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fabric to camoflauge a ceiling.

52613 Views 16 Replies 11 Participants Last post by  FracturedDS
Is there such a thing as a type of fabric that is covered with strings, or rope.... something that when put up near a ceiling the string or rope or whatever is on it would hang down.... people would have to walk through it ?
I thought about making something with chickenwire and then attaching "stuff" to it, but MAN that would be labor intensive if there was a larger area to cover.

Anyone seen anything like this that you can buy?
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Cheap way might be to use camo netting and attach various lengths of fishing string.
I seen the stuff that Night Scream had at Transworld ! It was awesome! I have always wanted something like that and was glad to see that it was available. I should call them about it but I have a feeling that the cost will be way over my head. I was hoping that someone mught know of a cheaper alternative.:(

What I thought about doing is attaching chicken wire near the ceiling and then tying on string and rope all over the place. I guess I will need to keep the area small or I will be tying on string from now till halloween ! :)
Last year the Entrance hallway to our maze is what we call the dark hall..we take away all light so the patrons are disoriented. we did the fishing string and we attached it on strips of duct tape. roll out about 5 feet of tape at a time. Cut a bucnch of fishing string to hang down at whatever length you need it. do a lot do alittle...whatever you feel is the right amount...the ducttape didntpul down on us last year..so all was good and it creepedpeople out!

Bruiser


In 2006 I did something like your thinking of with:
bulk cheese cloth & velcro dots to attach it to the ceiling.

Half the dot stuck to the ceiling & the other half under the cheese cloth. It stayed up for two nights before having to take it down. This was part of the main facade (in the que line hallway) for the Horrorfind Weekends Haunted House.

It was a wide/long hallway & I only had to decorate a little over 10 feet of ceiling space to the entrance. I hung the cheese cloth in long strips that wove back & forth along the space. Then I went back & shredded or frayed the edges with either some sort of knife or scissors.




* Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
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Burlap or jute netting would be a cheap alternative. Check out RAWR'S thread on Hauntforum and click on the pictures he has on photobucket
http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=19770
.
This is from his 2009 haunt. :


He told me to just cut the burlap into strips and then dye the strips with various colors of RIT. Then you slip the strips onto pvc, wood, or rope across your ceiling and it would hang in the path of the visitors. After that you could probably run a large roll of burlap across the length of your hallway/room to completely cover the ceiling. You would have to watch out though because it could catch fire fairly easily. Not sure if that's what you're looking for, but it's a cool idea:D
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^^^I have used this method to make ghillie suits, you can use a wire welding brush and really separate the fibers well. I am making 15-10 bars I can mount across the top of my 4x8 panels using 1x2's.
I Want Real Chicken Wire!

Not faux-wire!
I mean the nitty-gritty stuff with real chicken feathers stuck to it and pastey white Chicken crap dripping from it! YES! SCARY!
"Look up now Mrs. Pedestrian, how do you like THAT?"
"Run! Run for your life!"
"Balk, buck-abuck-abaulk!" ...and she laid an egg.
Wow, some great ideas in this thread (jotting them down...)




A good portion of my last blog post: http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/terra/550-ceilings-floors-seven-layers-scare.html talked about how to decorate the ceiling in a haunt. Here's the relevant section:





The problem with decorating ceilings and floors is we are only home haunters. We feel lucky we have walls to decorate, LOL! But hopefully we can come up with some ways to at least give an illusion of ceilings and floors that fit the room.

CEILINGS:

In my haunt, the maze in the garage is made up of wood frames wrapped with landscape fabric. They are suspended from the ceiling. But, the ceiling is 12' high and the walls are 8' high. You are probably in the same boat: the ceiling will have to be lowered. Here's a couple of quick ways to give the illusion of a lowered, scary ceiling:

Camo netting: This is an all-purpose ceiling treatment used in professional haunts (along with lattice). To make it immersing, rip some of the netting so it hangs down in strips. Looks just like jungle vines. There are all kinds of colors of camo netting to help fit the scene. I've even seen mirror camo netting!

Overhead Scare Items: Hanging bats, chandelier, ghosts, spiders, heads, Spanish moss, bones, chains, barbed wire.... You can decide if you want the hanging items to be just above your victims' heads or they have to wade through it. I like this touch of putting a body among the chains:



Lattice: Yep, the same stuff you use to hide your lawn mower under the deck. A great 'ceiling' that you could dress up many ways. Thread in greenery for a jungle vibe. You could even add a scare to it by attaching a dummy that your victims will have to walk under. Or a giant spider. Muh ha ha haaaa..... Here's what I'm talking about:



PVC piping: Span a few painted up rusted PVC pipes and Boom! you've got a boiler room and a ceiling in one shot.

Drapes of fabric: This would be great for a vamp room or mansion.

Spider webbing: Don't forget to add the itty bitty spiders...

Thin foamboard: Just like for walls, you could carve and paint this anyway you want.

Thick foamboard: Shaped into stone spans with openings here and there. This picture also shows camo netting in use:



Tree limbs: Just span them overhead. Again, You could then hang many things off of it. String (spider webs), Spanish moss, vines....

Chain link fencing: Great for that industrial or torture room. Lace in chains, barbed wire...

Pictures taken at The Darkness in St. Louis
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In our "dungeon" we ran fishing line across the ceiling from side to side and then threw varying sizes of cheesecloth that we distressed and stained with tea and some spray paint over that and in between that we hung sphagnum moss to fill in. Got lots of comments on that and then in our "basement" we used the same fishing line thing but hung tons of black thread from it. You couldn't see and it totally creeped people out because they could really feel it and since that was the first room the went in we had a lot of people want to turn back and go out. Heard the comment " un-nerving" many times with this effect. Its very cheap and easy and not very time consuming.
Yeah, I forgot pro haunts had to deal with ceiling issues because of fire issue and sprinklers. So they sometimes get very creative with ways to create them, and allow water through.
what about clothes? i know it sounds crazy but that would creepy me out if i had to walk threw them. and one other thing that i want to do is get the black 4in flexable storm drain pipe and hang it. thats would look so cool with strobe lights going

-BYH
^^^Busch Gardens had a hallway with clothes hanging from the ceiling in a demented girls room. They stunk, which really added to the scene, however I laughed when I saw underwear hanging so it ruined the fear aspect.
Great ideas..... We are using a few of these ideas already, like the chainlink, pipe, camo netting....
I like the burlap and the cheese cloth ideas.... we have used those before but not to the extent that I need with this effect. Guess I just need to add MORE!
This is from our haunt last year. We used black fabric and camo netting attached.


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Fracturedds
so what is struck through your camo netting.... looks like a jute or something? That looks really cool!

We have ended up with the camo netting in 2 rooms. Another room is covered with burlap and had strips of it hanging down. Another room has a black netting stuff that we let loops down and hang. Someone donated that to us and we just couldnt figure out what we were going to do with it... It actually turned out great. Really have 1 room left to work on and we should be set. This last one will probably take us a while to set up so we still have our work cut out for us.
Fracturedds
so what is struck through your camo netting.... looks like a jute or something? That looks really cool!

Its a combination of Grape Vine from JoAnns, and a few other brush and weeds we got from outside. It really helped add some much needed texture and color. It looks better in the dim light as the black fabric behind it just disappears.
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