Today has been another long day, but extremely enjoyable. John our tutor gave a spectacular show and tell from his time studying in China and a beautiful performance with one of the marionettes he made whilst he was there.
We were tackling the knee joints today, I started out this morning a little tied, but excited non the less by tea time (10:30) I was frustrated and exhausted. The maths involved in creating the perfect knee joint is way beyond anything I really coincided and maths has never been my strongest subject. Lots of measuring, using protectors and set squares. Today's key word was "accuracy". Accuracy is not something I find very easy, I struggle getting a straight line with a ruler, I'm more of a do it and see what happens kind of girl. Saying that by lunch time I had cracked it and once all the all the marking out was done, I could get on and carve. I have to admit, that it was worth all the frustration as the joints are lovely. They hang well and are ascetically pleasing. I think I will have to do some more practise at home but accuracy does make for nice joints.
The knees and hips have been drilled, I have chosen to have a socket type hip joint, this does not allow as much movement as leather strap joints (floppy joint) would, but they look much niether and these are the type of joint I would like to adapt for my dolls. We will be working on the hip sockets for them to fit in tomorrow.
Then came the feet, these will also be jointed. The ankle/foot joint for a puppet can't allow the toe to fall first, as it creates difficulty when walking them, they sort of trip over there own feet. The joint | will use is a slot joint, it allows a little back and forth movement that should give her a nice flick when she walks. John has told us that the feet need to be cut quiet a bit larger than their finished size to allow for the joint to work and still have the strength in the wood so as it does not split. I will have to just trust him on this, as at the moment they just look enormously out of proportion.
So tomorrow we will tackle the head. We are going to learn how to "sketch carve" the face. I think this means that we make some quick sharp cuts that give the impression of a face and features but is not finished. I'm not very good at abstract, I like to detail, so we will see how I get on with that.
My class is great, its a real mix of people all off us with very different levels of experience but all very willing to lend each other a hand were we can. I'm also staying in a first class B&B it has very hospitable hosts, excellent transport facilities, hot baths, tea making facilities is very clean a comfy bed after a long day. I can highly recommend it.
Off now to bed to dream of all sorts of exciting creations. I have some ideas involving leather on puppets, but more of that in another blog
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