construction of puppet workshop, with Barry Leith

In today’s session we have begun to create our puppets. Using my construction drawings as a base, I have chosen the type of wire to use and created the Skelton, holing it together with milliput, with the Advise of  industry professional and lecture of this brief, Barry Leith.

Choosing the thickest wire to hold my characters large sphere head and busty body, I was advised to give her long wire legs that will be partly used for her heels.

As a group we were guided to use milliput, an plasticine clay like texture that can be molded, and dries out to form a rock hard surface that can be sanded and drilled into. We were instructed to mix the two different molds in the packet 1000 times together, to make sure it’s well mixed. The reaction of theses two clays mixed makes them binding and turn into a rock hard clay.

When putting them on our wire, we had to put on bit of the mixed clay  down, then the wire then another layer of mixed clay on top, then smooth it out and maker sure there is no holes or gaps. Once everything is completed, leave it to stand for the whole of the day with out fiddling, as this is the time it takes to fully dry out. It can easily break in the process of drying.

For the hands, we untwisted the wire to give four long fingers, but only applied milliput to the chest and hips. The legs should come downwards and not out of the sides, as this strains the wire making it ware down quicker. putting to much milliput on will also stress the wire putting to much tension on some parts.
Finishing this part early on in the morning, I had to leave my Skelton unchouched for the rest of the day, during the lecture on John lee and back in the puppet work shop afternoon session. During this time time I researched different materials I could use for her costumes, and ways to make miniature hats and gloves.
One interesting source showed how to make felt hats that I would like to experiment with.