[SML] prop question

[Pat Kight]

Steven Hood via Stagecraft wrote:
> For those of you who've done scenes onstage where a character is
> supposed to be painting something... Favorite method for not having the
> wrong thing get painted?
> Backstory: We're doing Alice in Wonderland jr... Painting the roses red.
> I'm thinking of making roses out of Crayola Color Wonder paper and using
> their fingerpaint with standard brushes. Theoretically, no red anywhere
> except the roses... Thoughts?

Digging back to grade-school science class, but how about making the 
roses out of color changing paper? It's treated to be acidic, and when 
you paint on it with a strong base solution (baking soda and water 
works), it turns bright red. For extra verisimilitude, dip-dye the 
paintbrush bristles red.

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/goldenrod-color-changing-paper.html

Downside is that the paper itself is goldenrod colored - perhaps it 
could be color-corrected toward white with lighting?

You'd need to make enough roses to replace the painted ones for each 
performance, but the paper's not too spendy.

-- 
Pat Kight
kightp at peak.org