This week has honestly gone by in a bit of a blur. I couldn’t believe it was the weekend again already! Though the world has slowed down, somehow time is passing very quickly for me. Luckily I took lots of photos throughout the week so can go back through my gallery and see what I got up to!
If you are following along, you will remember that the last thing I did last week was pour up my self portrait stop motion puppet and leave her to set. First thing Monday morning, I opened up the mould to discover… drum roll please… It was not successful! It seems that my mould was not watertight and a lot of the silicone had seeped out the bottom on to the table. Very anti-climactic. But, I am a strong believer in learning through our failures, so I think honestly this was the best outcome I could have asked for as it meant I had to assess my work and where I had gone wrong, plus figure out how to alter it to make it work the next time (with Mattzilla’s help of course).
The good news was, that her back half somewhat worked. This was the side that I painted in first, so it had some time to cure before I sandwiched the mould shut. I was able to salvage at least 50% of this cast, which is great as it means I was not wasting quite so much material. I trimmed of the flashing* and cut off a few bits that weren't so neat, popped the parts that did work back in to the mould, and got ready to pour her up again.
For my second casting attempt, I had ditched my foot plate so once I had painted both sides and clamped the two parts together, I injected the remainder of the material through her feet. This way, I was able to see if the material level dropped at all and refill accordingly. My foot plate had been a little clunky and was perhaps the main culprit for the leak.
I had some leftover silicone from this second attempt, so used the remaining material to cover the new joints I had created for my monster high doll. I added some foam around her new wire waist and then painted the silicone on, as well as doing a layer of silicone on her neck and ankles. Painting on silicone is a matter of keeping an eye on the thickness as it begins to cure while you paint it on. I needed to constantly rotate the doll while I worked so that it didn’t slide down and puddle in certain areas.
While these set, Zilla and I began to discuss ways in which we might optimise our working space. It has become pretty apparent that we will be continuing to work from home for at least the next month (if not more), so we thought spending some time to improve the functionality of the studio was a worthy task. I love a spring clean and a re-arrange so was in my element. Plus, it is a lot easier to be cutthroat with the culling when it isn’t your stuff… “Zilla, what is this? Do you use it? Do you need it? Can I get rid of it?!” … More fun too!
We spent a good day and a half totally overhauling the studio. We built lots of new shelves from scrap wood, moved things around, created more bench space, gave everything more categorised, logical homes… did a whole lot of culling and cleaning (yay!). It was quite physically demanding and SO satisfying. Since we finished the makeover, it has been so much nicer to work down there. Not only does the space function better, but it feels like Our space. I am very grateful to Zilla for being so accomodating and allowing me to share his space.
When it came time for me to open up my mould again, I was delighted to see that it was a success. Well, as successful as I could have hoped. She looks a little rough and ready, but nothing that I can’t tidy up with some help and guidance from Zilla. I am not 100% happy with my armature however. As someone who always prefaces function over form with my puppets, I can tolerate the puppet looking a bit rough, but the functionality being less than adequate is harder to forgive. The armature I created is flawed in it’s design. The knees, elbows and waist work quite well, but where the shoulders, hip and neck wires slot in to the firm epoxy putty, they have no staying power. They move, but can not hold their form. The wire is simply rotating inside the putty. A joint that might be quite ok for a real time puppet, but not a stop motion puppet. It may be an issue with the way I glued the wires in place, but I also think the design was not quite right (See last weeks post for an overview of how I created my armature). I may have a chat with Zilla and a couple of people from the armature team to ask for advice on another attempt.
I am however, as mentioned earlier, very happy to fail, as I learn so much in the process. I guess one silver lining of this whole situation with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, is that there is time to work on this kind of personal project where the stakes are low and there is so much margin for error. I will continue to work on this original cast, use it to learn some techniques for repairing silicone and practice my seaming. I may even do some costuming practice. Ultimately though I think I would like to try casting her again with a new and improved armature.
I have begun the seaming process, removing all of the flashing and beginning to clean her up using small scissors and cuticle nippers. Next week I will get the Dremel out and work on cleaning it up using the seaming technique Tony taught me (outlined in my week 7 post).
Apart from all of this, I worked on moulds for the production, mainly creating prosthetic edges and boxing up! (See week 9 for a more detailed description of these terms/ processes).
It has been a really good week, but an odd one too. It really did go by in a blur. I struggled to stay motivated, and still feel that I am not working hard enough/ achieving enough with my time. I say this not to put myself down, but to be honest and acknowledge the toll that this bizarre situation is having on me and hopefully some of you reading along can relate. We must allow ourselves to feel our feelings, and to share them. I am so grateful for our 9am puppet team coffee and our midday crew meetings. Not only do they keep me accountable to some kind of routine and schedule, but everyone in these meetings has been so honest about their emotional struggles and it is such a huge help. I feel so privileged and lucky to have such a strong sense of camaraderie and community around me at this weird time.
I am taking it one day at a time (as many of us are). Outside of work, there are a few activities that have been helping me to stay on top of my mental health. We are still doing our daily drawing challenge in the house (with some excellent friends joining in along the way), I have been running every day, having regular phone calls/ zoom chats with friends and family, plus having lots of fun with my housemates; watching silly movies, going for walks and playing board games! Oh, and I have been trying out lots of new recipes which has been great, and delicious!
And that my friends was Week 11.
Stay safe and sane out there!
Till next week.