Success. February 2014. Casino/Gambling Table.

The Gambling Table had already been made and the top of the table already painted green when I came to work further on it. It needed boxes, letters and symbols to be painted on it to give the appearance of a Casino table. Lucy had already sourced a picture of a Casino table with markings on it as she was originally asked to paint the table but she was then asked to carry on with the Giant Monopoly Board and I took over this task.

(The finished Casino Table)

First I had been given an oversized playing card which the actors were going to use on stage and I marked out in pencil, drawing around the playing card, seven card markings placed in a curve near the front of the table away from where the actors were to sit. I had to find the centre position of the table by measuring it and dividing it in half and then from this position, which I had measured from the back of the table as that had the straight edge, I took a straight edge up from the centre mark to the front, curved edge, marking where the centre was at the front. From here I placed the card which I was to draw round and placed it centrally on the centre line. Once I had the first card drawn in position I was then able to mark the further 6 cards, 3 either side of the middle card. I measured out from the front edge of the table and also from the edge of each last card drawn, the same measurements each time, thus having each card drawn the same distance apart from the edge and each other.

(Marking out the table using a pencil tied to a piece of string and a ruler)

Next I needed to draw a curved box away from the cards but ending level with the end card markings. I did this by attaching a pencil to a piece of string and the other end to a drawing pin. I pressed the drawing pin into the centre mark at the edge of the back of the table and then drew the curved line by pulling taut on the string and using the pencil to draw with. I then had to adjust the string length so I could draw the second line of the curved box below the first line. I then joined up these two curved lines with a ruler to make a complete curved box.

I then had to draw a second box onto the table nearer to the back of the table and below the curved box. This box was just a long straight, rectangular box, again ending at the same point as the box and cards above.

Once drawn I then drew over the pencil markings using a thick black marker pen, again using a ruler to keep the lines straight and on the curve I tied the marker pen to the piece of string and used that same method to get the curved line.

Next I had to draw the 4 symbols of the playing cards, heart, diamond, club and spade, to fit into the rectangular box. I took the measurements of the depth of the box and then drew freehand the 4 symbols so they would fit into that measurement. I then cut the symbols out and placed them in position on the table and drew round them. There was to be all 4 symbols at either end of the rectangular box with a gap between the 2 sets of four. This was to give a space where the Casino Chips were to be placed. I then marked the symbols with an outline of black marker pen.

I also took the measurement of the playing card and drew freehand a star onto paper that would fit onto the card. Once cut out I drew round the star in the centre of each card marking and then again outlined in black marker pen. I also had to thicken up the outlines around each card so they would appear bolder.

The curved box was to have the word 'SUCCESS' in it. On the computer I printed up the word success in a bold font and enlarged it to the correct size and printed it off. I then cut out the letters and placed them in the curved box on the table and arranged them until I was happy with their position and drew around them. Again I outlined the letters in black marker pen and then proceeded to fill the letters in with gold paint, which took more than one coating for it to look good and solid.

I painted the red card symbols with red paint which took 3 or 4 coatings as I did not have a red marker pen. The black card symbols I filled in with black marker pen. The stars on the cards I painted with gold paint again this took 2 or 3 coatings. I had to allow each painted coating to dry before putting on the next.

Finally I had to cover the foam that had been placed around the front edge of the curve of the table. Originally it had been painted black but just after one performance during a Rehearsal the black paint, which was not the correct paint that should of been used, had drastically started to flake and making a terrible mess.

To do this I found some black satin type fabric in the costume room and using a staple gun started to attach the edge around the top of the table, over the foam. I started in the middle of the table and worked outwards. I had wanted some sort of lycra fabric for its stretchiness but they did not have any. The satin worked well anyhow. I had to use 3 pieces of fabric on the table as the fabric I had was not as long as the length of the table. I chose to do it in  3 pieces so the seams would be at the sides of the table rather then in the middle. I had to cut the fabric to the right width after it hung in place with the staples attaching it to the table. Once I had stapled fabric along the whole length of the table I turned the table onto its side so I could staple the bottom edge to the underneath of the table, completely covering the flaking paint on the foam edge. I pulled the fabric tautly as I stapled working from the centre to the outside edges. I have had experience of working like this as my first job on leaving school was as a window dresser and I always worked with a staple gun.

I was pleased with the whole completed look of the table and felt proud when I heard others comment that it looked good.