This week… has been a funny old week for me. I feel like I spent the greater part of it in hibernation. I think the continuing presence of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is taking it’s toll on my mental health. I struggled with motivation, and productivity alluded me.
My main project this week, and a new challenge for me was creating an armature for a dressing dummy. This armature was different to others I had built, as the moulds we were working with were just that… plural. Rather than just one mould, there were 5. One for each leg, one for each arm and one for the torso. This obviously effects the way you build the armature as you have to make sure all these pieces slot together. The main ingredients for making this work are armature wire and square steel tubing. Using different gauges of steel tubing, you can create links for the limbs so that they can all fit together once cast. Zilla was a fantastic guide, teaching me and helping me to understand how to put it together!
The rest of the armature was fairly similar to that which I created in week 10, using epoxy putty, armature wire etc. Zilla did come up with a great new way to wrap armature wire, which was a real time saver! The way that I have learned to create/ wrap armature wire here, is to take 3 pieces of armature wire (one should be florist’s wire in an ideal world) and wrap them tightly with nylon thread, then finish up by painting some prosthetic glue over top.
Binding the armature wire in thread can be very time consuming. Zilla had a lightbulb moment and decided we would try something new; we popped the ends of the three pieces of wire into the drill, and then with me holding the other end, and the thread, we used the drill to wrap it snugly. See my instagram @thepuppetsmithery for a video of this process in action. It was pretty effective! We did get a little bit of a twist in the wire, which ideally you want to avoid, as the more the wire twists, the more you compromise it’s durability. Apart from this though, it was a very effective first attempt at this new technique.
Once I had created the armature, I cast all of the pieces in silicone, and later put all of the pieces together. My casts were not perfect, but that was ok, as the body was only to be used as a dressing dummy… a puppet mannequin for the costume team. And as always, with every failure (not that this was, it was adequate) I am learning more and more, and gradually honing and improving my skills.
Apart from this, I don’t feel I accomplished a great deal. I helped Zilla with various bits and bobs for the production and faffed around in the studio. It wasn’t a bad week by any means, but similar to last week and the week before, I struggled to stay focused… and this week awake! I was incredibly tired this week, and found myself falling asleep at my desk continuously. During a puppet meeting on Friday afternoon, head of puppetry Georgina Hayns even caught me getting the nods! In a video call with over 20 people, she just happened to be looking at me while I fell asleep at the table. As I said… hibernation realness.
I am very lucky to have good people around me and a sense of purpose, but it is still a struggle sometimes to keep moving forward! We are still having our daily puppet team morning coffee and our daily crew meeting. These meetings really help me to stay somewhat on track, keep me to some kind of schedule, and allow me to be connected with all of the lovely people in our crew. Keeps me sane!
A short one this week! But as always, I think it is important to be honest about the ups and the downs, my struggles and my successes. I am human and my vulnerability is a strength (took a lot of therapy to realise that point).
Stay safe out there! Till next week.