Attempting a daily submission again. So here goes!
As an added bonus for this week, I will add in what I listen to each day.
Monday:
Today was our first day back after our two week break. Oh gosh did the weather make it that much harder! Cold, pouring with rain and dark as night, we drove to work. We arrived to a line of people… in the dark in the pouring rain, waiting for our morning health check. There isn’t usually a line up, but we have just gotten a new nurse and this was her first day, so I think she was moving a little slower than our previous nurse who was with us for basically all of last year. On a nice summers day, this would have probably been a lovely festive reunion for the first day back haha.
Once we got in to the studio, the day started with lots of chatter and catching up. “How was your break!?”, “What did you get up to?”, “How was your Christmas” etc. Followed by… “What was I doing?”, “What is my job again?”, “How do I… Puppets?” Once we all got going, the pace was back to normal, if not a little more productive than before the break (from my perspective anyway). There was definitely a sense of recharged batteries… though there was much complaining haha (of course).
I got straight back in to my patterning for my tiny background costume. I don’t know if I have mentioned, but the character I am costuming is a child, so even smaller than the other puppets. Interestingly; As the main character of the film is, and many of the characters are children, apparently the children are the size that a normal stop motion puppet would be (in this particular stop mo world) and the adult puppets are quite big. Something I didn’t realise till well into my placement here.
I enjoyed my patterning. I am not going to say I am good at it yet, but it does make sense to me. There is a system and I understand what I am trying to achieve. I can also see the imperfections and what needs to be improved better with this than I could when I was working with the sculpting team for example. See my early blog posts weeks one through five for that saga!
To the outside eye, it looked as though I had achieved nothing by the end of the day haha. In fact I had achieved a lot and been quite productive. Costumer Thalia Lane had mentioned (before I had even started) that I would need to redo my fabric pattern several times, as this is simply part of the process for most costumers, so I was not in any way defeated by the days progress (or seeming lack of). When I arrived I had a little shirt I had made before we left and the pattern pieces for a tunic ready to be put together. After receiving some feedback from Thalia about some tailoring to my costume, I drew on the adjustments, pulled it apart, updated my patterns and set to work again. It took me the remainder of the day to put together the shirt again with my new pieces and set up the tunic pieces ready to be sewn together tomorrow. I expect (and am mentally prepared) to do this over and over and over again. I am actually enjoying the process right now.
The process entails: Creating the backing, which is a similar process to lamination which I described in a previous post. Then cutting your pattern out of the backing, using the tiny iron (will find out it’s proper name) to iron the backing on to the main fabric, then cutting around the backing piece with enough seam allowance. Once this is done, you cut any darts in to curved edges that you need to. Use the iron again to fold the seam allowance over. Some sections you will apply fabric fusion glue and then iron them down flat to glue the fabric together and create a nice clean edge. Some you will sew the pattern pieces together before you apply the glue. If sewing something together after glueing down the edges, make sure to apply the glue to the outside edge of the seam so that you aren’t trying to put your needle through a gluey section. This is not fun.
I had a nice lunch hang with Winona and Aaron. Aaron was making plans to kidnap me so I wouldn't go back to Australia. He asked me my preference of how I would like to be kidnapped. It was very funny and very sweet. I will miss Aaron a lot.
Listened to: The Guilty Feminist, and Evanescence (Fallen).
Tuesday.
Today was a pretty good day. Not amazing, but good. I felt productive. I kept moving.
I continued to work on my pattern. The shirt pattern got the OK from Thalia (woop!) with some wiggle room on my shoulder seam lines as they will be covered by the tunic anyway. In fact, the bulk of the shirt will be covered by the tunic! But it has been nice to make it. The sleeves will need further work once the hands are attached. I obviously can’t finish the sleeve pattern with no wrist to work from! The tunic had some adjustments needed and after a conversation with George to clarify some questions I had about the design artwork, my next iteration of the tunic pattern commenced. I completed this version and am pretty darn happy with how it looks. I am yet to get Thalia or Georges feedback, but feeling good about it.
