Tipping the Velvet

GRAPHIC PROPS | PERIOD | PRINT

This is series of graphic props for a potential TV or film adaptation of Sarah Waters’ novel ‘Tipping the Velvet’.

The protagonist is Nan Astley, an oyster girl from Whitstable, Kent. I created six props which told the story of her trips to Canterbury’s Music Halls where she fell in love with male impersonator, Kitty Butler in the summer of 1888.

The six props are a theatre programme, a theatre ticket, a train ticket, a cigarette packet, a calling card and a receipt from a millinery shop.

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The majority of props were digitally printed and hand finished, e.g. calligraphy for the receipt. I screen printed the cigarette packet, to recreate an accurate colour palette. The items were subtly distressed to look as if they’d been handled.

To ensure accuracy I conducted first hand research and looked at many examples of Victorian typography and illustration, such as newspapers and adverts, to understand and capture the design aesthetics of the period and make sure every detail was correct.