Props and Set pt three

I'm just going to talk through one prop today, and though there isn't much that has gone into its build, skills-wise, I just want to show you all the little details involved in it.

The Cereal Box

To make my 'Catch of the Day!' cereal box I first decided to make the structure out of some card that I had lying around, but I found it was too floppy and not strong enough to keep its shape once I'd painted onto it with my watercolours. I then thought of doubling up the card to make it stronger but it just gave the same kind of outcome. Then I thought to myself 'Hmm I wonder what material I could use that would make a great cereal box structure?' and after moments of pondering I came to the conclusion that an actual cereal box would make the best option. I know what you're thinking: 'Charlotte, stroke of genius right there, never would've thought of that!'. Thanks! I do try haha!

So I got my cereal box - making sure I'd taken out the actual cereal out first of course! - and cut out the net shape of a cereal box so that I could fold it all together when I was done decorating it. This is my first attempt as when I test folded it together it didn't sit too well so I decided to make another. I used the net shape, that I wasn't going to use for my cereal box, to rough out my design onto to see if it all fit nicely and didn't look too squished together on the box.

I painted the new/ better net shape white, using acrylic paint, so that it would give a better surface to work with and would make all the other colours stand out much nicer. I painted a few layers of white as the brown cardboard seeped through a little after the first layer. When that was all done I then lightly drew out my design onto the box, and when I was happy with how it looked I went about painting it using watercolours this time. Once the whole box was painted and dry I drew on details and outlines using a fine black pen.

When that was all done I glued it all together, apart from the flap at the top as I wanted that to open and close.

Just for an added bit of detail I cut out tiny little fish shapes, out of white card, and crushed up a Ginger Nut Biscuit, then mixed them up together in a little plastic pouch (with a resealable top) that was the perfect size for the cereal box. This would then be the cereal in the box! And because I'd left the top flap of the box unglued I could easily put the cereal inside the box and close it up no problem!

Thanks for taking a look! I hope you liked my little cereal box and cereal! More on props and set to come soon.

Props and Set pt two

So hey! Welcome to the second part of the prop/ set build of my project! I'm not going to go through too much and I'm not going to show the actual final images of some of the props as if I do you'll see too much of the final thing - and it's not time for that just yet!

The Lamp!

Okay, so it's a little bit cheeky but I was running out of time so I brought this polystyrene piece that was shaped like a lamp. It was the perfect size and shape for my set and working with it would save me so much time! If you can find something that would work better for you than if you were to make it yourself, I say by all means go for the easy option, you'll save yourself a lot of stress and time by doing so!

So I took the polystyrene lamp and cut out the centre-ish part using my trusty Stanley Knife - this is actually a second lamp as I got a little too knife happy with the first one! I then painted it red using acrylic paint. I found that painting straight on to the polystyrene surface just left the paint flaking off and patchy, so to stop that I sprayed the whole thing with Spray Mount first, which seemed to do the trick! 

This isn't the final image, for that I've painted more detail on it and added a tiny bulb inside. I've also added a chain to the top so that it can hang from the side of the hut. I'll show you that when I've shown you everything else first!

Life Preserve Rings!

Okay, again a little bit cheeky but I brought these polystyrene rings to use for my Life Rings! (I brought all the polystyrene products from a shop in Cardiff called Inkspot if you were wondering). I'd been searching for ages for something to use for these rings, my first thoughts were to use some plastic rings off one of those children's ring stacking toys but I couldn't find any! Anywhere! So when I found these rings I was happy to say the least. I then cut out strips of red Funky Foam and wrapped then around the two rings and glued them in place.

I made some hook type things from these little gold jewellery parts and pushed then in to the tops of the red parts of the rings to hold the 'ropes' in place. The 'rope' is just some string that I got to add a bit more detail to the rings.

The Fishing Rod!

I think the fishing rod is probably one of my favourite props. I made it by using a balsa wood rod, cut to the right size, a bobby thread, and some Funky Foam. To create the basic shape I wrapped and glued a strip of Funky Foam to the bottom of the pole and glued in a small piece of the balsa wood rod in to it for the thread to slip on to. The toilet roll tube in the photo is slightly misleading as I used the Funky foam to wrap around the bottom of the pole instead of that in the end, though I did try it will the roll first but it just didn't work.

