Star Cloth Technical
Our cloths are manufactured to professional theatrical standards from DFR black wool serge with NDFR cotton casement lining using Mitsubishi Polymer Optical Fibre. Other facing fabrics and linings are available.
For white cloths we recommend a standard black serge star cloth with a detachable white voile facing.
Suspension methods.
Most of our star cloths are supplied with webbing ties although other methods are available.
| Ties | Eyelets |
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| Golf Bag hooks | |
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Tab hooks |
| Photos supplied by drapes manufacturer J & C Joel Ltd |
Linings
The lining is attached by a continuous strip of Velcro and is fully detachable, allowing easy access to the back of the cloth for fibre maintenance.
Multi-circuit cloths
Various options are available to enhance the colour changing effects. By using multiple light sources more than one colour can be displayed simultaneously. For instance, you might have a background of twinkling white stars in one circuit with a second circuit displaying colour change or strobing effects. Diagrams here.
Fibre fixing, a clutch system unique to Starscape.
Other manufacturers typically glue the optical fibres directly to the cloth. However, at Starscape we use our own system in which the fibres are simply plugged into a plastic skin fitting in the cloth.
From a manufacturing perspective this is more time-consuming, but it offers two significant advantages. If an individual fibre is snagged during rigging or de-rigging it will simply pop out of the friction fitting, instead of snapping. This protects the fibres and, more importantly, prevents the cloth from tearing.
So, your fibres are unlikely to snap with our system and as a further back-up measure we add a few spare full-length fibres to each cloth. If over a period of years the fibres detiorate through heavy use - constant folding and unfolding will degrade the fibre coating - our system allows for speedy and affordable renewal of the fibre harness.
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Light source options.
100 watt Tungsten Halogen supplied with colour and twinkle wheels. This budget light source is manufactured to our own design, and is a good option for basic star cloth functions. However, in multi-part cloths it is limited by the fact that it cannot be synchronised with other light sources, so you could not have synchronised colour change across both sections of a two-part backdrop. Where this is a requirement, a DMX light source would be required - see below. Capacity 360 x 1.0mm fibres. More.
150 watt Metal Halide DMX2. Two DMX channels control colour selection and shutter. Stand alone and DMX address settings controlled by 11 dip switches. 30 on-board programmes including slow colour change. This light source can be linked to others in a master/slave relationship for synchronisation purposes. Capacity 700 1.00mm fibres. More.
150 watt Metal Halide DMX4. Four channel dimming DMX512 light source. Channels control colour selection/rotation, shutter and twinkle. Stand alone and DMX address setting controlled by push button digital display.Capacity 700 1.00mm fibres. More.