Uh...how do I make a GIANT tea cup

[payton paison]

I've built several prop's for my daughter's school. Recently, they asked me if I could build another prop and have it ready by October 15, 2012.

The prop in question is a giant tea cup for a dance routine. They want the cup to be 5 ft high x 35 inch diameter at the top. They also want a door access for the cup and the handle to be sturdy enough to hold onto.

I have ideas how to go about this with time limit and budget in mind. I found some pictures on the internet of giant cups and even thought of using huge outdoor planter.

If anyone has some ideas or pointers I would appreciate it.

 

[Shylaah]

Well, if the profile is to be more like the American coffee cup and nothing real fancy shaped, I think going with something like an old wooden barrel half for the base might work.

This site has a good sized half wine barrel, 24" wide at the base, already 28" wide at the top, and it is already substantially heavy not to tip over on the wee ones!

Also substantially heavy enough you could bolt an up-right timber to it, to which a handle made perhaps out of bent pipe could be bolted that should make a handle plenty sturdy for holding onto.

Then choose a material to cover it with to make the 5' height......maybe ye olde pink insulating foam, relatively cheap, easy to work with, would need some frame work to support it from the top of the half barrel to the top of the cup and to widen out to the 36" diameter.

Advert says the barrels "are held together by 3 double riveted galvanized steel hoops". You'd have to make sure those were riveted or other wise attached to each barrel stay before you went to cutting a door though, I'd think.

Does it have to have a saucer? That would be a whole nudder plan

Shylaah

 

[Ronan87]

Wood frame then stretch material around it, kinda like the old airplane wings/fuselage. See what i mean? You could even cover the whole thing to harden it.

Should be cheap and for the handle area, simply strengthen that area.

 

[LMFAOSchwarz]

I gotta think about this one..sounds challenging!:confused

This sounds like an instance where "Honey I shrunk the kids" would have a genuinely practical application, though!:lol

 

[leafman]

I would say make a wood frame for the basic shape and structural support, then wrap the frame in chicken wire and cover the wire with expanding foam. Sand/cut the foam to the final shape of the cup and paint it. I don't know if the expanding foam would work like I think it would, but if not you could cover the wire with paper mache instead.

 

[darth_myeek]

Agree with Ronan & Leafman. I'd build it much like the scratchbuilders here. Break the cup down into its basic shapes. 3 plywood circles (floor, middle and top rings), make a cup profile template and cut 8 profiles out of plywood to mate around the rings to make the cup's bowl. You could design the bowl to split in half with hinges, and make a removable handle that when installed locks the bowl. Using the same construction, you could make a base for the cup's bowl that has caster wheels. You could use pink construction foam sheets to fill between plywood ribs and then contour with a custom hotwire foam cutter used to follow the profiles. After that, not sure if bondo would stick, but I'd try to use bondo to smooth it out. Use the same plywood/foam/bondo technique for the handle, but would create a slotting system for the handle to mount on the cup.

So at the end the cup would be three pieces. Handle, bowl and base. Bowl mounts on base, and handle mounts on bowl.

 

[Nobby]

dependent on how sturdy the whole thing needs to be, you could just carve the entire thing from styrofoam blocks/sheets
EPS Tea Cup | Universal Foam Products

 

[clonesix]

A tea cup, 5' tall and 35" wide sounds more like a vase, as a tea cup is as wide as it is tall:

A door? Do one of the children go inside the tea cup? If not, it needs to access what?

A handle strong anough to hold onto? Will they hold the cup by the handle? Will they just grasp the handle as the dance around it? Does it need to support weigth like a stripper pole?

Sorry for so many questions, but I am just trying to understand the task.

My first thought is to make in foam, either EPS, or the pink insulation foam sheet stock.

CAUTION, ON COMING MATH! 5' tall, and 5' wide cylinder = 5*3.14*5^2 = 393 cu ft of foam.


my next thought is to cut profile strips of foam out of the pink sheets, and glue together in a circle to get the tea cup shape. The problem that you will encounter is that the flat profiles need to be wedge shaped for them to form a circle. You might use a hot wire to cut the bevel.

You would need (aprox) 79 2" profiles to complete the cylinder, and that doesn't include the handle.

Depending on how smooth you need this cup to be, as the glue-up wouldn't be perfect, you might mount this to a plywood base and a lazy susan bearing to spin it, and use sand paper to smooth it out.

Handle made separately by sandwiching a metal rod between two foam pieces and shaped to round contour.







Method 2:

this is difficult to describe without pictures, but here goes: Make a mold for 1/3 of the circumfrence and lay fiberglass into the mold 3X and join the pieces.

This is where pictures would help, because I am not sure if I describe this well enough. Ther is a process of plaster turning where you cut the desired profile onto a piece of plywood and secure it to a pivot point of desired radius. You move it back and forth across the wet plaster as it hardens to form the desired curve.

I looked for an example of this on you tube, but no luck.

This is where you would use cheap EPS foam block as support, and cut to the rough shape that you are looking for, so that you add an inch of plaster, and move your template back and forth as it hardens. the plaster will stiffen and you will get the curve you are looking for , and if done well, will be pretty smooth.

As mentioned, I would make 1/3 of the circumfrence of the cup and use it as a mold to lay fiberglass into three times, and join them together for the cup. - or 1/4 of the circumfrence, and make 4 pieces.

Does the explanation of plaster turning make any sense without pictures? It would be a lot to type to go into detail.

