Puppetry

PUPPET-

MAIN PROJECT

MATERIALS/ITEAMS I USED:

Pen+Paper

Mirror

Clay

Tin Foil

Clay Cutting Tools

Worbla

Card-board

Heat Gun

Paint

Fabrics For Clothes

Needle+Thread

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Using the above products, I created a mini version of myself in the form of an exaggerated puppet.

DRAWING MYSELF IN CARICATURE:

From doing my real life portraits, I then moved onto doing front caricatures. This was an exercise to accentuate my features that I think define me.

THE PROCESS:

The first step was to mould a ball of clay into a rough head shape. This ended up looking like a potato, but it didn't need to be perfectly detailed.

All the details that I added were dips were the eyes were to be, and mounds were the eyebrows, nose and lips were going to be, but these were only soft minor mounds.

Next, I wrapped this up as carefully as I could in tin foil. The tin foil acted as a protectant against the heat and Worbla in the next steps.

Once the Tin foil was tightly and tidily wrapping the clay ball, I cut a bit of Worbla in a square piece, and with a gentle heat I manipulated the Worbla to enclose this tin-clay ball. Like the tin foil, I made sure there were no creases and that every bit was pressed down into every dip and onto every mound. This part was tricky and it took some time, patience and reheating of areas. Once the Worblar was neatly wrapped around the clay and cooled down so that it was stiff, I then cut a hole out for the neck and pulled out all the clay and tinfoil that was inside. This left the head hollow and a lot lighter.

Once I had created the head, I then set off to do the hair. Each 'strand' is a 3x12cm rectangle that I heated, rolled up and stuck to the scalp. Each strand was then plaited into to side braids. This process took me a lot of hours, and plenty of heating and reheating to get a tidy plait.

After the Worbla head was done, I had to focus on the neck, painting and costume parts. I got some cardboard and wrapped it around my finger. This created the circumference of what the neck needed to be so I could manipulate the head in a puppet show. Using some more Worbla, I wrapped this around the cardboard and I cut it down to size so that it was the length of my finger. With some more heat, I simply stuck this to the base of my head.

Before doing the costume, I wanted to paint the face and hair so that I wouldn't get it on the puppet's clothes. I chose to do her hair blonde/ginger because I always dye my hair from ginger to blonde, and i couldn't make my mind up, so I went for a colour that you could argue was either. The eyebrows I made darker as i always make my eyebrows darker in real life with makeup/tint. I gave her a fair complexion as I am fair, red lips as I wanted to accentuate them and some winged eyeliner as I always do my makeup and have winged eyeliner on.

After doing the main bit, I had to focus on the costume/body. Drawing around my hand and half of my arm onto paper, this gave me the pattern piece of material that I needed to make the front (and back) of the dress that my puppet would wear. Finally, I sewn this all together and used an elasticated band and some hot glue, and attached the dress to the puppet head, and it was done.

DRAWING MYSELF IN PORTRAIT

Whilst looking into a mirror, I drew my front portrait. Then with the help of my phone, I drew my side profile

BEING MORE ACCURATE INTO A PUPPETS HEAD:

This step was important to get the dolls head right, because as you are drawing in 2D with just the front profile and the occasional side profile, you're not getting that 3D experience. By aligning up how the front looks to how the side looks, It became easier to know how to shape the dolls head and where to put the features.

END RESULT:

BUG FACE MASK

MATERIALS/ITEAMS I USED:

Pencil

Paper

Scissors

Scapal

Plastazote

Varaform

Hot glue gun

Kettle

Pan/Something to hold hot water in

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Using simply just Varaform and Plastazote for materials used, I created quite a simple mask in the form of bugs eyes.

PLASTAZOTE AND VARAFORM:

After, I just moulded out the Varaform to make the eyes.

To mould Varaform, all I needed was a pot of boiled water and it quickly changed its shape and became sticky. This process was useful as I needed the two eyes to be the same shape and to be like mounds, so I just moulded a lump of clay into a mound, and then carefully placed the hot Varaform over this clay mound. When the Varaform cooled down, it harden into this mound position.

Once the eyes were done, I cut the bottom edges, and with hot glue, glued the base to the underside of the Plastazote material.

This is a picture of the basics shape:

TEMPLATE TO PLASTAZOTE:

First, I made a paper template of the main round shape with two holes for the eyes.

From this, I placed the template onto Plastazote, and drew round it. Plastazote is easily manageable and easy to cut, so I just used a Stanley knife to cut this out.

TEMPLATE TO PLASTAZOTE:

Below is the mask once it was painted.

I chose to paint the eyes and anteas black because that would be a flies natural colouring to these parts. However, with the rest of the mask, I decided to paint it copper as in the light, some bugs have a metallic ever-changing colour.

PLAGUE MASK

MATERIALS/ITEAMS I USED:

Pencil

Paper

Scissors

Scalpel

Cutting Mat

Plastazote

Hot glue gun

and normal pritt stick glue

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Using simply just Plastazote for the material, I created quite a simple mask in the form of an exaggerated mask.

STICKING THE CARD TOGETHER:

Once I had that curved basic shape, number 4 needed to be stuck in the middle inside of 2+3. Again, the tabs needed to be slit and only glue added to the tabs. These tabs were then folded away from me, so that they'd be enclosed on the inside.

Once I had stuck on pattern 4 to the inside beak part, pattern number 1 had to be stuck onto the top bit to make the 'forehead', just above the eye holes. This part GAVE the flat top to curved beak mask it's shape. It stretched out the top bit so as to make the rest flare.

PRINT OUT PATTERNS:

I started by printing out the patterns onto paper. I then traced these patterns out onto thin card. The 3 dashed lines/areas on the edges of the two patterns are vital when using cardboard as these are your tabs to stick things together that have edges opposed to each other.

Once these patterns were cut out into card, I then stuck each piece together. Number 3 sticks together with number 2 on the sides that are shown above touching each other. On pattern 3, the tabs that are shown needed to be folded inwards and slit along the lines so that the glue only touched the tabs.

FROM CARD TO PLASTAZOTE:

To make this mask durable and better quality, instead of being made from basic easily destructible card, I wanted to create it out of Plastazote. This material is harder wearing and kind of waterproof.

I followed the same steps as before, drawing round the patterns onto the Plastazote. Except this time, I didn't add the tabs to any of the patterns, and instead of including pattern 3, I only traced around pattern 2, but twice. (I flipped the pattern over for the second one).

Not this

Because Plastazote always has a thickness, and because it doesn't bend and stay bent unlike card does, it doesn't needs tabs to hold together. The thickness and the angle of the cutting with glue on will act as tabs.

I stuck both pattern 2 and the reversed pattern of 2 together. I then glued 3 to both of pattern 2's. After this dried completely, I glued on pattern 1 to give it the round shape.

PLASTAZOTE MASK:

Plasazote in its natural form is very straight and kind of boring, so when it was made, it looked exactly like the card, but in white.

MOULDING PLASTAZOTE:

However, the beauty of it is that with a little bit of heat, you can actually mould it to a certain shape, with nice curves. Once its form has been shaped, it also appears quite shiny and polished which can be a bonus, or sometimes a negative.

After using a hairdryer, I was able to give it the appearance of high cheekbones.