New Head!

I have been starring at the head I was working on last week, for a few days now, I just don't like it. I can not work out how to fix it or make it look any where near how I wanted it,  so rather than spending lots of frustrating hours trying to fix it or ending up with a head the size off a peanut. I have decided  cut a new one.

 

I have used the same pattern as for the previous head but, I will carve it very differently this time.

 

Using  the band saw I cut out the rough shape, and then I sanded  off the rough bits and rounded the edges. This makes it a lot easier to carve in the long run. I have cut away the excess wood around the nose, so that I have an good idea of were the rest of the features will fit. Over the next few days I will do a lot more to get the head to a rough finished state.

 

I am taking a Puppet Carving class in a few weeks, and one of the things the tutor has asked is for the students to bring any of their own work, I want to get this doll to a stage were all the carving is done and she only has sanding left to do.

New Idea's

It has been a little while since I blogged. After the excitement of making the puppet for the carnival, I needed a few days rest from carving, but my brain would not stop working and  I have been busy filling my sketch book with idea's and new project's. 

 

These picture are of a doll I started last year, I first sketched her in Japan, this time last year when I was inspired by an exhibition of dolls at the "National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo" there was an amazing doll made of cloth by Kazuyo Oshima.

 

The drawing sat he in my sketch book for a good few months, then just before New Years I cut out the body, that then just sat on my desk for a few more months, then finally I started the rest of her. I carved her face back in February and she has been sitting watching me as I made puppet. Her face just was not right. I fiddled with it a bit but could not get it to look like my original idea.

 

So today I have sanded her back so that I can start carving her feature's in again. Her face was very flat and square so I have rounded her off. I will work on her more over the coming days and keep the blog up to date. x

All finished!

So her she is all finished and on the carnival float by 11.30, and the float that we were on won first prize in it category

She sat on the edge of the boat (float) waving at the people. It was the first time that I have ever really shown off anything that I have made to anyone other than close family and friends but I have had such nice comments and it was so nice to see little children looking at her and smiling.

The dress is just a tempery one. It’s not as well finished as I want it to be, I did cut the timing a bit fine, but I’m sure that was half the fun when making her. I will use the same dress pattern, but add lots of embellishment. It does need to be fit for a sea nymph after all.

I love the colour of the fabric that I chose but it’s a little bit stiff and does not drape very well. I’m going to look for some new fabric next week, or I may dye some silk and put chiffon over it with lots of lovely beads.

I’m kind of sad that she is finished. I feel a little bit lost today. For the last few weeks, I haven’t once sat down and not thought about her in some way.

I do have lots of ideas for what to make next. So I will keep the blog up to date.

Thank you for following me on this project. I could not have made her without the help and support from my husband who has been my sounding board and a much needed second pair of hands. Thank you. XX

Just one day to go.

Just one day left now. I'm pretty sure that we are on target. It may mean a late night tonight but no matter what she will be on the float waving at people for 11.30am.

 She now is fully pained and has, had her first coat of vanish this morning. I have left it to dry and will sand and re-vanish her as soon as I get home. She will be dry in a couple of hours so I can add her hair.

 When i was painting her last night I l thought that they she just looked a bit flat, I had some gold paint that i purchased from a trade show, it’s like gold leaf in a tube and i have rubbed a small amount of that onto her. I don’t think you can see it in these pictures but it has really given her the depth she needed. I have carried on the gold theme on to her face using it like a highlighter.

 I have chosen a satin finish varnish as I like the way that it reflects the light, matt really would not have worked on her as she is meant to be a Sea nymph, but I did not want her to have a wet look so gloss was not right either.

 I am still quite pleased with her. It will take me a while to really know how I feel about the things I make, I find that because I spend such an intense amount of time on a project, I end up with tunnel vision. I have often made something and really not liked it at all, so put it in a cupboard, only to bring it out a few months later and think, "Oh, it was not really as bad as I though".

Going Green.

I sealed the wood yesterday morning and sanded and painted the head and joints last night. I got up very early today, and have used a very fine sand paper to smooth off the surface and have put on a second coat of the stain.

 

I spent some time last night mixing colours, I'm very please with one and it looks really nice with the hair that i have already dyed.