When that was all done I painted the whole thing in different shades of brown acrylic paint and drew on some details. I glued on a small card disk to the end of the small pole holding the thread, once it was slotted in place, to stop it slipping off. It also means the tread can spin freely so it sort of is an actual working fishing rod (ish!). 

This isn't the final look of the fishing rod, I've also added a golden coloured handle to the thread/ wheel part and then similar golden hooks to the ones on the life rings, up the fishing rod itself for the string to thread through. I also tied on a little fishing hook to the end of the string, which was just a piece of metal that I bent in to shape.

Sorry for the lack of final pictures, I only seem to have them whilst they're apart of the final set, and I don't want to be revealing that just yet! Thanks for taking a look though! More to come soon!

Props and Set pt one

Alright! So we've done the puppets and I think it's time to move on to the props and set. I've actually got all the props and set done - finished everything today in fact! There is a lot to talk about and quite a few props and sections of the set to talk through, so I'll only go through a few of them today and maybe do a few more posts over the week before revealing the whole thing.

The Lobster Catcher!

To make the main structure of the box/ cage I cut up lots of lollipop sticks and some bits of balsa wood and just glued them together using superglue. I built it in a way that it looked like a crate and I snapped some of the sticks so that it looked a little bit more authentic (ish).

I then painted over the box using some watered-down brown paint, after trying to stain it with teabags didn't do that much to it. I then glued some net onto the inside (it's a hair net in case you were wondering!), and I made a starfish out of Miliput, that I then painted orange, to stick on top of the crate. 

The Fishing/ Bait Box!

To make the Fisherman's bait box I just cut out lots of pieces of Balsa wood that I then painted and glued together (again with superglue) in a cube shape. I find that if you're going to be painting something and gluing it together with superglue it's best to paint it before you glue it as it's really difficult to paint over the glue - the more you know, aye?!

I then glued on some handles, hinges and a lock that I'd brought off Ebay. They're all dollhouse products and I think they make it look pretty ace, if I do say so myself!

 Fisherman's Stool!

To make his stool I used a combination of lollipop sticks, a balsa wood rod and some tiny nails! I doubled up the lollipop sticks so that they were a little sturdier and then cut everything to size.

I painted all the pieces a nice, dark brown and then glued everything together. I reinforced all the glued up parts with the tiny nails. I then attached a strip of fabric over the frame to make the seat.

The Oars!

To make the oars I roughly cut out the shapes for the two parts of the oars and then sanded around the edges to round them off a little. Once they were all nice and smooth I painted them and glued the parts together.

The Signs!

The hut in the set needs a sign on the top and a sign on the door and I wanted to make them so that they'd look as rustic as possible. I tried to make them look like slabs of wood that had been nailed/ glued together so I used different size lollipop sticks. I then painted them both brown and added a chain off an old bracelet to the smaller sign. Finally, I painted on the writing/ details.

I've got quite a bit more to talk through but I think that this is enough for today! Thanks for taking a look! More on the props and set to come soon.

Clothes and Coverings!

In my last post I talked about my fisherman's head, and in this one I'm going to talk through his clothing and also the seagulls final look. I would have got around to posting sooner but I wanted to add some final touches to both puppets before posting any pictures - I still have the odd things to do on them but they're essentially done now and ready for viewing! I won't drone on too much with how I made everything, I'll just let the pictures do the talking!

For my fisherman's jumper and hat I wanted them knitted so that they'd look a bit more realistic (ish) and also absolutely adorable!! My only drawback here was that I'd actually never knitted anything in my life, but what better time to learn than with a major deadline approaching aye?! It's safe to say I wasn't the quickest at knitting, though I sort of got the hang of it quite quickly, it took me way too long to even produce this - which for my first ever attempt I'm pretty pleased with to be honest!

Luckily for me, my lovely mum (and knitting master), stepped in and offered to knit my character's jumper and hat for me (I say offered, I practically begged her!). And doesn't he look adorable?! minus the creepy white face of course.

Next it was time to make his overalls. I managed to find the perfect yellow, PVC material after hours of searching and purchasing the wrong type of fabric to start off with. Though the look of it was great it was really hard to get into the right shapes, as it only really stretched one way. After a little mental breakdown and copious amounts of hot chocolate I managed to get it how I wanted it! Huzzah!

