Oh my, this is well overdue! Time has been flying by!
Time to take a moment and reflect on the past three weeks. What on earth have I been doing!?
Often when I write these posts, I look back through my photo’s on my phone to spark my memory. In this instance the first thing that catches my eye, is our Daily Drawing Challenge. Since our very first day in quarantine, my housemates and I have been doing a daily drawing. And on Monday May 11 (where this three week recap begins) we did our 50th drawing! The daily drawing has kept us sane and entertained. Lot’s of friends have joined in (from all over the world) and everyone is welcome to jump in and out at any point. Check out this little video compilation I put together of our first 50 days!
Now that I have begun this way, I think maybe I will take a different tack for this post and make it a photo/ video journal. With some annotation of course. I am always a fan of visual storytelling, so lets see how we go!
The next photo that catches my eye is this one*
This is me learning how to repair air bubbles/ pockets in a silicone cast. Using a surgical needle (didn’t I feel like the creepiest doctor ever). Sometimes when you cast in silicone, you get these air pockets. I am gradually learning different techniques to avoid this happening, but Zilla (For those just tuning in, my incredible housemate and mentor, expert mould maker Mattzilla Duron) says that unfortunately, sometimes you can do everything right and still get bubbles! So knowing how to repair them this way can be very useful if time is short, or you don’t want to waste material.
*Currently awaiting permission to share this video as it may show a little too much of the puppet for my NDA’s liking.
As I look through the last three week’s worth of photo’s I am realising the flaw in my plan, as of course I can not share images of a lot of things I am working on! But we shall persevere!
This next photo is of our 9am puppet team morning coffee. Somehow we all ended up putting our hair into pigtails on this occasion. We do our morning coffee meeting every weekday, and it is getting sillier and sillier as time goes on. I am extremely grateful to have this meeting as part of my routine. The best way to start the day. Love all these silly people!
Next, these videos some of you will have seen on my instagram @thepuppetsmithery
I have been working a lot with soft expanding foam over the past few weeks. These three videos show my (failed) attempt at pouring the foam in to the mould through a small hole. I did try this method once more, but conceded that I prefer the sandwich technique, pouring the foam in to the mould when it is open, and then quickly clamping it shut before it begins to bubble. I have found the latter much more effective!
I have been making lots of wire armatures, of which sadly I have not taken many photos. I have been having some lovely discussions with senior armaturist Miel Peredes and head of puppetry Georgina Hayns about the ins and outs of armatures which has been wonderful. I have been working on lot’s of dressing dummies for the production (basically mannequins for the costume team). These dressing dummies have a basic wire armature, a foam interior and a silicone skin, so it has been great practice for me. This photo shows me laying out a new armature for my little self portrait stop mo puppet (who got a little attention in this three week period, but not much).
This next photo is of a metal lathe! I was lucky enough to spend a few hours one morning having a one-on-one lesson with our Head of Puppetry Georgina Hayns. George and our Puppet Production Manager Jennifer Hammontree have been so committed to helping me continue my progression through the different departments (despite the obvious difficulties our current predicament presents) … so George offered to give me some private lessons (from a safe distance) to help me get better acquainted with armatures. On this particular morning she taught me how to solder, and how to use the metal lathe. I now have some armature tasks to tackle for the production, and am excited for my next session with George.
Ah! More foam. This photo shows what it looks like after you cast with the soft expanding foam. You create these vents for the material to escape, by simply drilling holes in the high points of your mould. This is my self portrait puppet mould. Once I had built her a new armature (as I was not totally satisfied with the last one) I cast her in foam.
Haha, this video! I don’t know why this made me giggle so much. But, when taking my self portrait puppet out of the mould after casting her in foam… I just thought it looked like she was swimming… is this breaststroke? I am not a swimmer!
This next video some of you will have seen on my instagram. Just me mucking about with animating my little foam puppet, before I started cutting away the foam to make way for her silicone skin. I am eager to continue practicing my animating, but never seem to find the time!
Once you have cut away the top layer of foam, you then coat the puppet in silicone with some ultra fast catalyst, to basically block up all the pores of the foam. You do this before you cast the silicone skin overtop (inside the mould), so that the skin will adhere to the puppet. I always end up hanging them upside down from my lamp at this stage or from the ceiling and it always makes me chuckle. The things we do in this profession ay?!
I also built a new Trash Puppet this weekend! Built for a seven year olds socially distant birthday party (a friend of Jennifers), this is “Trudo”. A few people have asked me about the name, and no, he isn’t named after the Canadian Prime Minister. He is somewhat inspired by Ludo from Labrynth. Trash + Ludo = Trudo! I had a lot of fun building this puppet. As there were no limitations to the design, it was very freeing. I have always said that making Trash Puppets is therapeutic for me, but after focusing on the fine detail and finesse of stop motion puppets for months, building this guy was especially so.
I also realised I had not performed since January! Very unusual for me! So it was also a whole lot of fun to be in front of an audience again… even for a short and socially distant visit!
On the home front back in Aus, Trash Puppets had something to celebrate when our show Escape From Trash Mountain and our puppet-making workshop appeared on Play School! For those reading from elsewhere in the world, this is a big deal. Australia’s longest running and arguably most successful children’s television show, running since 1966. Very exciting stuff. The clips were filmed during our season at the Sydney Opera House earlier this year. The episode can be viewed in full on ABC iview for those in Aus.
I also did an interview on podcast “Talking Sock”, Australia’s number one puppetry podcast produced by One Orange Sock. I talk about my experience here, Trash Puppets, The Puppetsmithery, the Australian puppetry community… PUPPETS etc. You get the idea! You can have a listen here:
And that was weeks 15, 16 & 17! Quite a bit of variety upon reflection. And that is only the highlights from my photo reel!
I am looking forward to everything that is to come. For the moment we are still working from home, but there is a lot of discussion happening about how/ when we will be able to return to the studio which is exciting.
On a more serious note, I have been receiving messages from a lot of friends asking if I am safe in the midst of the current chaos here in the USA. I am safe. There are riots here in Portland, but we are at a safe distance. It is so hard to process all that is going on, and even harder to comment. I know that the hurt I feel is nothing to that experienced by those communities directly impacted. I know that the people who are likely to read this post are kind and compassionate people… so please, continue to be kind to each other, and if you have the means, donate to causes that can help those communities in need.
Till next time.