 

[Shylaah]

I was intrigued by the plaster turning idea, sounds like something that might work for a project I have coming up......a very small something, not giant.......

Found a wee bit about the process in a book on Google books......

The blue in this graphic is the profile shape--a bell in this instance......

Explains here in the Google Book:

Creating Special Effects for TV and Video - Bernard Wilkie


I just hate it when 'road leads to road' and I didn't really have all that much time! Looks like a few other little gems in that book as well.....

....and yeah, I thought that 5' tall by 3' top diameter wasn't a good ratio for a teacup, but was too lazy to try to figure out proper proportions

Shylaah

>>>clip<<<

Method 2:

this is difficult to describe without pictures, but here goes: Make a mold for 1/3 of the circumfrence and lay fiberglass into the mold 3X and join the pieces.

This is where pictures would help, because I am not sure if I describe this well enough. Ther is a process of plaster turning where you cut the desired profile onto a piece of plywood and secure it to a pivot point of desired radius. You move it back and forth across the wet plaster as it hardens to form the desired curve.

I looked for an example of this on you tube, but no luck.

This is where you would use cheap EPS foam block as support, and cut to the rough shape that you are looking for, so that you add an inch of plaster, and move your template back and forth as it hardens. the plaster will stiffen and you will get the curve you are looking for, and if done well, will be pretty smooth.

As mentioned, I would make 1/3 of the circumfrence of the cup and use it as a mold to lay fiberglass into three times, and join them together for the cup. - or 1/4 of the circumfrence, and make 4 pieces.

Does the explanation of plaster turning make any sense without pictures? It would be a lot to type to go into detail.

 

[clonesix]

Thanks Shyla for posting that picture. It makes more sense when you can see it.

My proposal is for a concave turning, as opposed to the one pictured above, which is convex. I also don't suggest a 360 degree turning, just 90-120 degrees, and using it as a mold to produce fiberglass pieces to be assembled into a teacup.

Note: The plaster needs to be sealed really well, as polyester resin doesn't like plaster.

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

Make it 2D. Paint it so that it looks like it´s got some perspective depth. It will be chucked afterwards, I am pretty sure of it. I´d say that just material costs are likely around 200 to 300 US-$ if you want to build a fully 3D tea cup. Usually this kind of prop is built from foam, covered in plaster cloth and painted. But the hinged door calls for something really sturdy. And it has to be moved onto the stage, so you need to make it lightweight, probably have a few wheels/rollers at the bottom.
Besides, what´s a tea cup without a kettle and some silverware? They sure do not want a complete set?

 

[clonesix]

I agree that this will most likely be thrown out afterwards, so budget accordingly.


I like the EPS tea cup from Nobby's link above. It would take a big chunk of EPS and a hot wire, but would give you a tea cup.

 

[Shylaah]

Aint there no colorguard moms on here!? They could tell you how to do such a cup the quickest, cheapest and easiest way!

I hope it doesn't get tossed. If it has a door and all, put in a couple of wee windows and tuck it into a corner for a "special rewards" reading nook......or something.....

Shylaah

 

[darth_myeek]

Find a local coffee/tea shop to sponsor the prop cost. Add a thank you line in the program with a $1.00 off coupons to that coffee/tea shop. (Win/Win)

If the Tea shop wants the piece (win/win/win).

Serve their coffee/tea as an intermission concession. (win/win/win/win)

-Mike

 

[Hogosha]

Like others I think the dimensions are a bit odd, maybe you. An convince them to alter them to look appropriate. I think the teacup could be built fairly inexpensive depending what you have on hand. I would build a wood sub structure out of Luan or OSB (or combo)

I would then cover it with 1/4 drywall, the drywall can be bent pretty well if wet. Then smooth the whole thing out with lightweight joint compound. The handle can be made by bending PVC filled with hot sand around a shape or freehand. You an do a couple. Oats of watered down PVA over the joint compound. And you could reenforce the inside with spray foam between the wooden ribs. Hope this helps.

 

[payton paison]

Thanks to everyone who posted, there are definitely some really good ideas out there.

I do like the foam idea a few suggested, but my lack of foam sculpting experience and time to get this completed kinda rules this out. I did see a few foam cups on the internet that looked great.
Question: if the cup was sculpted from styrofoam what would be a good way to seal it ?

Oh yeah, the size will 5' x 35" at the top only. I'll make the base smaller to make it look tapered rather than a cylinder. I didn't post that originally.

I think I'm going to go with the plywood panel idea. It was one of my thoughts early on and I have woodworking experience.
It may be easier for me at this point, damn I wish could sculpt :lol I like the styrofoam idea. I could detail the contours more.

Thanks again for the great ideas :thumbsup I'll post pics and move this to the build thread once I get some progress.

 

[darth_myeek]

Saw a forum member using bendable plywood.

Might be referred to as bendy plywood, not sure.

 

[clonesix]

I do like the foam idea a few suggested, but my lack of foam sculpting experience and time to get this completed kinda rules this out. I did see a few foam cups on the internet that looked great.
Question: if the cup was sculpted from styrofoam what would be a good way to seal it ?

It may be easier for me at this point, damn I wish could sculpt :lol I like the styrofoam idea. I could detail the contours more.

.

I don't think this really requires sculpting, as much as it requires turning. As in a vertical lathe, and a hot wire. It would only need you to determine the profile shape and cut a template to use as a guide.

Sealing can be done with a non-reactive resin: Epoxy, or acrylic. All solvents will disolve EPS.