Blood Recipes
*#1*
Ingredients
1 bottle of corn syrup
1 bottle of chocolate syrup
A bit of corn starch
Red food dye
Preparation
Start by boiling corn syrup on a stove.
Add a bit of corn starch to thicken.
Pour in as much chocolate syrup as you want - the more chocolate, the darker and thicker it will be.
Boil some coffee mate into some water separately and add that to the other stuff.
Add the rest of the ingredients and as much red food dye as you need. It should look more brown than red and be really viscous.
#2
Ingredients
One bottle red food dye (from Shaw's)
One big bottle non-color resistant/bleaching (read: NORMAL) detergent
Preparation
Mix the two together. May turn purple overnight if you use the wrong detergent.
Washes out decently, although you may have to soak it. If so, don't let it dry out, but soak it ASAP. Sometimes washes out with more than one wash.
Advice
For tricky scenes with a lot of blood, professional blood looks a lot better. Detergent turns up a little red and pinky sometimes.
Applications
Body and hand packs
Cheapest way to do this is with the crappy sandwich bags from CVS. Melt the plastic on three sides with a curling iron (for the size pack you want, generally palm size is good). Fill about 2/3-3/4 with blood. Seal the last side. Pop by holding it from one end and applying a lot of pressure to one corner. Will produce pretty epic splatter if done well.
Make these during the show, because if they sit out too long they may leak through the plastic. Making them at the beginning and at intermission should be fine.
For big body packs, tape to the actors the scene before (masking tape is fine). Maybe use a paper towel to soak up any spots that may occur with excessive scene movements (ex: in a fight scene).
For hand packs, especially for stabbings, get them to the person holding the sword. A transfer between actors may be involved, get creative. The packs usually will start out in a pocket, and will subtly be grabbed and transferred to whoever pops it. This person will apply pressure while holding the tip of the sword. The plastic can be grabbed by the person who popped it, or let go. Getting the packs to the hands is the hardest part. Practice this a lot, from all angles.
Make sure the garments are cleaned well each show. Run tests on any blood used with the costume material 2-3 weeks before opening night. Test with and without soaking.
Mouth packs
The best option is to buy these. Costume stores/Garment District sells crappy ones that you have to spend a minute chewing to get the powder liquid enough to be realistic. This involves a lot of saliva/time before the pack is spat out.
Ones we bought online for Julius Caesar: http://www.gravityandmomentum.org/stage-blood/blood-caplets/
These ones are awesome and tasty, but you may need more than one for a good effect. Some saliva is still needed for rivers of blood to gush forth. Otherwise may only be a trickle.
Blood Runs
Do these. During prod week. Start with a water run on Tuesday, then blood on Wednesday and Thursday (assuming opening night is Friday). Make sure laundry/soaking/costume care is clear for everyone involved. Practice the passing of packs and popping them with air and water packs. This should be done even before prod week for the trickier scenes.
Uses
Shows
Blood was used in Richard III, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Julius Caesar.
Warnings
The blood will not be visible from the audience under a lot of red light.
White costumes are generally not going to stay white. A sash to cover the area might be necessary. Or lighting can cover it.