Oof. This week has been a bloody good one. So productive. So much variety. I have had… A really good week.
A quick overview before we get in to it (the table of contents if you will):
Monday I spent the day boxing up (and later re-boxing) my gravity feed moulds that I was working on last week, and then poured them up in silicone.
Tuesday AND Wednesday I spent with armaturist Alex Andrade learning how to make feet/ boot armatures. Sooooo interesting!
Thursday I spent the whole day (feeling like a dentist) jewel cutting my TEN gravity feed moulds. Finally feel like I am getting the hang of it (somewhat).
Friday I cast all of my pieces from my new gravity feed moulds in resin.
Phew! It has been busy. But in the best of ways. I had so much support throughout the week, from Alex, from Winona, from Mattzilla, from Jennifer. Heck just from the whole department and then some.
Ok, in to the nitty gritty…
Monday.
So where we left off last week, I had finished setting up all of the pieces of my broken apart maquette, ready to create gravity feed moulds. So Monday was boxing day (no Pagan traditions involved). The way I have learned to box up moulds here is using foam core, hot glue, and packing tape. You create your walls by measuring out your foam core, cutting it to size, lightly slicing the sections you want to bend, just enough that they can bend in half, without slicing through the foam core completely. You line the inside of your box with the packing tape*, to prevent your mould sticking to the foam core and then hot glue your box on to the base, making sure to fill any sections where the material may spill out when poured.
* You may not need the packing tape when creating silicone moulds, but I did it anyway (just to be safe).
HOT TIP: If you are in a hurry and you need your hot glue to set quicker, take a can of compressed air, flip it upside down, and spray it on to the hot glue. When turned upside down, compressed air will become an icy cold spray. I guess I could have called this a “cool” tip…
Hahaha… aaaah… Dad jokes.
Earlier you mentioned re-boxing Jhess… wha ha-happened?
Well nothing overly dramatic, basically I made seven out of ten too big. Ugh. It was a learning experience, and easily rectified (if a bit time consuming). Basically you don’t want too much space around your pieces as it is a waste of material (eg. silicone). Depending on the size of the piece, the space it needs surrounding it differs which is where I went wrong. Somebody had told me once to leave around an inch of space surrounding the pieces, but this only applied to that particular occasion, and those particular moulds. For a tiny piece, you may only need a pencil width around it. Yet another bit of knowledge to add to my repertoire… I will get better at eyeballing it over time. After they are boxed, you strategically place some t-pins which will be your guides later when it comes time to jewel cut.
Tuesday
You may remember be mentioning last week, that Tuesdays moving forward were to be my armature training days, along with my friend and colleague Winona Hwang. Winona is an amazing metalsmith (she has been teaching me on Saturdays in her studio), and currently the puppetry departments PA. Recently she got asked if she would like to train as an armaturist part time and I am so thrilled for her. Plus, we get to train together (I jumped on that bandwagon quicker than you could say Fahrvergnügen). Our puppet production manager Jennifer Hammontree had reached out the the armaturists working in the studio (some are continuing to work from home) and asked if anyone could teach us to make feet and/or hand armatures and to our delight, armaturist Alex Andrade raised his hand (or foot so to speak… ugh, more dad jokes Jhess!?). Tuesday morning arrived and Alex was ready to take us on “You two ready!?” Though I have really enjoyed the independence I have felt with certain tasks since returning to the studio, it was really nice to once again feel like I was really training under a mentor. We spent the day learning how to create an armature for feet/ boots.
The thing that struck me the most, is that there is no specific formula, no written recipe. Every puppet is different (though we do use the same body etc for multiple characters at times) and as such, creating the armature is always going to be somewhat of a puzzle. I don’t know what I was expecting, but this actually made the process even more appealing to me! I think because it is similar to how I work at home, figuring shit out as I go! The first thing Alex did was show us an example of another foot armature, and then gave us a junk cast* of the boot and sent us off to draw up some design ideas. The main two things to consider when designing your armature are: 1, how many joints does it need, and where and 2, size! How will I fit it inside the cast. You also need to consider how it connects to the rest of the armature, in this case, to the bottom of the leg. This will inform the size of the joint that you need to use. For these feet, they need two points of movement, one in the ankle, and one in the toe (where your shoe flexes). They also need two tie downs* on each foot, one in the heel and one in the toe.
