Ok I have decided to take a different tack here and write something DAILY!!!
Monday:
Returning to work after a week off, my head was not in the game this morning. My brain was not ready to jump straight back in to the “super-secret” character I have been working on, so instead I decided to cast some hands for background characters as this always needs doing! We have a box of completed hand armatures, all in little baggies that say who they are for and what skin pigment they need to be.
As mentioned in my previous vlog post, I feel I have gotten the hang of casting hands, so it was a nice task to start the day. Fingers crossed they come out well and live up to my posturing! It takes time to register the hand armatures in the mould, but I managed to get two sets of hands poured up this morning before lunch. I will de-mould them tomorrow and report back on the results. Fingers crossed.
In the afternoon I kicked myself in to gear, and went to speak to Thalia Lane, one of the awesome artists in our costume department. Thalia gave me some excellent advice around the fabric elements of my “super-secret” character. I really can’t say too much about it sadly without giving things away, but I spent the afternoon patterning, pinning and sewing my first tests for this character and got some great feedback from George Hayns (Head of Puppetry). I am pleased that I am on the right track!
Tomorrow Thalia is going to run me through some techniques for dying fabric which I am looking forward to.
LUNCH (added segment this week haha): At lunch time Aaron, Winona and I walked up to the food carts, who due to the current restriction levels are now only doing take away (usually we can sit and eat there at the outdoor tables). Winona and I got lunch from the Jian Bing place… they are a savoury Chinese crepe! So yummy! I am proud to say I may have influenced them to add a vegan option to there menu! My first time there, I asked if they would make me a vegan Bing and they did, and after a couple of months of me ordering this special off-the-menu option (and potentially other locals), they have added the vegan bing to the menu permanently! Yay!
Tuesday:
First thing today I pulled the hands I cast yesterday out of their moulds and… They. Were. Perfect. Woo! So that was a very nice beginning to the day.
The rest of the day, I literally spent at the dye station in the costume department. I don’t have any prior experience in dying fabric (apart from the odd school tie dying project as a kid) so it was a really good learning experience and I actually really enjoyed it! I don’t mean to sound surprised, but I kinda was! It was a really enjoyable day. I was focussed on my task, and kind of in my own little world most of the day. Thalia ran me through the process in the morning, and was a very attentive mentor throughout the day, coming to check in and offer advice. The main challenge was not the process itself but getting the colour just right. Our Production Designer Curt Enderle had chosen a specific colour for the fabrics and so I needed to dye it to exactly that shade… on two different fabrics… which was a challenge! I felt like an alchemist mixing up a potion. “Like a hell broth, boil and bubble. Double, double, toil and trouble”
At the end of the day, I managed to get both of the fabric colours signed off by George and Curt, which was a great feeling. Tomorrow I will be able to move forward with the next stages of the process for this character.
It has been really excellent to work with and learn from Thalia thus far.
I will write up the dying process at the end of this post.
LUNCH: Winona was busy doing some work in the spray booth, so I went in and mimed to her “would you like a chai?” and then I walked to our favourite cafe and bought us each a chai. It was really cute. I ordered our usual, two chais, one with almond milk and one with oat. And the guy behind the counter looked behind me and said “where is your friend?” … super cute! Though Winona commented it will be a sadder occasion if he asks her that after I have returned to Oz. I walked back to the studio and enjoyed lunch with Winona in the bar.
Wednesday:
Today was mostly great; The time went quick, I learned new things and I got a lot done. But the day kinda ended on a that-guy-on-Bake-Off-who-threw-his-cake-in-the-bin kinda note. Very specific reference I’m sorry… But very that.
I learned how to laminate fabrics together today, which is a cool and very satisfying process. See notes below.
I also need to create detailed documentation for both of the armatures I built - something I wasn’t aware of till yesterday so there is a little backtracking involved - which will go in to the production bible. One purpose of the production bible is so that the hospital team can know how to repair the puppets as needed, another is so elements can be replicated if doubles (or more) are required. Today I did the documentation for my first armature, which was actually a really satisfying process. Felt like a school project… things were colour coded, I had highlighters!! It was good fun.
After laminating my fabrics, I needed to adhere them to the puppets clip foam structure and kind of pattern it simultaneously. Even Thalia said this was going to be a tricky task!
I felt like it was going really well, till about 4.30pm (shoulda just stopped and walked away) when things started going pear shaped (somewhat literally). The pattern was not lining up in one section and my invisible stitches were looking not-so-invisible. Instead of taking a deep breath and walking away - actually 90% of it was probably fine - I ripped all the fabric off the puppet! (CAKE IN BIN) which may have negatively impacted the lamination… AND, WE HAVE NO MORE OF THAT FABRIC! Uuuuugh.
