Great fun refurbishing an old illusion!

We needed something for a "space" theme

Now that we have a warehouse/workshop space, I've been spending a lot of time there. I've done a few small projects, most of them to do with organizing the space. I'm also rebuilding my show case, I'll post about that once I'm done.

But the funnest project so far has been to refurbish an old dollhouse production illusion into a science fiction type of device, perhaps a space ship and a transporter pad combined.

Original front panel

The dollhouse illusion is typically an actual dollhouse that is shown empty, then a person appears from inside. There is also a version in the Victory Carton Illusions book, but this is not that type. As a side note, I did build a version of that illusion using heavy duty foam core. It's looks great and it still in good shape after more than 5 years of use. That book should be in every magician's library, it's a great source of low cost illusions made from cardboard.

This one was in just ok condition. It needed some hardware replaced and strengthened, especially the hinges on the front doors. The wood panels were in usable shape, no warping or breaks. The biggest problem to deal with was the design. It was pretty bad as you can see.

After a few weeks of intermittent designing (as my schedule at Circus Camp allowed), I went into full gear over this July 4th break to work on it full-time. Here's how it looks now...

The new updated front panel.
That pipe on the upper left is not part of the illusion.

I designed this to look like a science fictiony sort of utilitarian production device.

When I did the initial designs, I realized I didn't want to bother repainting the base so I added the green and yellow into the panel so it all works together.

The gradient on the main panels, along with the portholes, looked really good and I wanted to keep them. However, I quickly realized my painting skills were not up-to-par so I had them printed on banner material, including the yellow and green stripes and the buttons at the bottom. I then carefully cut them out and used spray adhesive to affix them to the panel. Side note, make sure to follow the directions on the can, it does make a difference.

The printer I used is StickersBanners.com. Local and fast, with great prices. The banner was 2 feet by 3 feet and cost less than $10, including shipping!

Since this was my first real attempt at a complete "makeover", I knew there would be mistakes made. So far the main thing I would do different is to extend the banner material for the front doors to the edge so the gradient would be more seamless. There will be a line where the doors open at the hinges, but it would still look better I think.

However, I'm quite proud of how it turned out and I look forward to utilizing this illusion in next week's Circus Camp where I'll be teaching advanced magic, or as we call it, Extreme Magic.

 I wouldn't mind doing more of these. If you have a simple illusion you'd like updated just contact me and let's get to work!

Circus Camp also has a thin model sawing in half, a sub trunk (which we are selling), an asrah levitation, the doll house illusion from Victory Cartons I mentioned earlier, a shower curtain production which I need to work on, and a metamorphosis illusion without the box which I designed myself. There's a rehearsal clip in the Circus Camp video under Summer Camp.

While we're on the subject of things for sale, and thanks for mentioning it, we also have a lot of stage lighting trusses for sale. Here's a photo of one of them. There are a lot more to see here:

www.CircusCamp.org/trusses