From Pretty Party to Pirate Props

My creating lately has been a little different in nature. At the end of the school holidays my church puts on a holiday club for primary school age children where we do games, challenges, crafts, bible stories and general craziness and fun. We always have a theme and make sure that the chapel is dressed up in line with the theme to make it fun for the kids. This year the theme was Pirates and I was in charge of props.

It was a great theme to work with as it didn’t have to be too elaborate to look piratey. My vision was that it would look like we were on a pirate ship and the chapel lent itself to that quite well as it has lots of wood paneling and beams.

One of the great things about this process it that people from all ages come together to help make the props; from 12 year olds to those in their 70s I had lots of people willing to help, some crafty and some wanting to do basic cutting and sticking. Also we pretty much made all of it out of basic supplies and junk. Here is what we came up with…

 

This was the view at the front. We painted a backdrop of the front of a boat, and some wood panels either side with port holes looking out. I’m sure this isn’t technically accurate for a pirate ship but it gave a good enough impression. We added sea gulls to the back wall, a crows nest on one side and a sail on the other. For some reason we already had a ships wheel.

We added props to dress the stage… Cardboard boxes painted to look like crates, canon balls made from black paper (I wanted a canon but we ran out of time), candles….

An anchor cut out of card and painted grey, some sacks…

Painted barrels, net, rope.

Old planks of wood and a few parrots dotted here and there.

We also made a little treasure island area where the children would go to collect prizes. Cue palm trees, a piratey sign, blue and cream fabric, flowers and inflatables.

 

We also had colourful bunting between the pillars down the sides and more sails and netting strung up.

Hopefully if you ever need to create a pirate scene this provides come ideas!

Tags: pirate props, pirate theme, props, stage setting