Well, well, well… here we are, and another month has FLOWN by! This time I won’t say it has gone by in a blur (because, it hasn’t) but it has gone fast! Time is behaving very strangely this year, though I am wary of blaming everything on “You Know Who”. In fact, it is quite common for me to say things like this every year: “Can you believe it is August ALREADY!” The concept of time is a human construct, and one that rules the school. I am trying my best to live in the present, but with so much uncertainty floating around, it has been a struggle.
So what on earth have I been up to this month? Well… if time is Regina George, my TO-DO list is Gretchen Wieners (is she second in command?). My list has been a dynamic, ever changing, living breathing organism this month, with things continually being added to it, removed from it, the priority levels changing etc. In saying that, it has all been pretty manageable. As I think I mentioned in my last post, I have become fairly comfortable with the processes involved with mould making and casting, and a lot of what has been on my list falls in to those realms. It has been really nice to feel somewhat confident in my tasks and be able to just get on with things (though I do of course still ask lots of questions and make plenty of mistakes).
I have been casting lots of hands for background characters, something that I have been mucking about with for months and just never seemed to get the hang of. Now finally, I seem to have found my groove and am having some success. Practice makes perfect! Before he left us to go back to LA (devastating), my colleague Tony Candelaria who is a highly experienced puppet fabricator ran me through his process for casting hands… and having this additional guidance has made all the difference! Tony is an amazing director, sculptor etc. You can follow him on instagram @tony_a_candelaria
When casting hands, the biggest challenge is lining the armature up perfectly in the mould. It is extremely fiddly, prodding and nudging tiny fingers with a toothpick. You don’t want any part of the armature to touch any part of the mould. This is called “touch-down” and will mean that you can see part of the armature after the object is cast. Tony showed me his technique for lining up the armature using toothpicks and reminded me to take my time. Sometimes one hand can take up to half and hour to position correctly in the mould (or longer for me who is still getting the hang of it).
We use small syringes to insert the silicone in to the mould. Tony told me to fill from the tip of the fingers down, and then focus on the palm. Another great tip that was really helpful; Once you have filled both sides of the mould, before you clamp it together, let it sit for a minute or two, allow any remaining bubbles to rise to the top. The silicone has about a twenty minute working time depending on the catalyst used, so it is ok to let it sit. Once clamped, position your mould with the fingers down as it cures, allowing any bubbles to rise up and out towards the wrist. If any of you reading want more details about this process, please feel free to ask.
I have also been casting eyebrows for one of the featured characters, six pairs! It is interesting to catch a glimpse in to the animators world through what we are making in the puppet department. The fact that every background character needs three sets of hands, and featured characters need six sets of eyebrows. Hands break, and eyebrows go missing (as you can imagine… They are smaller than a fingernail clipping!) I find it all very fascinating.
I did get to go over to set one day this month to position a hat on a character for a photoshoot. When characters costumes are finished, they get photographed and then sent to Guillermo and co for approval. This particular character needed her hat re-positioned, so Toby Froud was sent over to adjust it and he asked if I wanted to tag along. It was oddly nerve wracking trying to place this hat just-so, but being there and seeing Toby fiddle with the characters costume was a really interesting insight. The costume had been built on a dressing dummy (potentially one of the many I made during quarantine); The armature inside made of wire, as opposed to the more sophisticated ball and socket armature that this featured character will actually have. This meant that the characters coat was not sitting nicely on her elbows, as the elbow does not bend exactly as it will. Details like this, I would absolutely not have noticed, but someone like Toby, who is so experienced in this field, saw it instantly and tried to rectify it. As I have mentioned before, the intricacy and attention to detail on this film is absolutely astounding to me. I am gradually getting better at taking my time with things.
