PUPPET

Some pictures of what I have been up to recently...

Back half of the main bit of the body and half the wing

Front half of the main bit of the body and half the wing

The feather's need some more work so that they blend together a bit more with the brown and the lighter colours. I am, therefore, going to stitch on some feathers by hand and then work out how to get this onto the puppet body...I am thinking of doing some tests to see which is the best way to get it on (liquid latex or glue methinks.)

getting going properly now

So i have actually finished putting all the foam latex around my armature so that i have the basic owl shape that i want. I am going to post some pictures in a bit as I totally forgot to do that after I had finished it.

 I'm currently working at a sowing machine to get all the feather sown correctly onto the fabric that I have got. I made a pattern for the bird so that the sections of fabric I have cut out will fit round the bird well without too much loose fabric...I want it to be a tight fit! I'm also having to spend time working out which feathers go where so the puppet has the same markings as a real barn owl.

Finito (a bit)

Finally managed to finish the armature for my bird!

Not the most beautiful thing to look at right...but it is functional so that is what matters!

Had to undo some wire and re-twist it all together on the leg on the right and add some tape to bind it tightly together, so that it would be as strong as possible.
 I'm quite pleased with the outcome...with the head and ends of the legs polymorphed so that I can mould some talons and feet and a head with a beak out of sculpee, that can then slot onto the polymorph ends and I can super glue them in place when they are eventually created to the perfect fit!

Back to reality

I just got back to bristol yesterday evening after a week away in the french alps, after skiing for a few days and kicking back all easy like with some hot chocolate in the sunny sunny chalet in the foothills of the mountain!

 So time to start getting back into this project and getting some work done!

 I'm going to fix a problem with the leg of the armature first, then start to build up the main bit of the body with foam latex...leaving all the protruding bits (legs, wings and head) till last as they need bits made to attach on to them and to make sure they fit right before i start building up on the area.

I'm hoping not to get too distracted by the new wii game I just got, as it has a massive white wolf as the main character and I know I won't stop playing once I start!

I'll post a picture of the armature later to show progress.

Over and out.

There goes my food money for the week...

 So today I spent my monies on some liquid moulding latex so I can soon start building up on my owl's armature with foam and latex. Thankfully Mary let me have some foam for free, saves me buying everything for this project!

 I purchased some feathers last weekend too (speckled brown and white, white, ivory) which are the perfect sort of feathers for a big ol' barn owl!

 And to finish it off I have just made a wonderful purchase of some glass eyes for my owl. I spent a lot of time today on ebay looking for glass dolls eyes but they turned out to be quite expensive and they would not have looked right on my puppet as they all have a large white section and then the coloured iris and then the black pupil. Whereas an owl does not have the same eyes as a human and does not have the white section of the eye.
 Thankfully I stumbled upon a company on ebay that sold things to make teddy bears, and guess what...they sell the perfect glass eyes for an owl! I just purchased some 12mm glass brown/hazel eyes with an opaque black centre pupil! So pleased with them as they are just perfect...now I'll just have to sit infront of the letterbox every day waiting for them to arrive!

Boiling water is hot!

I started moulding polymorph onto my armature today, to act as bones on the puppet so that the joints would only bend exactly where I wanted them too. This has also worked in strengthening the armature itself.
 Only thing is...I had to keep re-boiling the kettle every few minutes to keep the polymorph I was working with hot and soft so I could work with it. So this meant a lot of running up and down the stairs with cups of hot water; which subsequently meant I got a lot of hot water spilt all down me in the process!

I'll post pictures tomorrow of my progress and then I need to start working on one of the legs of the armature as it is a little shorter than the other so I need to try and work out some way of making it a tad longer!

Tomorrow shall be problem solving day...hopefully!

Everything is A GO!

Made a start on my OWL finally! Yes!
Feels good to have started by doing something physical now and having made something! Can't wait to see it take shape every day and grow to look like an owl.

Quite pleased with the armature. One leg is shorter than the other but I can just undo the hip and left wing slightly and then twist the leg a bit extra on top to make it as long as the other. Once I have finished working on this part of the armature I can start adding on the plastic 'bones' I am going to be making out of polymorph and wrapping them around the structure in all the right places so that the armature only bends in the places that I want it to.

The armature is really quite thick so I am not too worried about the sturdiness of it. And not worried about how rubbish it looks at this stage...it can look as ugly as it likes, as long as it works how I want it to! The nice looking but will come later during the build up stage!

I am definitely glad to have gotten the ball rolling anyway!

Armature drawings

A armature drawing from the front: Have had to work with wire to build my armature as I originally wanted to work by making my own ball and socket joint one from scratch but the person who could help from the fabrication centre is unwell and I don't have the know how to build one myself! So I have gone with a wire one, with 3mm wire wrapped around itself to strengthen it. Then there shall be some 1mm aluminium wire to be used on the end of the wings for feathers to be attached to during build up, so that they can fan right out and go far away from the wire and still look delicate, so not as to be covered in the foam or the latex, but perhaps a simple bit of fabric instead which I can then sow the wings into!

I decided I would add polymorph to the armature to create bones, and the bits of wire left exposed will be the joints; as they will be able to bend easily by not being covered in the plastic. I came to the decision that it would be best to add a few pieces of polymorph plastic onto the neck itself so that I could get a better fluid bend out of the neck itself: so I looked at some skeletons of Barn Owls and saw they had vertebrae in their necks anyway so my idea of putting plastic in some parts is definitely a good idea.

This is a quick drawing I did today to help me to work out exactly how to have the wire shaped out before I started to twist it. This meant I could work out the lengths of everything; such as the neck, wing span etc. Then when I came round to twisting it everything should, theoretically, be in the right place so that I don't have to try and undo the twists in the wire and start again, as this would weaken the wire a whole lot!

Has this module taken off yet?

 After a lot of faffing about with ideas on what I want to do with this Developing and Exploring module, I finally decided I wanted to learn more about puppet making.
 In last terms project I didn't have a hand in making the puppets for our film but did attend puppet making sessions to learn how to make wire armatures for stop motion and then how to do a simple build up using liquid latex and foam as a base and then adding clothing and hair and heads after that.
 That did get me quite interested in making puppets, so now I have got the chance to make my own with all the time left, I have had to decide what to make.

 With a fondness for owls and wanting to make something a bit more experimental than a human puppet which I have already learnt how to make; I have decided to make a puppet of an owl

 A barn owl to be more precise...they are one of my favourites!