I then went on to dying the fabrics, or at least running tests. This took up the bulk of my afternoon.I enjoy the dying process and made sure to take copious notes. It is important when dying fabric, if you plan to make more of the same colour, to not everything you do in tests so you can create a recipe for future.
My big win for today was a compliment/ several from George. Chris Landon (a wonderful fabricator who sits opposite me) complimented me on my mountain pygmy possum puppet “Dot” after seeing her on my instagram. George chimed in and said “You sit over there all quiet and humble” (Me!?) “But your work is amazing and everything you post is amazing!” I was very chuffed. Whenever George compliments me like this it gives me such a boost. I was wrapped! I obviously admire everyone in the studio and am honestly pretty stoked whenever anyone compliments my work, but George is like the ultimate. I admire and look up to her so much.
I had lunch with Winona which was bloody lovely as always.
Listened to: Grown Ups Read Things They Wrote As Kids and a playlist called Aussie Bangers on Spotify which was hit and miss.
Wednesday.
Today Trump supporters stormed the capital so constant news updates moved around the building all day. A lot of tension, a lot of anxiety, a lot of anger, a lot of fear.
Despite all that, work wise I had a pretty good day. A real mix of tasks.
My day started helping Alex out with some armature stuff. He is working on the biggest creature of the film so the joints are huge. To solder the pieces together he needed two torches, therefore two sets of hands. I love armatures and always enjoy working with Alex so this was a welcome distraction. And also to see the big creature’s armature in progress is so awesome. I helped Alex out like this a couple of times throughout the day.
I also helped Winona out with some resin casting. As I am usually the least knowledgable person in the room (in terms of stop motion), it is really nice to be asked for help. I do get reminded sometimes, that I now know bits and pieces from most departments within puppets… whereas many people are experts in just one or two departments. I am like that classic phrase: Jack of all trades, master of none! haha. No no, I know I am selling myself short, but in this instance… very that!
Amidst these tasks, I was dying fabric at the dye station most of the day. Which I like. Most of the time the fabric tests need 2-5 mins in the pot being constantly stirred so it is quite a mindful process.
By the end of the day I had both of my fabrics signed off by George (woo!) The shirt fabric and the tunic. Very excited.
One of the funnest moments today came when I was talking to Emelia and Alex about my “jhestrocution” of the hotplate (see previous post”. Emelia said my little note (which reads “Out of Order. Jhestrocuted!”) makes her smile every day (already worth it!) and that it is like my super power. “Not a very helpful one” I replied. She said I just need to learn how to control it. Alex chimed in by scuffing his feet quickly on the floor, shuffling from one point to another and saying “Hold on, just gotta power up! Then I will save the world!”. We all laughed. This became a running joke over the course of the day and made me laugh a lot (which was needed today). Alex is such a goofball and I love it.
I don’t know if I have mentioned Emelia before! Emelia Hiltner. When I first met Emelia she was mainly working in the wig department. And in fact was one of the first people to offer me advice and feedback when I was sculpting my wig… so maybe I did mention her at the beginning. Her wigs were so finely detailed and beautiful. She is an incredible sculptor! Emelia also creates beautiful things outside of work. She recently had an exhibition of her ceramics and I bought a beautiful mug! You can see Emelia’s work on her instagram @make.emelia … Highly recommend you have a look. Her work is so joyful.
Listened to: Grown Ups Who Read Things They Wrote As Kids and Race Chaser with Alaska and Willam.
Friday. (What happened to Thursday?)
So I almost made it through without missing a day. Last night I had a Trash Puppets meeting right after work, (plus it was my cooking night!) So I totally forgot to write something, and of course now… though it is only a day later… I can’t remember what I did yesterday. It is a blur.
