Michael Broh

Creating an Antique Mirror Effect

For a production of Moliere’s The Misanthrope at the Yale School of Drama, the set designer wanted to emulate a piece of research he had found. The picture showed an aged eighteenth-century mirror with the reflective particles peeling off. Where the reflective particles had peeled away, the mirror had become translucent. Scenic Artist Tobin Ost and I used the technique described here to treat Plexiglas® to achieve the same look.

PAINTING AND ERASING THE DYE

The first step, after cutting and cleaning the Plexiglas? was to apply Fiebings Leather Shoe Dye which is sold by the quart. We cut it by about 10% with denatured alcohol to stretch it as far as possible. As it turned out, the dye went much ...

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