Japanese Style Prom Decorations

Last night was prom at my school! This year's prom theme, as decided by the seniors, was "A Night in the Land of the Rising Sun."  That worked great for me because I lived in Japan for a  year and a half and love all things Japanese.  And since all the Japanese people I've met,  love it when geigin (outsiders or foreigners) celebrate their culture, I could share all of their amazing aesthetics without fear of causing offense. I wanted to transform our school cafeteria for as little as possible, and so I spent $100 on paper lanterns and a handful of koi fish wind socks, and pieced everything else together with whatever I could find lying around.

I started by teaching students to make origami cranes. I spray painted eight #10 cans that had been sitting in my room for a year. Then I spray painted branches silver.  I wrapped the bottoms of the branches with newspaper and stuffed it into the bottom of the can, filling the top half with small landscaping rocks to hold everything in place. Each set of branches received 20-25 colorful paper cranes (160-180 total) for dazzling centerpieces.

For a fun photo op, I painted a samurai and a parasol holding geisha infant of a background of bamboo and the kanji characters for "Nihon" (Japan). The heads were cut out for prom goers to peek through.

I used the back of an old photo backdrop to paint another scene:  Mount Fuji with a footbridge, stone lantern, and rock garden, during cherry blossom season.  Our town is home to the larges number of cherry blossom trees in the world, but they all came from Japan and so there's a special connection to that country for us.

This photo back drop gives students (and teachers) a chance to use the photo props I made from craft foam and wire.  The foam was so thin, that I cut out two hair shapes, and hot glued a wire in between the two. This allowed me to bend it to conform to the shape of the head.

When each senior and their escort were announced then entered through a torii, the iconic red gate that often sits outside Japanese cities and shrines. This had been a 4'X8' piece of scrap wood that was cut into strips, and a kind-hearted maintenance man (thanks James) helped me figure out how to get to to be a free standing entrance.

3 8'X8' PVC pipe squares were wrapped in tulle and icicle lights, creating a 24 foot wall, which divided the dance floor from the eating area.


Garlands of large (12" X 18") and small paper (4" X 5") Japanese flags, were an inexpensive, easy way to make a visual impact.


And paper lanterns and fans hung from light fixtures, reinforcing the colors of the flag and creating visual unity.

 

Some 8' high discarded wood, and a couple of hinges was painted to make a faux rice paper wall.  by having this next to the 8' pagoda painting we did for the spring concert last year, there were places to take length pictures to show off their gowns and fancy shoes.

 

My daughter and husband came to the dance because they know how hard I've worked on this the last few months, and they're really supportive. One of my students (who didn't come to the prom) suggested that it wasn't worth the effort considering that "we're blind." But I had several students approach me and thank me for caring enough to try to make their night special.

Our prom even made the news. You can see the clip here: http://www.13wmaz.com/mobile/article/news/local/georgia-academy-for-the-blind-students-celebrate-prom/93-535773713

Paper Moon Project

The minute I found out that this year's prom was going to be at the Museum of Aviation with a "Fly Me to the Moon!" theme, I knew I wanted to build a paper moon photo booth.  These were popular in the 1920's when people would pay 5 cents to get a picture of themselves sitting on top of the moon.


















 I started with an 8' X 4' piece of birch plywood, which costs about $20.  Then I taped a piece of string (about 4' long) to the middle of the board's side, and the other end of the string to a pencil. The string served as a radius, which I used to draw a semi circle.  I moved the tape off the board and changed the length of the string for the inside of the moon.  This took several tries. I added a nose and lips with my pencil.  The moon leaves a lot of empty space on the board, on the inside of the moon, and the corners. I used as much as possible to make various sized clouds and a star.  Then I got busy with a jig saw, cutting out each piece.

I painted the moon and clouds using house paint samples and acrylic. Then I cut small (3"- 5") pieces from a 2X4 piece of lumber, and nailed one or two wood blocks to the front (from the back) of a large cloud, before covering the front of the wood piece with a smaller cloud. This allowed for the clouds to stand on their own and give some dimension. Because I used finishing nails, touch up with white paint was very easy.  The moon was drilled to the front of a backless bench with 2 screws!

 

We covered cushions with black fabric and set them on top of the bench.  The moon was thick enough to stand on it's own, but we drilled the left over 2X4 to the side of the bench and tacked the top of the moon to it with a finishing nail, just for good measure. 7 ' long black fabric hung from a railing (we stapled it to itself) and then strings of paper stars spray painted gold hung down for bling.

If I had to do it again, I'd probably raise the bench on a little platform, so feet would dangle. I'd paint the support bar black, in case the photographer gets a bad angle and it shows. And I'd find a second light source (we used a shop light) so that there weren't such dark shadows coming form one side.

I used a 2nd piece of 4 X 8 plywood to make two more photo booth type areas, based on the hundred year old French film, "A Trip to the Moon."  I wanted the dance to have a vintage feel. The large man in the moon didn't work as well as I'd thought because people stood in front of it and all you could see was the eyebrows of the face. But the I cut holes for the rocket windows and people peeked out of those for some cute pictures.

For the dance floor I made 6 PVC pipe 8' X 8' squares, with cross bars at the bottom (2' legs coming out each side). We tied tulle around the middle, and strung it with lights. These frames weren't as strong as I would have liked and the logistics of hanging the lights was more complicated than I thought it would be, but it did add a nice visual to the dance floor and since nobody sneezed, they stood all the night.

I was given a decorating budget of $350, including the helium tank and balloons (which took about $100 from the budget).

As a teen, I lived for dances! I was happy with a gym, a handful of friends, good music, and maybe a package of cookies on a table. Although, I still believe that you shouldn't need much to have a good time, every once in awhile it pays to go the second mile and have a little fun with the process.