Anyone know where to get good wrinkle resistant material for backdrops. I know that the spider flex system uses Trivira CS material but have not found anyone who sales this material. I have not decided on a color but it will be some shade of blue or maybe red. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Tim

Consider the crushed panne velvet fabrics perhaps...they are naturally textured at odd angles, so any wrinkles that DO appear would be less noticable. The other thing to consider is how you handle/store transport your fabric. Use a tube and roll it up. Go to a fabric or upholstery shop and ask for a tube from their fabric. While you are at it, make a sleeve from muslin or other fabric to go over the whole thing for added protection. I find that if I carry a spray bottle with a little bit of water in it, I can lightly mist the back sides of fabrics and the chain weights in the bottom hem will help pull the wrinkles right out. (To keep the chain from "talking" I use a length of sash cord threaded through the links before putting it into the casing!)

Interesting, I would never have thought of using chain for weighting purposes. Thanks for the info.

Martin

Could it be "Trevira"?

http://www.grendene.it/uk/page_353.html

Evidently it is a polyester fabric of some sort. I'm sure you can probably find it in the U.S., but most of the websites that carry it seem to be overseas.

Amos McCormick

Remember also that the Spider Flex is made in Europe and is an import to our market. You may not find the material that they cover it with marketed here.

Martin

I use flat black polyester.
I doesn't hold wrinkles.

I once put up some professional drapes. They were corduroy material. They did not wrinkle, the color was burgandy. They looked very nice when up.

I do not know what it is called but the material curtains on trade show exhibit boothes sure don't wrinkle up.

Some of the new back drop systems use polyester because it weighs less.

Velvet, velvatine, etc. are natural fabrics, much heavier, and require a system that can maintain that weight.

Using a curtain that is too heavy can result in the curtain sagging at points where there is less support.

I personally like heavy curtain material better, but I don't think a spider system can support it.

Please remember to fireproof/retard your material. Many locales require this, too.
Jim

Other considerations might be transparency and weight.

My jetset has a thick cotton backing which makes it transparent but heavy. Outside it turns into a giant sail.

It does get old ironing my 100 % poly before a school show. Even though I fold them, they still hold wrinkles.

I may have to try to find these cardboard rollers, good idea.

I purchased my drapes from an exhibit company. It's the stuff used as partitions for trade shows. These drapes are wrinkle resistent, fireproof, not very expensive and available in numeroud colors.

I bought a pop-up display stand from a local Tradeshow supplier. I then made my own curtain. I actually used a heavy velvet and the pop-up stand holds it's weight without a problem. I do have to steam iron the curtain material quite a bit though. But just to let you know - those spider stands can hold a good amount of evenly distributed weight in the form of cloth you put up there. Just a tip: I superglued Metal snap buttons to the stand and sewed the other parts of the snaps to the curtain. I snap the curtain onto the stand while it is still in the collapsed position. Then expand the frame and the curtain material will open up with it Very quickly...
I know that a lot of lighting and theatrical supply houses can custom make curtains of any size you would want if you are not inclined to sew. I know that a lot of them use 'commando cloth' treated with a flame retardant.

For a stand I use a DJ's light support tripod which extends up to 9' and has a "T" bar accross. I found it on eBay for about $30. I extend the width with a PVC pipe on each side as it can slide to practically any width I desire pending space available. My exhibit drapes just slides over the PVC pipe. Everything sets up in about 1 minute, I hope that helps.

Dan.

The material used in our (magic show) backdrops is robe valour. It is lightweight, washable, wrinkles fall out, and comes in wide widths. I've been using them for at least twenty years. The burgundy is actually a better keeper than the black. But frequently we find ourselves working where the big curtain is green.

My curtain rods have always been metal pipe (EMT) which I sometimes buy locally to avoid hauling. For bases we have a dozen Eureka Table bases for "Tee" frames and a dozen Tiki Light bases (from WalMart) for use with EMT 10' spans. "Tee" frames use 1/2" Emt and Tiki Bases use 3/4" EMT. (The post on a Eureka Table Base is 1/2" cast water pipe thread.)

I have finally gotten all the pipe and hardware painted flat black. (It is a simple project that has taken a lifetime to accomplish. Things are seldom all in one place at once.)

Bob
Magic By Sander

Another material to look at is White Sharktooth Scrim. If it is near an intermission line it can be from downstage and be opaque, however, light it from upstage and it becomes virtually invisible.

Hang it as your backdrop and now you can "paint" it with light. Take lights from the ground and throw color across it to give it different feelings throughout the show. Take intelligent lights and throw color thru gobos to creat specatacular images across the backdrop.

Take video projectors and now shoot video right onto the backdrop during your show, maybe even your logo.

We currently use a white sharktooth scrim that is 21' high by 36' wide. It has been one of the best investments for us lately.

Hope that helps.

Kevin & Kristen

For my backdrop I use two folding screens that divide up rooms. You can get these very inexpensivly at any home improvement store. For the curtain itself I use crushed panne velvet and string them across emt conduit at various lengths. Hope this is useful.
Magically,
Brian Woodbridge(woody)

Please post any links to suppliers of lightweight portable and adjustable (and fireproof!) curtain-systems.

Many thanks.

I agree with Kevin of Living Illusions , we too use sharks tooth scrim material, we have one we left white and the other we painted sky blue. The sky blue piece was done for a show last Sept 11 in which we made the Statue of Liberty appear , and then doing a cross fade of light from front lighting to back lighting and using a scoop were abel to create the Twin Towers in the New York Skyline as the finale, I have to admit there wasnt a dry eye leaving the theater and it brought a standing ovation at each of the shows. Turned out to be a killer piece of Illusion.