Help - Breakable bottles

I'm SM/Props for a show and we need to smash one of the actors over the head with a bottle. I don't think the cops'd like it if we did it for real, so how do I either a) get the fake kind or b) make them???

Linda

help

Hello Linda
I found this at Stagecraft Frequently Asked Questions http://www.faqs.org/faqs/theatre/stagecraft/faq/preamble.html
You need to try it out and not on an actor. The Garrick theatre have made breakable props but I think it was vases.

8. Toffee glass / Candy glass bottles?

By weight mix 7 parts sugar, 3 parts corn syrup and 2 parts water. Add
food dye to colour, or use brown sugar for brown glass. Heat until it
melts/dissolves at 225F or 108C. Let it cool - as it starts to harden
pour it into the mould, then tilt the mould to cover all the surfaces.

Monta Elkins found that this didn't work at 225F, but 300F worked well.
Also, use the clearest corn-syrup you can find, as the slight yellow
colour shows in the completed glass. Adding vanilla essence makes the
failures taste good enough to eat.

Dave Porter suggests covering a bottle with a carefully smoothed layer
of foil, then many more layers of possibly crumpled foil. Cut this in
half and use it as a slip mould for toffee glass bottles.

Be wary of hot sugar syrup. It hurts. Use gloves.

Toffee glass is hard to get right and incredibly messy when it goes
wrong. A number of people have recommended using casting resin to make
breakaway glassware instead.

You can also buy them.

They are made for film, and sold via a company called the John Barry Group in Sydney - I forget the brand. Below is a paste from the white pages:

JOHN BARRY GROUP
1 McLachlan St Artarmon 2064 (02) 9439 6955


Regards
John Grimshaw
Editor, Connections Magazine
Entertainment Technology Monthly
Locked Bag 30, Epping NSW Australia 1710
(contact us for courier delivery address!)
Connections: +61 2 9876 3530 ||| Fax: +61 2 98765715
Direct: +61 2 4758 6853 ||| Mobile: 040 88 333 94
website: www.conpub.com.au

Hi there,

I am also interested in buying some breakaway glass bottles, but need
them to be made of sugar glass so they will break down in the environment when broken outside.

Ta,

Jo

You can also do a product search at ALIA (www.alia.com.au). I'm sure there's at least one production company that supplies sugar glass bottles. If not, ask on their online forum.

One of the below companies maybe able to help. I know Rowe Trading sell material to make break away props



Australian College of Make-Up and Special Effects

5 The Crescent,

Annandale NSW 2038

Telephone: (612) 9518 9000

E-Mail: info@makeupcollege.com.au

Website: http://www.makeupcollege.com.au/



Body Art

14 Nepean Way

Taylors Hill, Victoria 3037

Telephone: +03 9307 0920

E-mail: jcfarrugia@pigpond.com.au



Rowe Trading
4 Holder Ave
Richmond , South Australia 5033

Telephone +61 8 8234 0000

Fax +61 8 8234 2092

E-mail: sales@rowetrading.com.au

Website: http://www.rowetrading.com.au/

U.S site for resin breakaway bottles:-

http://www.theatrefx.com/store/commerce.cgi?product=breakaway_glass