MATERIALS

• Acetone: All hardware and paint stores.
• Acrylic casting resin:  Hobby shops, Standard Brands paint stores, and large hardware stores.
• "Badger" airbrush: For a cheap one, look in model and hobby stores, art supply stores and Standard Brands paint stores. Good ones sell in art supply and tank oxygen stores for $100+.
• "Barge" cement: Shoe repair stores, leather supply and large hardware stores. Accept no "just as good as" substitutes, no matter what the sales clerks say.
• Buckram: Accept heavyweight buckram only. Available through millinery suppliers, stores that specialize in theatrical fabrics and large fabric stores with extensive bridal departments. In fabric stores ask them to look in the bridal department's drawers, as employees rarely know what buckram is
• Catalyst (for acrylic resin): Available in the same places as acrylic casting resin. If
  catalyst is not on the store shelf, ask at the counter. It is some times kept there to prevent minors from stealing it to sniff for a "high."
• "Celastic": Available from larger theatrical supply houses (places that sell show and display paint as well as costume and lighting instruments.) Mostly will need to be ordered in bulk, in advance.
• Clear acrylic extender: Art supply stores, student book stores, large paint stores.
• Corset bones, see: Steel corset bones.
• Dress form or suit form: Large fabric stores and sewing machine stores for new "home" ones,         tailoring supply stores for new "Tailor's" ones, and thrift stores for old ones of both          types. Borrow one if you can from your college costume shop.
• Facial tissue: (This means "Kleenex" in the vernacular) drugstores, grocery stores.
• Felt, see: hatter's felt, ordinary wool felt and industrial felt.
• Five-Minute Leaf Size: Art supply stores, Standard Brands paint stores.
• Foam pad: Large hardware stores, Standard Brands paint stores, surplus and camping stores.
• Gesso: Student bookstores, art supply stores, Standard Brands paint stores, crafts stores.
• Glue, see: "Barge" cement, "Phlex" glue, hot glue gun and pellets, "Sobo" glue and White glue.
• Goggles: Hardware stores, paint stores, welder's supply stores.
• Gold leaf, see: Leaf, gold, silver and variegated.
• Grosgrain ribbon: Any size fabric store, ask what it is if you aren't sure.
• Hat block: Antique stores, thrift stores, flea markets.  Borrow one if you can from your costume shop or Home Economics department. Try large wholesale millinery supply places by mail.
• Hat wire: Millinery supply stores, theatrical fabric stores, large fabric stores with large bridal departments. Ask them to look in drawers and cabinets near the bridal headdresses.
• Head form: wig stores and thrift stores.
• Veriform AKA "Hexalite": Write to: Douglas and Sturgis, 730 Bryant St., San Francisco, CA 94901, Phone (415)421-4456.
• Hot air gun: Large hardware stores, Sears.
• Hot glue gun and pellets: Any size hardware store. If the employees don't know what it is check the caulking section, the wood glue section and the soldering gun section to find it. For costuming purposes the smallest guns and sticks work best.  Hot melt caulking works as well as glue if the store in low on glue.
• Industrial Felt: Large hardware and building supply stores, Keytone Hardware and paint stores.
• Latex molding compound, see: Raw latex.
• Latex paint (scenic or house): Paint stores, ask scene shops where they get their show and display paint locally or ask to borrow a cup of theirs.
• Latex paint (tube): Student bookstores, art supply stores, Standard Brands paint stores.
• Leaf, gold, silver, and variegated: Standard Brands paint stores, art supply stores, and craft stores.
• "Magix" shoe spray: Shoe repair stores, old style 5¢ and 10¢ stores with large unusual selections, some shoe stores, some leather stores.
• Muslin: Any size fabric store. Ask what it is if you're not sure.
• Package cutter: Any size hardware store. Also known as a utility knife.
• "PAM" cooking spray: Next to the oil section in grocery stores.
• Plaster face mask cast: This is something you make, not buy, but the make-up department sometimes has extras to lend, and if they don't, they might help make one on you.
• Plaster of Paris: Paint stores, hardware stores, hobby and craft stores, art supply stores.
• Plastic laundry sprayers: Drug stores, Standard Brands paint stores, hardware stores, plant stores.
• Plasticine: Florist shops, florist suppliers, craft stores, some hardware stores, some toy stores.
• Popsicle sticks: In grocery stores next to Kraft caramels sometimes, craft and hobby stores, paint stores.
• Pressed paper paint mask: paint stores, hardware stores.
• "Protech" hand cream: Auto parts supply stores, large hardware stores.
• Raw latex: Large hardware stores, sold as "Mold-It" in craft and hobby stores. For large amounts write to: Douglas and Sturgis, 730 Bryant Street, San Francisco, CA 94901, (415)421-4456.
• Respirator: Standard Brands paint stores, Sears, large hardware stores, paint stores.
• Rubber gloves: Heavyweight: surplus stores, paint stores hardware stores. Medium weight: all the above and drug stores. Light weight surgical type: paint stores, medical supply stores.
• Seam ripper: Fabric stores, sewing section of drug and dime stores.
• "Sobo" glue: Fabric stores, craft stores, hobby shops.
• Spackle: Hardware and paint stores.
• Steel corset bones: They can be obtained by buying old orthopedic corsets from thrift sores and removing the bones. Sold by mail from: H. Laufer and Sons, 50 W. 29th Street, New York, N.Y. 10001, phone: (212) 685-2181.
• Steel strapping: Available from lumberyards. Explain that you want to buy some of the steel strapping they use to bind lumber. They will usually offer you free the old pieces that they have cut off the lumber, which are quite big enough to be used for corset stays.              Long pieces, if they will sell them to you, are great for hoop skirts.
• Styrofoam blocks:   Building supply stores, pontoon boat manufacturers, and plastics companies.
• T-pins: Fabric stores, craft stores, wig stores.
• "3M Eastbond 30 Contact Cement": Industrial building supply stores.
• Tin snips: Hardware stores.
• Transparent resin colorant: Standard Brands paint stores, craft and hobby stores.
• "Vaseline": Drug stores in the baby-care section.
• "Versatex" textile paint: Craft stores, fabric stores, "organic" - oriented yarn stores. By mail, write to Siphon Art, Ignacio, CA 94947, U.S.A.
• Wallpaper wheat paste: Wallpaper and paint stores, craft stores.
• White glue: Like Elmer's and other clear-drying rigid glues. Hardware, paint, drug and stationery supply stores.
• Wire cutters: Hardware stores.
• "X-acto" knife: Student bookstores, art supply stores, craft stores and hardware stores.

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This Page is part of The Costumer's Manifesto by Tara Maginnis, Ph.D.  Copyright 1996-2010.   You may print out any of these pages for non-profit educational use such as school papers, teacher handouts, or wall displays.  You may link to any page in my site.