- Product Designer for playful and educational experiences

Category: Propmaking

Yule Log Video – Propmaking

Posted: May 9, 2017-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, Miscellaneous Props

I helped out my 'ol friend Edmond Hawkins by making some props and special effects gore for a feature-length yule log video. The spooky book was made with an old Sesame Street trick, using globs of hot glue to add some dimension to the cover.

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The Heart, She Holler – Branding Iron, Typewriter Puppet, etc.

Posted: October 30, 2013-Likes: 1-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, The Heart She Holler-Tags: Props, heartshe, lighting

Glowing Branding Iron I also made this branding iron (and a larger pile of artificial coals.) The branding iron was made by using a very powerful flashlight as the handle to light a heat-formed flourescent plastic iron. Artificial Glowing Embers Figuring out how to make artificially glowing coals and a branding iron was tricky, but [...]

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The Heart, She Holler – David Cross ate my hand

Posted: October 29, 2013-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, The Heart She Holler-Tags: Props, heartshe, blood

Edible cold-cut hand I made lots of body parts of all sorts for the second season of The Heart, She Holler, but the biggest challenge was making an edible hand that David Cross’s character needed to run through a deli-slicer – and then eat the slices. I started by fashioning a plastic cap that would [...]

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The Heart, She Holler – Tumor Time!

Posted: October 29, 2013-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, The Heart She Holler-Tags: blood, guts, Props

Cigarette-smoking Tumor One of the most fun props I've ever made was a basketball-sized tumor that  needed to smoke a cigarette while on camera - making the end of the cigarette ember glow red and then puff out a plume of smoke. I did this by first getting an old basketball and using some fittings [...]

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The Heart, She Holler – Blood-n-Guts

Posted: October 29, 2013-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, The Heart She Holler-Tags: Props, blood, guts

Exploding Pies It seems like the second season at The Heart, She Holler involved lots of blood and guts. Gallons and gallons of blood and heaping armloads of guts. I worked with Courtland Premo when we were tasked with making pies erupt with blood and guts, eventually settling on pressurized tanks that forced fake blood [...]

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Art Supplies – Sesame Street Season 43

Posted: September 8, 2013-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Sesame Street, Propmaking-Tags: sesame, Illustration, Props

One of the main concentrations of this past season at Sesame Street was Art, so I had quite a bit of art supplies to create!   Grouchy Art Supplies Oscar the Grouch wanted to paint himself a big gloppy painting, so I made some fake paint squeeze bottles for Oscar and the other puppets - [...]

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I got nominated for an Emmy!

Posted: September 4, 2013-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Sesame Street, Propmaking-Tags: sesame street

This year, I was nominated for an Emmy along with the rest of our Art Department team at Sesame Street (Bob Phillips, Pete Ortiz, Keith Olsen & Rickey Boyd)  for an "Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction / Set Decoration / Scenic Design" Emmy. I got to bring my dad along to the awards ceremony and [...]

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False-Bottomed Wheelchair – Inside Amy Schumer

Posted: September 4, 2013-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, Inside Amy Schumer-Tags: Props, foam

I modified a wheelchair for a skit on Amy Schumer’s show. The actress needed to fit her legs into a box below the seat and have false skinny legs hinged onto her lap. The box below the seat is made from painted plywood and padding, and the legs are latex-skinned foam with “bones” made from [...]

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Live Bonnaroo Intro – Weird Al

Posted: February 9, 2013-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, Miscellaneous Props

I was asked to help out with sets/props for a live concert introduction with Weird Al. ...even though the team had just finished a very grueling shoot, there's no way we would have missed this chance! It was fun to work on a project that was happening live, doing things like operating the number counter [...]

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Sesame Street – Cookie Connoisseur’s Club Menu

Posted: September 28, 2012-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Sesame Street, Sesame Street, Propmaking

I designed a menu for an episode of Sesame Street where Cookie Monster auditions to join the Cookie Connoisseur’s Club, led by David Hyde Pierce as “Commander Chiphead.” The menu features such treats as snickerdoodles and shortbread and crystallized ginger cookies.

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Sesame Street – Fifty Shades of Oatmeal

Posted: September 20, 2012-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Sesame Street, Sesame Street, Propmaking

Sometimes I get to make fun spook book jacket designs for Sesame Street - in this case, a "50 Shades of Oatmeal" book for Bert to read!