* A junk cast is a casting from the mould, with no armature inside, usually used to help inform the armaturist’s or for the paint team to do tests.
* Tie downs are the points where you can tie down the figure to your set. The set will have holes drilled in the places the character needs to stand, walk etc, and bolts fit through those holes and screw in to the tie downs in the characters feet etc.
Once we had some designs drawn up, Alex came and the three of us nutted out the best solution and then set to work to create the armature. I am not sure how to describe this without going in to extreme detail but I will try. For the two points of movement we used ball joints (the most commonly used joint). An interesting tidbit: the tensioning point* for the ball joints always face the outside, to allow easy access for the animators to tension the puppets accordingly… except on the elbows. The reason for this, is that if the character is not wearing sleeves, the hole used to tension the elbow joint will be visible, so they always put that tensioning point on the inside.
*The tensioning point is where the bolt that runs through the ball joint can be loosened or tightened. Stop motion puppets rely on tension, allowing the animators to move very precisely. Obviously the joints loosen with time, and animators have their own personal preference of how tight or loose they like the joints to be.
Creating these boot armatures required a lot of new skills, and the use of some especially fun machines. On Tuesday our main task, based on our design, was to join our two ball joints together with a bridge of sorts and put the tie down inside the heel. Firstly, we needed to grind the base of the larger of the two ball joints down as it was a little too tall for the ankle. Alex showed us how to use the mill (an awesome machine) to do so. Setting up the machine, and the piece, you move the machine on it’s x and y axis’, slowly and precisely grinding away the metal… it is very satisfying. We then drilled a hole in the base of this ball joint and soldered in a tie down.
HOT TIP: When soldering something, you may have areas that you need to keep solder free, eg. In this instance the inside of the tie down (as it would prevent it from being able to be screwed in to, defeating the purpose). If you apply white out to the areas you want to avoid getting solder on, it acts as a barrier. Magic!
We then cut out a small metal plate for the bridge using a jewellers saw, shaped it with the wheel grinder and then soldered it in place. The latter was quite tricky as the piece needed to be set up very precisely and not move… and it is so tiny! This is where third hand tools can come in very handy. A third hand is a little piece of equipment that has little arms, often with a clip of some kind on the end (it is tricky to explain… see picture below). Our last task today was pinning the plate in place to assure durability (in case the solder breaks at any stage… the animators really put the puppets through their paces and are reputed for breaking them often). We cut two small pins from metal, and then used the drill press to create a place for them to pin. I kept referring to this technique as the “IKEA furniture technique”… you know those little wooden pegs that hold all of their shelves etc together!? Anyway… so once we had our pins and our holes, we soldered them in place, and then ground down the excess using the wheel grinder. Alex later noted that perhaps for this design we should do four pins instead of two. His concern was that in the instance that the solder broke, the pin would act as a hinge of sorts and create a teeter totter effect (not what you want!)
Wednesday.
Sadly Winona couldn’t join us today as she had to get back to her PA duties, but Alex and I cracked on. The first thing we needed to do was create a toe to connect to the ball joint that we had put in place yesterday. We cut a piece of square stock which would hold the toe plate. We then used the metal lathe (another awesome machine) to change the shape of the end of this square stock, to round, allowing it to slot in to the ball of the ball joint. Operating the lathe, watching the square metal become round was… So satisfying. We then soldered the ball on to the square stock. When soldering something like this, air can get trapped in the space inside the ball and create pressure causing the ball will fly off. It is important to support the ball and push it back down when it begins to rise. With this completed, we then cut out a plate for the toe out of a thicker piece of metal. The size of the metal you use entirely depends on the shape of the piece you are working with, in this case the boot. You need your tie downs to sit flush with the floor, so it is important to get the right size. We soldered the piece of metal plate on to the end of the square stock. Now we just needed to create the last tie down. We used the mill to drill our hole, and then used a tap wrench (another new tool for me) to create the tie down. Lastly, we ground down the end of the metal plate to fit the shape of the boot using the wheel grinder.
I have been eager to learn more about armatures from day one here, so having these two days with Alex was an absolute thrill. I went home tired but invigorated, so excited to learn more! Next week I will be helping him out building a body armature from the ground up, so very much looking forward to that.
