Work experience

Sorry if things have been a bit quiet around these parts this week, but I've spent six days doing work experience as a scenic artist.

I started at 8am each day. Let's remember that I'm a student, an art student at that, so this was an achievement in itself.

It was for a company called Set-Up (Scenery) who build sets for theatre productions.

I got to wear these lovely overalls. But the end of the week they were a lot less white.

I spent most of my time working on the floor for an upcoming Shakespeare play at the National theatre. We were making wooden panels look like paving stones.

This involved sealing many, many 1x1metre squares of wood with button polish, then applying two layers of texture to them but spraying a thick, white mixture and smoothing it out with a trowel.

The spray is what's on my shoes. They used to be pink.

Then we applied a paint wash and I learnt that scenic art is a lot about how well you can flick water with a large brush.

It was really interesting to find out how they create paving stones, having made miniature ones for my degree show house.

Hopefully I'll be able to share photos when it's all installed in the theatre later in the year.