About
All shows can be improved with a six foot bell.
A giant cracked bell that was the centre piece of a theatre set for 'Germelshausen', a dance production I did the set and costumes for in my Drama degree. This was six feet tall, and was suspended from the lighting grid, hanging about three feet off the floor.
The story can be found here:
http://www.all-story.com/issues.cgi?action=show_story&story_id=136
Basically a cursed town comes to the surface for a day, and an outsider meets and falls in love with a girl from the town. The bell was very significant in the show because of the idea of time (it chimed throughout). The crack is part of the story, and the symbols I added because there was a theme about reaching to religion, any religion, to try and fix the curse.
I don't think anyone will make a six foot tall one, but a mini one would make a nice Christmas decoration.
Tags
You Will Need
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Step 1Start by making four circles. I used withy (kinda like sticks) and had two 4 foot diameter circles, one 5 foot, and one 6 foot. A small version of say a foot high could use one 1 foot, one 5/6 foot and two 1/2 foot.
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Step 2Build up a bell skeleton using more sticks to support the circle in the order shown. Make it bell shaped.
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Step 3Add a cross bar at the top and a handle to hang it up by.
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Step 4Paper mache the outside (newspaper layers to begin, then a layer of white to finish), leaving the top open. Leave to dry.
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Step 5Spray the whole thing silver.
I nearly asphyxiated myself doing this - make sure you're outside, not in a small theatre workshop.
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Step 6Once dry, paint on your symbols. Mine had a mix of religious, scientific, Greek alphabet and just general cool looking stuff from offline. A Google search for 'symbol' kicks up loads of inspiration.
You could use just symbols from your religion/ likes.
If you're having a crack, cut it out now. -
Step 7Hang and enjoy. Having people dance below it is optional!
