paid. It will likely cost you FAR more than the cost of the original cy to have it a) laundered then b) re-treated properly with fire retardent. And simply spraying it will take a LONG time and never be as effective as a pukka DFR treatment by the suppliers. The bigger problem I have is where I find white or other paints on my blacks that haven't been moved before painting sets, or worse where some hamfisted twot puts a tear in one - and DOESN'T have the decency to own up :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerry davies Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 Oh Gibbo. Tom suggests marquee companies for advice and there are specialist machines that wash marquee sheeting which might be useful but .... big but. Today, by sheer coincidence, I went for a cuppa and watched my mate write off three panels in a canvas Geodome wall with black emulsion soaked into them. A weak solution of bleach after much washing might just prep the cyc to be dyed something like grey/blue but once emulsion is soaked in it forms a dye of it's own. Stage blood is just nasty stuff to remove from anything and I haven't a clue where to start because, as Tom says, it really stains as you have seen with the actor having difficulty removing it from impervious skin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gibbothegreat Posted June 9, 2015 Author Share Posted June 9, 2015 Thanks all! I'd like to say I'm dismayed, but given it was what I'd expected, I'm just grateful for all the thorough answers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
photographic08 Posted June 18, 2015 Share Posted June 18, 2015 We had ours cleaned by a company called Gorts in Oldham , it wasn't cheap though, and was just to remove general dirt rather than paint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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