Project: Tenacious D
Fabric: Brillante

The design for Tenacious D focused on two elements, surface and shape. First, a fabric surface that would mimic a projection screen, and second, a precisely shaped projection proscenium to showcase carefully mapped out graphics. The designer, Dan Hadley, selected our 120 “Brillante,” which has a jet-black backside and a bright white semi-matte surface to take front projection. In order to keep all areas of the proscenium “seamless,” the design was developed so that no individual surface exceeded the 10-foot width of the cloth. The legs were sewn as separate pieces to the proscenium header, making the set three pieces for an easy install. As these photos demonstrate, the Tenacious D production team was able to create a variety of unique looks using the projection proscenium strategy.

Project: Ziggy Marley
Fabric: Textura

This project for Ziggy Marley’s international concert tour included a custom-built 24’h x 40’w Silver Textura backdrop, with hidden sewn ties on top and box pleating to add fullness. This lightly crushed polyester silk fabric is extremely “tour-friendly” since the crushed texture means wrinkles aren’t an issue. The material also lights beautifully giving the lighting designers the opportunity to project colorful lights, patterns, and images onto the backdrop. This allowed them to change the design and overall feel between different segments, songs and show pieces. Textura is a beautiful material in natural lighting, but being able to change the look with lighting gave this backdrop incredible versatility.

Project: TOTO
Fabric: Digitally Printed Heavy Cotton Canvas

The artwork file for this piece for TOTO was originally provided to us as a square piece of art that we extended into a landscape style backdrop piece. John Rios of John Rios Designs started with the original artwork and added details in the style and theme of the original art to create the final artwork to fit the landscape layout. This new art was then printed onto our Heavy Cotton Canvas substrate. The 30’h x 40’w sewn piece was then attached to a paint frame, where our skilled scenic artist hand painted Ultra Violet effects onto key areas of the graphic. This gave the drop the look and feel of album art under traditional stage lighting and a unique, worldly glow under the Ultra Violet light! What a gorgeous custom backdrop!

Project: Gov’t Mule
Fabric: 22oz Encore Velour & Heavy Knit

For Gov’t Mule’s tour, the bold design of the medallion style logo with a solid black background made for a beautiful mixed media backdrop. For this project, we used both opaque black cloth as well as a digitally printed replication of the central graphic. Then we stitched them together into a multi layered piece of textile art. We chose 22oz Encore Velour for the black background for its wrinkle resistant knit construction. Encore is also a wonderful substrate for a mixed media backdrops because when it is cut with scissors, it does not fray – allowing for intricate shapes and designs to be taken from the baseline fabric. The medallion element was printed onto our Heavy Knit fabric, which is a wrinkle resistant knit construction that takes bright and bold colors well. Once the medallion area was sewn onto the black drape, we cut away the black Encore Velour from the back of the printed areas. This allowed for the medallion to glow when back lit, revealing a unique and impressive look.

Project: Foo Fighters 20th Anniversary Blowout Tour
Fabric: DFR Poly Silk with Digitally Printed Poly Silk Logo

A sniffer drape is a Kabuki drape that has a D-ring sewn onto the back of it with a cable attached to it. Nearly simultaneously after the kabuki solenoids are fired, the drape drops and the sniffer mechanism rapidly pulls the drape up until it disappears from eyesight. Sew What’s team worked at a rapid pace in getting the concerts backdrop pieces together on short notice for the 4th of July show. Created was a large 40′ x 40′ backdrop with a digitally printed applique silk logo that was 30′ x 30′ “FF”. Additionally two side pieces at 40′ x 24′ were created for a total of 2,340 feet of fabric. The logo was dye sublimated onto Poly Silk. The center piece was to become a sniffer drape, while the two side pieces adjoining it were dropped in a reveal effect in front of the band.

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Photographs by: Tom Baird of the Edmonton Sun and Pics by T

Project: Josh Groban Tour
Fabric: FR White Crushed Taffeta, FR White Creased Taffeta, FR Ivory Creased Taffeta, FR Silver Textura

Manufactured from hundreds of fabric squares, painstakingly cut out and sewn together to make each square double-sided, and then attached together at the corners with grommets and steel rings, this custom band backdrop has texture, movement and depth. Utilizing a random pattern of creased and crushed fabrics in complimentary pale tones provided the desired textural element. Movement and depth were created by leaving slack between the squares, so that each square dips at the top, with the added benefit that the tour lighting designer was able to create the illusion of even greater depth by projecting light on and through the backdrop from front or back.

Adding to the versatility of the backdrop is that, rather than consisting of a single backdrop, the piece was manufactured in five individual 30′ h x 10′ wide sections, giving production the option of varying the number of panels used based on the stage width at each venue.

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Photographs by: Calvin “Mac” Mosier

Project: Black Sabbath tour
Fabric: Commando Cloth with metal mesh lava appliquéd.

The Black Sabbath stage design included three giant video screens encased in what needed to appear as lava. To get the lava effect, we created a cut drop from Commando Cloth and then used metal mesh for the lava appliqué. To complete the effect, we added scrim to the cutouts.

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