I have also been creating a new mould from scratch for a characters body (torso, arms and legs). I realised I had never actually made an entire body mould from beginning to end (apart from my self portrait puppet at home), but rather done half, put on a prosthetic edge here or there etc. This mould was all me! It was actually great to make the clay up for the mould… something I have found quite challenging in the past, and now felt pretty confident in the process (though I did make a couple of small mistakes which Zilla helped me rectify). Again, I feel like it is about attention to detail… mould making is an art form and takes a lot of precision and focus. The mould I am working on is 95% finished, I just need to crack it open and clean it! Something I will tackle this coming week.
I should mention that we have had this week off. This week has been our July break holiday, hence why this post only includes four weeks instead of what should be five. It has been a good chance to switch my brain off somewhat and take some time to be still and slow down (not something I excel at). I am looking forward to jumping back in next week.
Other things on my to-do list have been casting other bits and bobs here and there, cleaning out moulds etc. The latter, is a finicky job that I actually don’t mind. It is good zone-out work where I can just listen to a podcast or an audio book, while I gradually remove all the clay and clean up little details with a toothpick. A hot tip, if I haven’t mentioned it in previous posts; When you are cleaning out a hard mould (resin, urethane etc) you should use wooden tools, as metal tools will mark it. Once you have the bulk of the clay removed, you can bundle up about 5-10 toothpicks and move them in circles to remove the clay. It is oddly satisfying.
Though I have spent a lot of time moulding and casting, I am still learning new things, and am enjoying being able to practice and improve, and really commit the processes to memory. I am excited about how these processes will inform my work back in Australia, both in ways of creating stop motion work, and in other puppetry realms.
I am excited to learn more armature based skills in the coming months. My good friend and colleague Winona Hwang, who you may remember is teaching me metal smithing on the weekends, has just been invited to be a trainee armaturist (so awesome), and so will be spending Tuesdays moving forward working with and learning from the senior armaturists. I have asked if I can tag along on these training days too, and got a resounding yes. So very much looking forward to that! I do have a job on my to-do list which I think I may have mentioned last time, which is to create an armature for a (briefly) featured character… his armature will be a wire/ ball joint hybrid. When I mentioned priority levels earlier, this job is one that has been continually overtaken by other more urgent tasks. The lighting stand in too which I mentioned last time has also been getting pushed down the line. I am hoping to get a good start on both of these in the coming weeks. The latter should give me some experience in different departments, as I need to costume him, paint him etc… which is quite daunting to be honest! But am excited for the challenge.
Speaking of the coming weeks…
As you can imagine, I keep a pretty close eye on the Australian Government’s Smart Traveller website, staying up to date with what is going on in terms of how/ when I head home. After a small clause on the site sent me in to a mild tail spin, I contacted both my visa sponsor and the Australian consulate in San Francisco for some clarification. The sites official stance is still “COME HOME NOW STUPID!” But a part from that, it mentioned something about “plan for delays and disruptions when booking your flight”. My visa sponsor and the consulate both had the same advice… due to the high likelihood of delays, disruptions etc, I should book my flight three weeks prior to my visa expiry date just to be safe. Though this shouldn’t be a big deal, and it isn't in the grand scheme of things, it did knock me for six. I had been planning on staying right up until the buzzer! October 26 my visa expires… I planned to fly out on the 24th! But such is life. The consulate said that the last thing I want is to accidentally be here with an expired visa… they said it is not a good time!
So what I thought was my remaining three months here has been sliced back to two-ish. I am obviously still incredibly grateful for the time I have, but am none-the-less a little disappointed to lose that extra three weeks. I am enjoying my reality here, and to be honest am a little fearful of what the future holds for me in Australia. All I can do is my PB (peanut butter or personal best depending on your preference) and I intend to keep doing it! I try to be as transparent about my mental health as possible, so will say… it has been a struggle at times. But I am very lucky to have so many amazing supportive people looking out for me, both here and at home.
I am sorry this post doesn’t include any photos! Unfortunately everything I am working on right now falls under NDA territory.
Here is one! A small glimpse in to our work space; These beautiful signs (and several others like them) hang all over the puppetry department. Other messages include “love”, “laughter”, “brilliant” etc.
Till next time!
