Welcome back! What has Jhess been up to this past fortnight?
Well, I have been continuing to work in the armature department, with a couple of little jobs with other departments on the side. I have been working on my second solo armature build, with lots of guidance from my supervisor, armaturist Alex Andrade and plenty of handy hints and moral support from my good friend and fellow armature trainee Winona Hwang.
*** You may notice I am typing again! This weekend is my first trial of going without my hand splint, and so far so good!
I am almost finished this armature build and it has been a really great journey thus far. I really enjoy the process of making armatures, from the times when I feel confident with certain processes and tools, to the times when I have to work my brain extra hard to solve problems, right down to the times when I completely fuck things up and have to re-do them multiple times. I genuinely enjoy all of it. Of course there are plenty of times when I get frustrated and stressed and the imposter syndrome rears its ugly head. Plenty of days when I curse my own brain for refusing to solve the puzzle or know the things I think it should know. But that is all part of it. And for the most part it has just been brilliant.
A lot of the credit really does have to go to Alex; he has had such a good attitude with both me and Winona, very playful and silly and personable, while also being a total pro and being super generous with his time. He has reminded me several times to come back and ask questions as often as I need to which is a big help. He says he can always hear me coming as I scuff my feet when I walk… something that I am sure my dad will be SUPER proud of as he has spent most of my life telling me to “Pick up your feet!” haha. Alex is a good teacher. I have had moments of feeling genuinely proud of myself and my progress, which… y’know… … is really nice.
The relationships I am forming in the studio are honestly just wonderful. Everyone I work with is so lovely and it has been great getting to know them all better the more time we have in the studio. It is great to feel at home in the space and with the people. And the good news is… It ain’t over yet! For the past few weeks (perhaps a month even) we have been working on getting my visa extended and this week we got the official approval! Wahooooo! The puppet department have enjoyed my shenanigans so much, they requested to keep me. So I will be here a bit longer, till February in fact! As you can imagine, there were a number of hoops to jump through and red tape to navigate, but we managed it, and I am officially sticking around. I am incredibly happy and excited to stay on; there is still so much I want to learn and I am enjoying contributing to the project.
It was also extremely validating to be asked. Our Puppet Production Manager Jennifer Hammontree commented a couple of weeks back, “You know you are an excellent fabricator? We wouldn’t want to keep you on if you weren’t”. I am paraphrasing, but you get the gist. Head of Puppets Georgina Hayns announced in our Friday puppet team meeting that I was staying on and commented “We couldn’t do this without her and she is brilliant!” that one is verbatim, etched in my memory forever! You can imagine how nice it is to hear these things; It really helps me put that old imposter syndrome monster in it’s place. Well, at least gives me an edge anyway!
I wanted to go in to depth about the ins and outs and how’s and why’s of my armature build, but honestly I think it will be really tricky without visuals! And words are failing me somewhat of late. Either that or I have left writing this to the last minute on a Sunday and my brain does not have the capacity… either way. I did film a little video on Friday to show you all the armature I am working on which is attached below. Hopefully this will suffice!
Oh, I learned how to make hand armatures this week! Which was very fiddly, but great once I got the hang of it! Perhaps if I am asked to make more hands at some stage I will try to film a little tutorial for you all.
Oh and I learned how to cast using clay this week! What!? Crazy. More on this later.
This coming week I am hoping to finish the armature I am working on. I only have the shoes/ feet left to do, and got a start on these on Friday! So fingers crossed!
As some supporting material for the video:
I really enjoy making armatures as they are the functional moving parts of these puppets. Even at home with the simpler real-time (for want of a better term) armatures I build for my puppets, the armature is often my favourite part, and certainly the process of building it! Sometimes I finish my armatures and don’t want to cover them. And these are no exception… I think the armatures are beautiful! I always say a puppets power is in its movement more than its appearance, and that is one of the things I love about puppets, so working with armatures and creating the moving parts of these beautiful stop motion puppets… is very much my cup of tea.
This whole time I have thought people were saying “grip locks”, but they were saying “grip blocks”! Which makes much more sense as they are sometimes literal blocks.
Also for reference, my housemate/colleague Zilla filmed this for me outside, hence why I am not wearing a mask.
Till next time!