# temporary scrim paint?



## JahJahwarrior (Nov 14, 2006)

My school only has one scrim drop. We don't want to paint it permanently, but we were thinking of painting it to mimic siding of a house for this production. Is there a way to paint cotton sharkstooth scrim so that we could easily bleach it out later?


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## soundlight (Nov 14, 2006)

You'd have to have a paint that washes out of the holes or doesn't fill them. If you paint it, the paint might fill in the holes and reduce the use of this drop as an actual scrim.


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## Footer (Nov 14, 2006)

If the scrim is black, you will never get it black again, if it is white, you can paint it with dye and MAYBE you could "bleach" it back to white again. Remember, scrims are not made to be washed so do this at your own risk. If you take any type of paint to it you will most likely destroy your scrim. You might want to look into getting a cheap drop to paint and repaint.


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## JahJahwarrior (Nov 14, 2006)

Thing is, we want this to look like the side of a house, then become transparent  I just won't bother with it. Painting it's not a huge problem, it's getting it white again. You can paint a scrim if you are careful and still have it be normal "scrim" with a scrim effect.


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## Footer (Nov 14, 2006)

JahJahwarrior said:


> Thing is, we want this to look like the side of a house, then become transparent  I just won't bother with it. Painting it's not a huge problem, it's getting it white again. You can paint a scrim if you are careful and still have it be normal "scrim" with a scrim effect.



Usually to get that finish you do not use latex or oil based paint on the scrim, but use some type of dye or VERY high quality scenic paint extremely watered down that can be either brushed or sprayed on. If you fill any the holes of your scrim your scrim has now become a very expensive drop.


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## SHARYNF (Nov 14, 2006)

Have you looked at the possibility of projecting the side of the house on the scrim? 
Sharyn


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## Van (Nov 14, 2006)

beg to differ with other posters, Painting scrim is no different than paint a standard drop. If painted on top of Bogus paper the scrim material will absorbe the paint and the "holes" will remain open. for reference look up the classic, original design for "the Glass Menagerie", which used a full stage scrim, painted like the front of the house. It had the classic opaque look of a painted drop when lit from the front yet magically "disappeared" when lit from behind wow-ing the audience of the 1950's. To the topic, there is no paint, dye or stain that I have ever heard of that would allow you to paint a scrim and then remove the paint. Any painting done on a scrim is permanent as the cotton fibers will soak up the paint and permanently stain them. It's the nature of cotton and pigments. They mix real well. The best I could suggest would be to attempt to purchase a scrim from one of the larger suppliers, they sometimes have pieces that they have produced that wound up being the wrong size etc. They will often sell these at a serious discount. Beyond that I think Sharyns idea of projection is great. Projecting on a scrim works real well. it gives the image a much more realistic appearence than just projecting on a standard screen. One other trick you might look into, tricot. If cost is your main issueyou might look into using Tricot. It's that fabric used to line swimsuits and lingerie. Not everyone knows this but it also works well as a scrim. 2-3 years ago I needed to scrim the sides of my stage but needed them to appear as is they were a graffitied mess. since we are in a very intimate venue I didn't feel sharkstooth, hex or bobbinette would work well enough. so we built some extremely large frames, stretched the tricot across it and painted it. Worked like a dream. In fact the first night we had the frames installed, sans paint, the sound designer walked right into one of the panels, bent the heck out of the frame. Tricot comes in many colors the most common being white, ecru, and black. and its incredibly cheap. Speaking of colors, "One day Ceasar walks into the senate. Brutus stops him and says, "Hey nice new white Toga Ceasar !" to which Ceasar responded. " Ecru, Brute'"

Good luck, don't try doing anything to that scrim is you want a whit scrim in inventory !
Let us know what you do !


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## mbandgeek (Nov 15, 2006)

have you thought about using a gobo on the scrim?


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## gafftaper (Nov 16, 2006)

It's probably not what you are looking for but the crafty old gentleman who taught me everything I know once used colored chalk for washable a temporary design drawn on a black scrim. I wouldn't recomend it because it's hard to draw anything decent but it's an option.


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## Van (Nov 16, 2006)

Again not to rain on anybodies parade, but if you check any type chaulk it will tell you ," chalk will permanently stain some materials" Cotton is one of those materials. As a side note just for those who might not know, so called "dustless" chalk is dustless because they mix a small amount of wax into the mix. The addition of the wax causes a greatly reduced amount of dust but can also impare the removal of said chalk from layouts on backdrops etc. When scenic painting Always use a regular old chaulk besure it is not "dustless" paint will not cover dustless chalk nor will you be able to flog it off when your finished doing a layout on your backdrop. 

Back on topic, I spoke with a couple of designers and two scenic painters today and I mentioned this question with all thier combined expirience, none had an idea better than Sharyns. Removal of paint or dye or stain, even watercolors , tempra etc is simply impossible once it gets on a coton scrim. Hate to be a wet blanket.


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## SHARYNF (Nov 16, 2006)

Do you have the budget to get some raw scrim material and have some volunteers sew one for you? If you can have the material hang so the ends are not visible with the hourglass effect, then it is not all that difficult to make one.

Production Advantage http://www.productionadvantageonline.com/softgds.htm

from my experience has the best prices on this soft of stuff. The folks there might be able to suggest a material that you could use for this purpose and then throw away if you wanted

Sharkstooth or bobbinette are pricey and fine for a long running or high budget production . You see if some of the cheaper material would work

Projection would IMO work best, in the distant past we worked with a VERY famous illusionist, so we've see a lot of tricks  

Sharyn


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## tdbatman (Jan 16, 2007)

Van said:


> One other trick you might look into, tricot. If cost is your main issueyou might look into using Tricot. It's that fabric used to line swimsuits and lingerie.


I love this idea! I quickly looked up tricot and it comes in different weights and colors. Did you use black? Also, any idea what weight you used? I love scrim effects and have a Beauty and the Beast scrim effect in mind but my director turned green when I suggested painting a scrim...I hate budgets. 
This might make both of us happy!


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## Van (Jan 16, 2007)

tdbatman said:


> I love this idea! I quickly looked up tricot and it comes in different weights and colors. Did you use black? Also, any idea what weight you used? I love scrim effects and have a Beauty and the Beast scrim effect in mind but my director turned green when I suggested painting a scrim...I hate budgets.
> This might make both of us happy!


Typically Tricot comes in two different weights, 15 and 30 Denier < Den-Yay, it's french, for coin I believe> Either weight will work as a scrim. the 15 is a bit more transparent. I've used the black and ivory, and white in all different situations.


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