It will all be fine one way or another (deep breaths). I will speak to Tahlia in the morning and see if we can rectify the issue. If not, it may be that our awesome new puppet PA Jessi needs to go on a fabric hunt on my behalf. We shall see.
How I wish I had walked away haha. Throw the cake in the bin!! But ah well. I am home now and can reflect that all in all it was a really good, productive day. If you haven’t seen that episode of Bake Off, it is intense! Check out this link for the gist of the story: https://www.pbs.org/food/features/explaining-bingate-controversy-america/
I came home and had a private puppetry lesson (me teaching) with an amazing artist in the NT. We are having weekly sessions. Tonight was our first and it was a lot of fun.
LUNCH! Well, I had some of Zilla’s home made vegan lasagne in the fridge at work, but Winona had brought too much Indian food for herself and offered me half! So I ate delicious vegan masala. We sat outside. It was cold but refreshing. I will eat my lasagne tomorrow!
Thursday:
Oh my gosh, is it Thursday already? This week is going fast!
Today was a real mix of activities, started off with my “super-secret” character. The fabric emergency from yesterday has been mostly overcome. I did not have to start over… yet. I am still paranoid my seamstress prowess will not measure up… Accidental puns!
Essentially I spent the morning sewing a seam line very slowly and carefully. It is a tricky shape/ situation, one which I can’t really describe without giving things away. It has gone ok, but will come down to what George and Curt have to say about it. Eek!
I got happily sidetracked in the afternoon. The super-secret character was hurting my brain a little (Stressing!) I began the documentation process for my other armature (the taller of the two), and that took me through till lunch, and a little after! I needed to figure out what size hex keys are needed for all the tensioning points… something I should have done before it was cast (thanks captain hindsight). Again, it was fun and satisfying to draw it all out and annotate.
The last part of my day was spent on yet another issue with this character. The legs, which are separate to the body armature, are not quite right, the knee joint is just a little too low. This would be ok if the character was wearing loose pants, but this character is wearing skin tight leggings of sorts. I needed to completely strip all the flesh, foam, etc from the legs, which took me the remainder of the afternoon.
Often the casting department, rather than casting in foam first, will wrap parts of the armature in felt. It serves the same purpose as the foam, a porous substance for the silicone to cling to, and a way to bulk the character out so you don’t have a dense, heavy 100% silicone puppet. Felt might be used as an alternative if the character is skinny like this character and there isn’t a lot of room between the armature and the skin. Removing the glued on felt was challenging but I got some hot tips from Alex. Using a Stanley knife or scalpel blade, scrape off as much as you can, being careful not to damage the joints. Then soak the pieces in acetone for about 10 minutes. This will help dissolve the glue, in this case barge.
Tomorrow I will adjust the armature. Which may take me all day, but we will find out! I really enjoy working with armatures as I have mentioned (many times), so I am not devastated to spend my Friday in that realm, though it does knock my confidence to have had so many issues arise with this armature. As Alex would say, “You know what would have made this easier?” …. “If you’d done it right the first time!”. This is a running joke between Alex, Winona and I!
LUNCH: Winona and I took a walk to The Dragonfly and got ourselves a chai. There is very little natural light in the studio, so even if I have lunch with me, I usually like to get out for a walk to see the sky and clear my head. And stretch out my body! I do get quite stiff sometimes in this full-time maker gig. We walked back to the studio, heated up our lunches (my lasagne from yesterday) and ate in the bar.
Friday:
Today my head was not screwed on quite right. I have been battling depression all week, a mix of seasonal depression, covid anxiety, mixed feelings about returning home etc etc. Today… I won’t say it bested me, but it definitely was a bit more of a struggle. Not to say that I didn’t still have fun conversations and playful banter with my colleagues… I did!I love that about our work environment. But I just felt kinda fuzzy and absent. I had my headphones in most of the day and tried my best to keep moving and get some work done.
I finished off my sewing on the “super-secret” character as best as I could. I have not shown Thalia or George yet, and am quite sure it is not going to be good enough. Winona commented that this negative assumption was just that, an assumption… and I won’t know till I show them! I don’t think I will really be too phased if I have to re-do it. I am kind of prepared for that to happen haha. But I am also hyper aware of the clock ticking down on my time here. Don’t get me wrong… I know I can sew, and I am not terrible, but as with a lot of my challenges here, it is all about precision (and micro)… and I seem to struggle with that.
I also worked on the legs for my armature and completed the fixes that needed to happen. This was pretty satisfying. Before I soldered things in place, I superglued the balls on to the new rods and cast a quick test in 20T (A fast curing silicone) to make extra sure that the knee joint was sitting in the right place. Though I will admit all of these issues with my armature (and my sewing) have caused the old impostor syndrome to wake from its slumber somewhat, I am genuinely not being too hard on myself about it. I think my general air of fuzzy numbness read as defeat to Alex though (my amazing armature mentor). When I commented somewhat playfully (a little truthfully) that I didn’t trust my judgement anymore, he was very sweet, yelling after me “You’ve got this Jhess!”. Alex and I have a very playful working relationship and we poke fun at each other a lot, so this comment was off-brand for us, but very appreciated. It’s like when my big sister says nice things to me!
