Just FYI, She Does Have A Head.

Just FYI, she does have a head.

I've been up late sculpting every night, so forgive the lazy photo. I'm halfway through a couple of monsters, some other heads, and assorted other puppets, but they're not cool, "wow, the process is so interesting" works-in-progress...more like "wow, someone should teach Cari how to sculpt." So I'll refine a little more before I post those.

And now...a nap.

Hooray, we're in the studio! I spent the better part of my Sunday listening to the Beatles and coating a headless, eight-year-old boy in Vaseline. See?

Because of all the time I spent unpacking the 8,000 boxes of puppet-making supplies we ordered from Burman, I didn't get as much done today as I would have liked. But I did make the first half of the boy body mold (this week I'll finish the mold and hopefully pour some latex before the weekend), and that's a start.

Here he is after a layer of hydrocal:

And after the first half of the mold is complete:

The west side of the studio, just for kicks:

We started filming today. :)

Eyeless Mina and about 5% of my tools.

Sara and Jim, setting up the shot.

Little Mina could use some friends.

Remember the frog prince from this post? I decided to clean him up and give him as a gift to the boy who inspired him, so I popped him in the oven a la Rhonda's R2D2. Unfortunately, unlike Artoo, he came out a little burnt:

So I painted him. But rather than go to the store for some new acrylic paint, I used some hand-me-down tubes of paint from my grandmother, who bought them for an art class maybe 40 years ago. I can't find a date on the box anywhere, but it looks like it's from the 70s at the absolute latest. When I tried to twist the cap off the tube of white paint, the tube itself split down the side.

This is my way of explaining that the paint came out a little...funny.

But after the first, somewhat chunky coat, I started thinning the paint with water (I was also using those rainbow-colored dollar-store brushes with the black nylon bristles; classy) and the texture improved. Anyway, here he is in all his whitewashed glory. Enjoy!

Catastrophe! I came in this morning to pry apart the little boy mold, and it crumbled in my hands. Well, half of it crumbled. So I rebuilt that half, and while I was waiting for it to dry, I started on the Monster #1 mold. That's this little guy!

He's going to be covered in fur, remember, so he'll actually look really different than this. But this is what he'd look like if he was naked, shaved, and blanched. So helpful.

In other news, the second attempt at the boy mold was successful, so I built a wire armature for the puppet and tomorrow I'll pour and bake the latex on top of it. I'd show you a picture, but I'm frankly so sick of looking at the dude that I couldn't bear it. So just use your imaginations.

Merci started bringing in set pieces and monster fur today, and I'm starting to see the whole thing coming together in my head. It's really exciting. :)

This weekend was ROUGH, you guys. Dayna (my new PA) and I were at the studio until one in the morning last night, so you have my apologies for not posting anything until today. I'm about to head over there again right now, but here are a few highlights from yesterday.

We managed to finish making all the latex bodies (yay!!!), so now it's just a matter of trimming off all the excess, patching the holes, painting the bodies, and sculpting the heads. It's a lot of work, but fortunately most of it can be done in my living room.

Thanks to Dayna for all these pictures!

The anatomy of a puppet.

Mixing the foam latex.

Pouring the latex into the mold.

Trimming the excess latex.

Lots o' puppets, in various states of completion.