Beach floorcloth

[Amy Worrall]

I'm looking for a sand/beach floorcloth to hire, approx 7.5x5 metres, for a production of Pirates of Penzance next May.

 

My Googling only found floorcloths with tiles or patterns on.

 

Can anyone recommend anywhere I should be searching?

 

Thanks,

 

Amy

[Spock]

You could try stitching together some beige dust sheets from a DIY store. I've used them to simulate a sandy floor to good effect.

[Hass]

Hi

 

Ive done something similar before,

 

We used stiched together sheets as mentioned above, I think we used sandy coloured muslin or calico. Once the sheet was ready we poured a load of pve onto it, wiped it very thin and left it until it got tacky. When tacky pour a load of sand onto the material, leave it until dry. then tip off all the sand that hasn't stuck leaving a beach type looking floorcloth.

 

just be ready for a van full of sand if this show is touring

 

There is also sand paint you can get, textured and coloured paint, used for models, however im only aware of this coming in small amounts and is relatively expensive but it might be worth investigating if anyone sells it in larger amounts.

 

hope this helps

[Dave m]

The OP is an am-dram so I would guess that this is a one off set and forget ( till get out) cloth.

 

we've done whole stages covered in proper sand before, so long as you use Kiln dried sand it's easy to work with.

Maybe use a sandy coloured cloth to help retain it and allow less sand than otherwise needed.

 

I worked on a show that toured with 7(?) tons of irradiated mud as it was set in ww1 and went from Passchendaele to a fully laid out war cemetery

It was like Glastonbury back stage. so Dry Sand is vital.

 

there are web calculators to tell you dry weights that equate to depth/surface area.

 

so you can say that you want 10 x 15 feet x 1" deep and the amount of sand will come up.

[Amy Worrall]

The OP is an am-dram so I would guess that this is a one off set and forget ( till get out) cloth.

 

Hi, sorry for the delayed reply!

 

We only need the beach scene in Act 1, so we would be looking to remove it in the interval, so I'm not sure real sand would work for us.

 

I'd never have thought of using it at all though. I'd be too worried of it going everywhere and giving us a huge cleaning bill! Does it really work ok?

 

Thanks,

 

Amy

[kerry davies]

The OP is an am-dram so I would guess that this is a one off set and forget ( till get out) cloth.

I'd never have thought of using it at all though. I'd be too worried of it going everywhere and giving us a huge cleaning bill! Does it really work ok?

Worked well for me. Took years for Dave at the Bacon Theatre in Cheltenham to stop introducing me as "The Sandman",however.

[ontoprigger]

Give prompt side (01322 554455) a call, it might be out of your budget but they can print you a floor cloth or dance floor with whatever you want on it

[Glyn Edwards]

Just be aware that bringing a floor cloth covered in sand would upset our stage crew (and I'm sure many others) Sadly it never seems to stay stuck down, and gets everywhere. We are still finding it after a show 3 weeks ago, and we've swept / mopped / vac'd / painted since then.