I ended the day soldering everything in place, and now the legs are ready to be re-sealed and re-registered in the mould. First thing on my list for Monday! Note, the anchors on the lower part of the legs (pictured) do not need to line up as they are simply there to hold the epoxy putty in place. I will add epoxy putty on Monday. This just fills out the leg somewhat and also acts as another grab point for the animators.
LUNCH: Aaron, Winona, Magda and I went out to Lela’s, an amazing Vietnamese restaurant and my favourite restaurant in town. I had a Bahn Mi with a side of soup. Our restrictions have changed slightly, so we were able to eat at the tables outside again which was nice. It was gorgeous weather yesterday too! Still cold, but sunny and lovely!
Oh, and after work, we stayed back and had a few drinks in the bar which was really lovely. Socially distanced etc of course!
On that note, we all got tested on Tuesday and again today (they are being very thorough which is great). Tuesdays tests all came back negative! Thus far our studio has been covid-free which is very impressive given the state of things here at the moment.
I have quite enjoyed this daily version. Getting my thoughts and feels out at the end of each day… Maybe I will do it again next week! Let me know what you think!
All in all it was a really good week!
Till next time.
NOTES:
DYING FABRICS
Boil water to 400 degrees (F), with a few tablespoons of salt. You want it to be a rolling boil. Keep it on the heat throughout the process.
In the meantime, wash fabrics in Synthrapol to remove the sizing. An alternative to Synthrapol is simply dish soap and water.
Rinse the fabrics and leave in a tub of clean, cold water. You want the fabrics to go in to the dye bath wet.
From your fabric, cut about six small test squares and lay them around the rim of the tub for easy access.
Mix small amounts of dye in to the boiling water. It is better to boil the fabric longer with less dye. The colour will absorb and hold better. In an ideal world, the fabric would absorb all of the dye and you would be left with clear water again. Thalia said this has happened only once in the 20yrs she has been dying fabric. But something to keep in mind.
If you intend to replicate this colour in future, make sure to take detailed notes about your amounts. Syringes can be really useful if you want to drop in tiny amounts. Use a timer to time how long your fabric is in. 5 minutes is usually about the maximum time.
Place test pieces in on a safety pin attached to a piece of wire which you can fold over the edge of the pot to hold it.
Constantly stir the water while the fabric is in.
When you take your fabric out, use some towel to squeeze out any excess water, and then dry it off with a hair dryer. We have a tub with wire mesh over the top that we can lay our pieces on when we are drying them with the hair dryer.
Once you have your dye bath perfect, add your fabric and time it. It may take slightly longer for the large piece to take the colour than your test swatches so keep this in mind.
If the colour comes out too dark, you can boil it out a little in a fresh pot of boiling water.
LAMINATING FABRICS
Realising now that I took zero photos of this process! Aaaah captain hindsight strikes again!
Laminating two pieces of fabric together to form one is something used a lot to create inner linings for costumes etc.
On a large silicone mat, apply 3 thin layers of prosaic, alternating vertical and horizontal application. Let each layer dry before applying the next. You can use the hairdryer if you are in a hurry.
Cut your fabric to the size of the silicone mat
Iron the fabric
Iron freezer paper on to the fabric (helps the process by making the fabric stiff and more manageable)
Carefully place the fabric on to the prosaid silicone mat. Hold each side of the fabric and lower down the middle and lower the sides carefully. Kind of like applying a screen protector to your phone.
Push down firmly on the freezer paper to smooth out, pushing your hands along the fabric. You want the fabric to take the glue completely. Think, applying a temporary tattoo.
Carefully remove the freezer paper (Thalia mentioned that others keep it on, but this is her process)
Lift one edge of the fabric away from the matt and place baking paper (the same size as the sheet) on to the glue side. Slowly remove the fabric, attaching the baking paper to the glue side of the fabric as you go. You should end up with a perfectly flat sheet with the baking paper on top of the glue side of the fabric. Take your time. You don’t want any bubbles!
Put a new sheet of freezer paper (or this other material which I will have to ask the name of) on the non-glue side of the fabric. Now remove the baking paper. You should have a flat, stiff sheet, with the glue side exposed.
Now carefully place your second piece of fabric on top of the glue side. You can apply freezer paper to the second fabric to stiffen it which will make placing it down perfectly easier.
Smooth the second fabric down!
You can now remove the paper, and VOILA! You have laminated two fabrics together!