Milky White

One of my favorite props was this version of Milky White which was built for Huntley High School's production of Into the Woods.

We had inherited a pathetic, vaguely cow shaped prop from another high school. It featured spindly legs, a rectangular body, peeling masking tape, and a broken knee that was held together loosely with tape, glue, and 13 different kinds of fasteners.

I spent several weeks renovating it into a proper cow. I built up her form using layers of Great Stuff expanding foam, covered with layers of muslin. I went through 14 cans of Great Stuff, a gallon of Elmer's Glue, and a bolt of muslin. Each layer of foam was shaped with planes, saws, and rasps.

(The black goo in this photo is a version of Great Stuff that is used to mend ponds, I was using whatever I could find on sale)

Her new hooves were made of plungers and helped to cover the new casters on her feet.  I worked on giving her the appearance of a once sturdy cow, now fading into elderly emaciation.

I did not know that different cans of Great Stuff would have varying expansion rates (perhaps related to the age of the can?). I was surprised to come in one day to find that all of the foam I had used the evening before had expanded twice as much leaving Milky's head to look more like a chipmunk with huge cheeks and tiny slits for eyes. I had to peel off the muslin and carve quite a bit of foam to reshape her head into a more bovine shape.

 Her udder involved several hysterical attempts at filling latex gloves with Great Stuff foam....

Several coats of white paint later and she was starting to look better. (This is one of our high school crew looking a bit aghast at painting the rear end of cow.)

I found a pair of horns on a "Viking" helmet so those were transplanted. Her eyes were large teddy bear eyes with added long fake eyelashes. Her ears were made from thin craft foam.

Milky has gone on to appear in several other theatrical productions and is a proud mascot for our tech crew and set shop.