Thursday.
Today was Jewel cutting day. My gravity feed moulds had been patiently waiting for me over the last two days, and the time had come. The idea of jewel cutting them open was a little daunting, as several of the pieces were quite skinny inside and trying to line up the cut with the piece properly was going to be tricky. I had to trust in my preparation and let my t-pins guide me. I have spoken a few times about the process of jewel cutting (see last weeks post and Weeks 13 & 14) so I will try not to go in to too much detail. Jewel cutting is a process where you open a solid soft (silicone or similar) mould, and create your moulds registration as you cut by creating a zig zag pattern. The trick with jewel cutting is to be as neat and precise as possible (I am getting there!) Luckily I have had a fantastic mentor in senior mould maker Mattzilla Duron (also my housmate), and lots of practice. My struggle was often going too deep with my zig-zag pattern, making my “teeth” protrude too harshly, but I have gotten better and better with each mould, and am happy to report they are all functional.
I couldn’t help but to feel like a dentist all day, wearing my mask, using expanding pliers to open the “mouth” of my mould and a curve blade scalpel to do my precision cuts. May have even done a rendition of the classic “You’ll be a dentist” from Little Shop of Horrors, making my mould in to a lip sync puppet (couldn’t help myself).
After so much jewel cutting, I am beginning to feel more confident with the technique and think I will use it a lot in future.
Friday.
It’s Friday! I have never really understood the #TGIF phenomenon. Almost never in my adult life have I worked Monday-Friday, so understanding things like “hump day” etc has been new to me. My work life to date has been working evenings, weekends, going on tours etc, basically working ALL THE TIME so days of the week have held very little meaning for me in general. But now I get it! Though I had a brilliant week, I was very much looking forward to the break. Today I poured up my pieces in resin. As in the creation of gravity feed moulds, pouring them up is different to the process of pouring two part moulds. Last week I spoke about creating your “injection point” using a thick piece of wire. This wire placement in the moulds creation, creates a channel where you will inject your material (in this instance resin). It is a good idea to bevel the opening of your injection point to allow a spot for the material to pool. Mixing up the resin, you have a very small window of time to get the resin in to your mould as it cures very quickly. Before you do this however, you need to release your moulds. For these kind of silicone moulds, we use talcum powder as a release. Apply the talcum powder and then clap the mould halves together (like chalk board erasers) to get an even coating. Then use some rubber bands to clamp your mould halves together. You don’t want the bands so tight that they warp the mould. You can also use some foam core to help support the mould on both sides before you apply the bands.
Now you are ready to mix your material. Using a small syringe, I injected my moulds three at a time (any more would have taken too long with the curing time of the resin), pushing the material in through the injection point and waiting for material to flow out of the vents to show it is full. Last week I spoke about creating the vents in the creation of the mould. The vents allow material and air to escape, preventing bubbles from forming in your cast. Immediately after pouring, I put the moulds in to a pressure pot. The pressure pot makes the material bond together, and creates a denser, more durable cast. If you don’t have access to a pressure pot, you can do without, your resin will just be a bit more fragile.
I cast all of my pieces today and they all came out very well. I will need to cast a few copies for different purposes, but it is very exciting to have a somewhat more permanent copy of my sculpt from weeks 1-3.
Saturday (bonus!)
Winona and I have been continuing our metal smithing classes. This week we actually met up on Thursday night AND Saturday (to make up for missing last week). I am in the process of turning my last automaton (see my instagram @thepuppetsmithery) in to a metal version which is an exciting process. This week I managed to cut my little puppy dog in it’s four pieces out of a copper sheet and sand and polish them. I want to patina the copper of my dog, to give it a nice varied colour and texture… I am thinking a red patina (Chewie inspired). I am really enjoying the process, and it is good practice. I am gradually building up my confidence working with metals, both at work, and in my classes with Winona.
…
And THAT was Week 27! Phwoar, it really was a good one. Can not wait to see what week 28 will bring. Only 6-8 weeks remaining (eek!) I think I said seven last week ha ha, but as I currently feel, I imagine I will want to be in the studio right up until I get on the plane! But who knows… plans seem to change at the drop of a hat this year, so I am not taking anything for granted!
Till next time!