When the overalls were all sewn up and on the body I started adding some details. I was so fortunate to find the perfect material for his braces/ straps. They came off an old necklace (the same one I got his bead eyes off in fact - it always helps to hoard things!) which had the perfect metal parts at the ends that I could then use for the buckles on the straps. I then added a pocket using the same PVC material, and a little later on I added turn-ups to the bottom of his trousers (they're not in this picture though).

To finish off his head I added this fur material I brought from Cardiff Market, it wasn't really the colour I wanted but I think it works nether the less. I cut it into all the shapes I needed and then sprayed them with Starch so that the fur would stay in place a little better. I'm pretty pleased with how he looks!

And before I reveal the final image of him I'll quickly tell you about the seagull - For the seagull I just sewed bits of fabric together to create his feathers. Before doing so though, I made an eye socket using Air Dry Fimo which I just placed where I wanted the eyes to go then pushed the bead eyes into it to make the shape. 

Finally, here we have the final images of the two characters! I haven't posed them yet as I don't really want to move them too much before animating in case the wire gets too worn out. I hope you like them!

Thanks for taking a look! I'll be posting the props and set as soon as I can!

Building the Head

I've currently got the whole head finished, and the entire puppet to be honest, but I'm only just getting around to posting about it - naughty!

Okay, so I started off by making eye sockets - I just pushed the beads I was going to use as eyes into a slab of Fimo, that I cut to shape and then baked it. For this head I'm making it in a very different way to how I've previously made heads so there has been a lot of trial and error on the way. I ended up making 2 eye sockets as I had put the eyes too far apart. To check how the face would look I made quick sculpts of the face onto the sockets using Plasticine. I then made some paper moustache/ eyebrows/ sideburns and stuck them on because the face looked creepy without them!

I then glued my chosen eye socket onto a piece of polystyrene that I'd carved to roughly the shape of the character's skull. Shoving a long piece of K&S in it so it would fix to the neck joint and it was ready to go. I then went about sculpting the face directly onto the skull, using Fimo, which by all accounts was a completely stupid thing to do and I'll tell you for why - 1. you can't easily peel the face off, even with lots of Vaseline underneath, without it loosing its shape and 2. the Fimo I used needs to be baked, this means putting the whole thing in the oven! Looking back, I can see how silly it was to think putting polystyrene in the oven and having it come out unscathed was (then again it was the middle of the night when I did this so no judgments here please?!)

And here is the result: a shrunken, mess of a skull and a cracked face, that only just came off! You'll be pleased to know I did a better job on the actual thing though.

I then went about the build a little differently, especially after researching into better techniques and things. Luckily, I was able to salvage the eye sockets, so that was then glued onto a new skull shaped piece of polystyrene (don't worry, I knew what I was doing this time!). I then added Ultra Light Sculpy to the head to give a better shape and hold the eye socket on place more firmly. This Sculpy (green was the only colour I had in case you're wondering) is air drying so I didn't need to risk another oven fiasco! 

When the whole head was dry I then made a "mask" on top of the front of the face - with the eyes in place - using Miliput (also air drying!!). I put a load of Vaseline on the head before I sculpted though, which is a very handy thing to do if you want the face to come off. The mask didn't need to be neat but I had to make it the right size and shape that I wanted the removable face to be. When it was dry I could then sculpt onto it quite easily and pop it in the oven no problem!

I sculpted the back of the head straight onto the skull, as it didn't need to be replaceable. To do this I used air drying Fimo clay then shoved the ears from my previous sculpt on top. I then added magnets to both the skull and "face mask" so that they would fix together more securely.

 Here is the head looking rather eerie without any eyes! 

I then went about painting all the parts of the head, trying to match the colour of the hands as best I could. I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out and as I'm not doing any replaceable mouths for this character - he doesn't talk and all his expression comes from his eyes/ eyebrows/ 'tache anyway - I tried to make it as simple yet striking as I could.

And here he is! Well, minus his hair/ brows/ sideburns/ real 'tache and other key parts, but who cares aye?! 

I'll be posting images of how the final head looks when I get round to doing one on his clothes, so don't you worry your cotton socks about it.

Thanks for taking a gander anyway, and hopefully soon I'll get around to posting his final look, along with the seagull!