Today however…
My biggest task of the day was attaching hands to the puppet I am building the costume for. This would not usually be a big task, but in this case it was. As these puppets are background characters, they have simple wire armatures. The body type I am working with is the smallest background child we have, so attaching the hands without compromising the elbow movement was a bit of a puzzle. Usually with these wire armatures, we attach a piece of KNS to the arm below the elbow and then the hand, which has a smaller piece of KNS attached, simply slots in to place. But due to the size of these children, this was proving tricky.
My colleague Veronica Hwang who is primarily in the paint department (but as with a lot of people, has skills in multiple areas) built a lot of the child armatures and cast them in foam. I also cast a lot of foam child bodies, way back when we were in lock down at the beginning of last year.
ANYWAY, speaking of lockdown, Veronica realised that the reason there was no plan of attack for this smallest of small children’s hand attachment, is that it was one of the last bodies being developed as we went in to lock down, and as with many things, it just slipped through the cracks. Till now! Veronica and I did some problem solving, after I did some problem solving of my own which did not go so well! I was assuming the character would be true to human dimensions, hand hanging around mid thigh somewhere. This was honestly my main mistake. This meant I trimmed the arm wire too short and now sadly that armature is not usable. But it is a simple wire armature so I will make a new one quickly next week and do a quick foam cast to replace it. In the meantime, we took another small child body to work with. We have a number of different bodies, both child and adult, which get repeated for the background characters. Different costumes, different heads etc.
So Veronica and I were on the right track with our problem solving but still were not quite sure of exactly how to proceed. We took it to George and of course after some deliberation, she came up with the solution. Very similar to the original plan, but with a few tweaks. The KNS on both hand and arm needed to be very short to make it work, meaning that there wasn’t a whole lot of registration which can be a problem. Therefore the plan was to drill a hole and solder a (tiny tiny) nut on to the end of the receiving KNS, then it could be held in place with a set screw. The hands on all of the puppets need to be removable in case they need to be replaced.
This meant I got to go back in to armature land for the rest of the morning which was nice. Soldering on the tiny nut looked like a challenge. To not get the solder in the teeth of the nut etc. But I nailed it first time, which was a nice feeling (she’s learning!) Once completed, Veronica was very pleased with my execution of the plan and now photos of my work will be the reference for all future bodies of this size (woo!) A satisfying conclusion to the mornings puzzling.
The afternoon was spent continuing work on my pattern. I got some really great advice from fabricator Katy Strutz about the tunic and how to improve on what I have done so far as well as some simple tips for patterning and tailoring. When I met Katy, she was primarily on the sculpting team but has now moved in to costume. Everyone is so multi skilled, and Katy is no exception. She makes stunning stop motion puppets of her own in her spare time (amongst other things). Her work honestly blows me away. Check out Katy on instagram @katystrutz
I am feeling good about where I am up to with this costume. Hoping I can get it finished before I leave. It will be quite anti-climactic if I don’t haha. But that is a real possibility too and after all we are a team. No puppet in this film was made alone.
Speaking of me leaving… the date is once again up in the air! The Australian Government announced today that from now till Feb 15 they are halving arrival caps in to Australia. So basically, that means there is a 50% chance my flight will be pushed back 2 weeks or more. Oof. I will admit, when I first read it, it hit me in the gut and I was instantly stressed and anxious. After processing my feelings about it however, it is really not a big deal. It will be inconvenient if it happens, but then again… I love it here. I love my house, my housemates, my friends, my work place. So heck, another few weeks here might be a gift! I am legally not allowed to earn money after Jan 25 which isn’t ideal… but I would happily volunteer my time to continue learning for a few more weeks if it came to that. Certainly rather that than sit at home twiddling my thumbs!!
So potentially three weeks remaining… but maybe more. Time will tell.
Chris (housemate) and I discussed it last night and realised this is the SIXTH time my plan has been uncertain like this. It is exhausting haha. But luckily I am pretty good at rolling with the punches. Being freelance for so many years, living that transient life… it does prepare you quite well for this king of thing.
And finally… today I… Listened to: nothing. I didn't put my headphones in once!
Till next time!