 

So tonight i will put her together and the give her the first coat of paint. If I have time I will start the hair.

Carving done!

So here she is.

 

The carving is now all done. There are a couple of tweaks to do on the hands and feet. I will use sanding sealer to prepare the surface to take the wood stain. I'm going to do that first thing tomorrow morning so she is dry and ready to stain when i get home from work.

 

I am very critical of my own work and normally I am not very please with the things I make, but she is even better than I could have ever hoped. There is still a way to go, I have to stain the body and paint the eyes. It may get to Friday and I could be writing that "I don't like her" but for now, I'm off to bed feeling like a very happy little bunny. X

 

Weekends work!

I don't seem to have many pictures of the work I have done over the weekend. A lot of the it has been in sanding the puppet smooth, so I am able to seal her and paint her in the next day or so. She does now have ears, they are small, cute and pixie like. They are smaller than I planned, but when I had originally cut out the head on the bandsaw, I had cut slightly to far in, so when it came to cutting the ears I had to take more off, so the cut did not show.

The central picture, is the hair that i have dyes, it's Shetland fleece and has a lovely curl and very long strands which are perfect for the style i have in mind. I mixed green and blue acid dyes to achieve the colour, its greener in real life,the picture seem to show it looking quite blue, The test paint sample I had chosen is to much of a tropical blue, than i hand in mind, so I have some sage green to mix with it. I think this will tone the colour down a little bit.

The hands and feet are now carved and I'm surprisingly happy with them. I have tried to carve the hands so that the feel comfortable to hold and to shake, Her left hand has a really sweet feeling when you shake it. They still need the fingers and toes carved in, but I,m leaving the fine detail carving until I have smoothed everything off.

I have worked out the head joint and will attach it tomorrow. I will also seal her and paint the joints, I'm leaving the body painting until I have attached all her limb's, I hope this will stop her getting scratched when i put the pins in for the joints.

Joints and Loose Ends

Over the last couple of days I have been busy in the shed working on the shoulder joints and continuing to carving the head.

The shoulder joins are whats known as concealed joints this is exactly what it sounds like. I really wanted to uses these, as they allow the arm to rotate and move up and down but also the arm can sit flush to the body so looks very neat. The dress i have designed has short sleeves so I wanted a really nice silhouette.

I will write a tutorial on how to make these joint shortly. Once you get your head around the design they are quite simple to make, they do take a little time, but I really think they are worth it.

I am now at a point were I'm very happy with the head. I carved in her mouth and then re-looked at the eyes. They look all wrong and just did not work , I decided that I would remove the eyes I had carved ( see head post for pictures) and smooth the area out, I will paint them in at the end. I have used this method before and it has been quite effective. Now i know I'm happy with her head shape, I will carve her ears into shape.

I am almost there ( with the carving). I need to round off the body parts and sand her down. I have to decide on the final head joint as well. I think this will involve some playing with bits of odd wood. I will keep you updated.

Its now less than two weeks to go untill the carnival, so I need to be a busy bunny from now on.

Head

As you can see today I have started to carve the head. It has taken a lot longer than I had planned and still has a long way to go.

I used a mixture of power carving (using and electric chisels), hand carving and a lot of hand sanding. The shape is defiantly how I had intended I just need to refine it and carve in more detail. I really want her to have an elf/nymph type feel, so I'm going to do some sketches from the pic's i have taken today to get some more ides.

I had intended to carve the eyes in but i may now just paint then on. I will have a think overnight and have a play tomorrow.

Arms.

Today I have made the arms. She has jointed elbow and wrists, I have made these in the same way that I constructed the legs using slot and tongue joints, practice defiantly makes perfect with these. I did not have to re-cut any of the arm pieces, unlike when i made the legs.

This type of puppet is know as a marionette-porte (translated as carried marionette). This particular puppet will be operated by a single person, one hand will operate the head mechanism and the other will operate one of the arms, because she is for a carnival float, I want her to be able to wave at people, and her head will move so it will be able to gesture.Once she is finished I will position and insert the rods.

I have also designed and cut out her today. I have sanded all the rough bits off and am get the right sort of shape to start carving tomorrow. 

But.... still no name!