I’ve started to make the mold for the Dad — and he now has a name! Xosé LuÃs. Named after Xosé LuÃs Méndez FerrÃn, a famous Galician writer, whom ErÃn suggested… I just like his name; hopefully I’m not doing the writer a huge injustice by borrowing his name for this little character.
But here he is, in progress, with half his mold curing:
So, basically he has shards of a paperclip coming out of his eyes, the poor fellow. But this is only to hold his eyeballs in place when he is eventually cast. Very helpful proxies and guides.
Also, I brought Sabela home today from my friend Alli’s. She has finished her costume, which looks absolutely amazing.
ALSO, I had lunch today with my friend Loretta. Loretta is an amazing hairdresser, and offered to cut and style the characters’ hair. HOW GREAT IS THIS? I feel so lucky today, and most days, to know such talented and kind people. Just this week I have friends helping out on the lighting (Parki, who makes awesome art deco lights and other cool stuff in his spare time), is wiring up all the practical lighting of the set — footlights, spotlights, etc. for the theatre… Alli is the talented purse designer & sewer who is making all these gorgeous costumes… and Loretta, the most talented stylist I know, cutting hair. Woot!
How sensational! I look forward to understanding how the eye wires work later on.
MORE progress !!
cool stuff .
jriggity
Thanks guys! Shelley when I cast the puppet in the latex and foam, I use those plain glass beads as placeholders, so that the latex can be built up into a kind of socket around them. The eye wires make little posts to hold them in the right position. You can see part of the eye socket process in that first post about how to cast a head… but I’ll have to take more pictures of this, because it works really well, and it’s kinda hard to explain.
Thank you thank you, Stephanie, for explaining and making that wonderful post about the eye wire technique in specific detail. I still don’t get it (dumb), but I’m sure others do and that it’s very smart.
What if you were to cast the puppet with glass beads in it and then carefully cut out the shape they left in the finished rubber/foam cast? Replacing the voids with your true eye beads for the finished puppet, that’s what I was thinking of. There must be some advantages to your method. When I start casting, it’ll become clear.
hi Shelley, I’m not sure I get what you mean… That’s kinda what I did, anyway, if I understand what you’re saying.
I make the original sculpt with the beads, and wire guides. So the beads make a negative space in the mold. Then when I go to cast, I fill the negative space with beads again. (The wires are just there to hold them in place.) The process in the last post was describing how to build an eye socket around those beads… so there’s no need to carve anything out. When the foam is cast, it’ll just fill the space around the beads and latex eyesockets. Does that make sense?
You’re right, it’s hard to describe unless you are actually doing it…!
I’m positive your technique results in better eyes. Everything you do is detailed and meticulous and gorgeous.