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Back at Sesame Street!

Posted: August 28, 2012-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Sesame Street, Propmaking

After a break between seasons that was long enough for me to complete a masters degree (Museum and Exhibit Design at FIT,) Sesame Street is going back into production, and I’ll be returning to make props and graphics for the show from now until the season wraps up in the middle of December. I’m looking [...]

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Hamish and Andy – Racing Trash Cans

Posted: February 1, 2012-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, Hamish and Andy

I modified two trash cans with seats and little wheels so that they could compete in a slow and sneaky race in Central Park. This prop was used in an Australian show called “Hamish and Andy’s Gap Year.”

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The Heart, She Holler – Blood-Spraying Beer Cans

Posted: November 11, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, The Heart She Holler

Well, this one was a challenge. I needed to make a pair of artificial hands shaped like beer cans. Also, the cans needed to be remotely filled with beer so that the actor could drink from them. Also, they needed to explode as if they were shot with a bullet. Also, they needed to spray [...]

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The Heart, She Holler – Fake Sword

Posted: November 10, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, The Heart She Holler

This foam sword pops out of a coffin and stabs someone! Since we couldn’t fit a whole sword in a coffin, and we couldn’t stab anyone for real, I made the sword in two halves. The front half to pop out of the coffin (I rigged it to operate pneumatically,) and the hilt, which has [...]

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Project Accessory

Posted: October 28, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, Project Accessory

I was called in as a Production Manager to help out with the workshop on a Project Runway spinoff called “Project Accessory.” The show needed someone to help organize and upkeep all of the tools and materials required to keep their team of designers busy. It was my first time working on the production end of [...]

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Silent Library – Rugburn Swing

Posted: September 15, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Silent Library, Propmaking

The second in a series of swingsets that made me feel bad! I created a swing out of heavy black rubber to hold a contestant so that their knees would graze against a carpet as they swung, getting a nasty case of rugburn in the process. Sorry, contestant!

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Silent Library – Flounder Swing

Posted: September 14, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, Silent Library

This challenge almost made me puke. I made a welded steel mechanism that swung three flounders into the face of a contestant as they played on a swingset. The fish are all put in motion by a pneumatic cylinder that rotates the fish in the opposite direction from the contestant. My stomach was churning as [...]

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Silent Library – Motorized Cheek Pincher

Posted: September 13, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, Silent Library

I cast these rubber hands and built them to pinch a contestant’s cheeks. A spring-powered clamp was modified to make the fingers pinch. Jason Singleton built the motors which moved the hands from side-to-side.

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Silent Library – Dual-Punch Elliptical Trainer

Posted: September 11, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, Silent Library

This was a simple modification that only took a few hours to complete – an elliptical trainer that I welded arms onto, so that it could punch a contestant alternately in the stomach and groin.

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Five-Person Wedgie Machine

Posted: May 1, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, Silent Library

This machine was built to give five contestants a wedgie… SIMULTANEOUSLY! I welded together the steel pipe and I-beam frame and hooked up two 12v electric winches to a bar, which in turn was connected to the contestants specially grommeted underpants (by official Silent Library grommeter Jessie Voris.) Courtland Premo figured out a way to [...]

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Silent Library – Running Water

Posted: April 30, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, Silent Library

Hitting a contestant in the face with a series of waterbottles was a fun challenge! I made a net out of some surplus green vinyl strapping, and a steel pipe frame to hold all of the bottles in single file. When a motor pulled on an end of the belt, they would drop into a [...]

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Silent Library – Groin-Punching Slot Machine

Posted: April 29, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, Silent Library

I modified an old slot machine to perform a complicated task: First, after the contestant pulled the slot machine’s arm the three tumblers were to spin and then stop so that a fist icon was facing forward. Next, lights were to flash, the winnings drawer was to drop open, and then a rubber fist would [...]

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Dr. Oz Show Graphics

Posted: March 31, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, Miscellaneous Props

I filled in on The Dr. Oz Show for a few weeks when my friend Mike Pantuso needed someone to cover for him while he was busy with another project. There were so many bottles of pills to re-label! And foods that needed tiny signs!

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