How To Make A Fake Brick

Within Dialogues Des Carmelites (2020) 6 broken/worn bricks were required within the production. While I found options such as using polystyrene or styrofoam could be used to create a brick, I found using a large sponge was the easiest and effective way to create a fake brick - especially if there is a lack of materials available.

Materials needed: Sponge, Scissors, Paintbrush, Paint (I used red, brown and orange)

Step 1: Cut sponge into a rectangular shape. It doesn’t need to be perfect as this helps when making it look like a broken/worn brick.

Step 2: Paint the with a medium-dark either brown/orange or red/brown. - Leave to dry, this will take a long while especially with the first coat. Once this is done paint over any missed spots.

Step 3: Use a darker shade of the current colour (I added more brown) and where ever there is a pointed/jagered part of the sponge, paint along the bottom side to create a shadow. Also, paint this colour across all the edges of the main brick shape.

Step 4: After this has dried use a lighter colour of the current shade (I mixed in orange) and dab it onto any part of the jaggers pointing upwards as well as slightly on the top face of the brick. I found it was easiest done by dabbing my finger over these sections. Leave to dry.