100 Days: Got Cooking!

Continuing my long march toward s COMPLETING all main set props for the film, I've been building these kitchen utensil props slowly over the last few weeks, in between building other things.

I had the rolling pin for years and as such, it's the only prop that's slightly off-scale and too small. The way I'll place it on the table or hang it off the rack as part of the clump of cooking stuff, it won't matter. I filled the hole in the handle and stained, painted and sanded it for wear.

The masher was carved from a wooden candle cup shoved onto an old stripped paint brush handle and stained with raspberry juice.

The long blade whisk was bought in little Tokyo the other day, painted black to match the other pieces and wrapped with cord and stained. The wooden spoon and spatula and metal tongs were also found at that Little Tokyo shop (I think I squealed at my luck). The spoon and spatula only needed beating up and aging. The tongs were all metal so I made them more rustic by inserting the tips into balsa wood squares, filling in with a mixture of stainable wood glue and fine sawdust (to make fake wood), and then staining and charring the edges with black chalk.

I simply used our own wooden spatula's wear and char marks for natural use patterns. (My darling Paul doesn't understand yet that if he's grilling a steak and rests a wooden turning tool on the rim of a hot grill pan it will nearly burn. I like that real use detail.) The other tool I followed from a large one was the herb crusher stick. (There was no label on it in Little Tokyo and no one there spoke English so I don't know what it really is for) I just took a stick and whittled down the ends (including punching out faux branch nub holes. I stained the business end with greens as if it's used to crush fresh garden herbs for cooking.

The ladle took the longest to make. I kept scanning the house for what might be the right thin bowl to scale, finally landing on the white plastic cap of orange air spray. I marked the depth with tape and cut through with a blade all around to make it more shallow. At first I was sassy proud that I'd softened a plastic spoon handle to curve it to a hook at one end. But even after painting up in a metallic finish it wasn't reading right. I tried a twig on a whim and liked it better for this. I curved the end by slicing away segments and filling the seams with wood glue and sawdust. The bowl was ultimately sanded and painted with aluminum paint and attached to the handle through a drilled hole and wire coil through both parts. The ninth tool was made from coiled steel wire fastened to another twig. All utensil handles were waxed with natural beewax.