My friend Clare has designed a set for Water Tower Theatre's production of The Mystery of Irma Vep.  This is one of my favorite plays.  Two men portray a variety of characters and a multitude of costume changes, the setting for this penny dreadful melodrama is a Gothic mansion with eerie hallways and a haunted painting.  

Below is a fully painted model of the set design that is currently being built.  My favorite part about this design is the Gothic window and how it fades away to nothing. Visit Clare DeVries at www.devriesdesign.net or www.devriesdesigndiary.blogspot.com for set design inspiration. Also click on the picture below to enlarge.

Painted about four hours on my Man of la Mancha set, lookin good!  This set is very labor intensive to paint but will be worth it, everything is painted. Painting

I would like to say hello to blog viewers from China, Australia, Italy, United Kingdom, India, Philippines, and the United States.

I am looking for five to six bed sheets for my current design.  The strange thing is they will be sewn together, washed in a dirty paint mixture and hung.  What is the finished product? Why a grand drape to match the Man of la Mancha set.  Designer's come up with strange things to make things work on stage.  A little creativity goes a long way.

Below is a sneak peek of my Man of la Mancha set.  The next big thing to paint is the custom show curtain, now that will be tricky.  The drape will be made of bed sheets and burlap.

Today I made a trip to the theatre where my Man of La Mancha is being built.  Everything looks correct so far and that's great!  I did make a few adjustments while the buling was going on, I have learned over the years that this is ok to do.  As the designer you have your heart set on exactly on how the set must be because you have planned it this way.  After all, you have been model making and blueprint making for a couple of weeks and when you have to change something in life size scale you get frustrated or even a little embarrassed.  I have learned that the frustratedness comes from feeling like you do not know what you are doing.  All you have to do is correct it with the carpenter or just ask the director what they think.  Heck a better idea may come along.......kinda like what happened today.

My set design for Man of La Mancha starts building this Sunday!  Getting excited and already tired of painting and I haven't started yet.  

On top of the many projects I have going, & working full time, I am working on special type of greeting cards I am going to put on Etsy.  These are going to be called my Stamp Series.  

My Cards by Joseph site has sat empty for several months without cards for sale.  I have been trying to figure out how to create digital images to enhance the quality of my cards.  I solved that problem by getting the Bamboo Tablet by Wacom.  

So in the meantime while I figure the tablet out, I will be working with rubber stamps. The Stamp Series will be made by hand and sold exclusively on Etsy.com.  Keep your eyes open in the next couple of weeks.

Legendary comedienne Phyllis Diller, with her signature hair doo and unforgettable laugh passes away today in Los Angeles. Enjoy the clip below from when Ms. Diller appears on the Ed Sullivan Show.