Narrative and thoughts!

Yay! All my props are done!
I have really enjoyed learning all the new processes that I can take into other projects now.
I am very pleased with the look of my props but definately see there is room to improve upon them in areas such as scaling and quality of production, although these were the first I've ever done and managed to overcome obsticals and issues quite well.
I feel like I have stuck to my narrative I created and am happy witht he finished product.
The narrative I have based them on is the idea of a english mother creating a suitcase of important items to sit near the door incase of the need to flee at any uncertain point. For this I created an old Hurricane gas lamp, incase it is dark when they have to go, the childs favourite clown doll, so that it won't be forgotten in the rush and one of the gas masks they were issued with incase of a gas attack. I have used my grandmothers old case to photograph it all in to tie together the narrative.
I also put my helmets, bread and cheese in to see them all together.

Last but not least!

Today I finally finished all my props!
I have aged my clown using two shades of brown paint that I dabbed on using tissue to give it a soft look. I also rubbed the base of his feet in sand paper and a bit on his face so as to scratch off a bit of paint. And here he is!

The research inspiration
Image found:

Also over the last two days I have been making my Kerosene Hurricane Lamp which has been a bit shoved to the side. This is how I made it.

After looking at the research image I am recreating I decided the base was too big, so cut it down and covered it in filler to give it a rougher (more like rusted metal) and better surface to paint, and also add weight to counterbalance the vase.
I then created the other little elements of the shape using more polystyrene and a small coke bottle, which I used the neck to create a faux wick holder and the middle to make a fake glass base. However the middle was too wide so I had to cut it and make a seem which didn't look as neat as I hoped. It also proved messy to glue to the glass but this will be hid by the base rim.

Once I had made the rest of the metal base shape I bent wire and attached it around the base to create the rim. I also then created the small elements, like the dial (wire and a card knob) and the clasp decoration (cut and glued card).
I then stuck all the base elements together and painted them a base dark brown. Once that had dried I went over the lumpy glue and filler areas with copper and a lighter brown paint to add the look of rust.
After this had all dried I glued on the vase and then burnt a piece of rope and stuck it in the base of the vase.

And here is my finished lamp!

The original I based mine around mostly.

Health and Safety!

Throughout this project we have been given talks on health and safety. Two of the best examples of this are:

1. Our induction talk into the wood/metal work room showing us proper use of the machines and noting what equipment is needed such as goggles, face mask and boots.

2. We were given respirator masks before starting fiberglassing to keep for use in the spray rooms, when fiberglassing or whenever else appropriate. These masks, overalls and goggles needed to be worn at all times during the fiberglassing process aswel as having the exstraction fan system on above or work space.

GAS MASK DONE!

Today after my scenic arts class I managed to quickly get my sardine tins painted with the Covent Garden primer so that I could paint the tins so as I could finish my gas mask. I then took some hard grain sandpaper to create scuffing and scratches that I would later pick up with paint.


Next I added in a piece of foam and cardboard to the top tin to seal it off and cut a hole in both to slot the base of the pipe into.

I then painted the base layer in a dark brown first, and then added on bits of some gold/copper and some dents with a hammer.

Once I had done that I attached the finished pipe into the hole and glued it in place. I then checked over the whole gas mask checking that the aging is appropriate and even, touching up in places and my mask is done!

I am very pleased with the way that it has come out, although it is not an exact replica of the WW1 English small respirator canister gas masks and I had issues at time which meant I strayed from the original in places it looks really good for my first try at props and I would be more than happy to see it in a scene even if it wouldn’t be able to be used as a functional one.

Yay finished Gas mask!

Really, really prop-ductive day!

I have made the mask and pipe for my Gas mask today which didn’t happen without quite a few unscheduled changes and problems.

When I got home I looked for ways to lengthen the tube Simon had found to fit my prop size. In the end I decided to put look over function and cut the pipe in half and fashioned a middle section of using toilet rolls and cardboard rings.

I taped two shaped toilet rolls into a bent angle together and then cut a series of cardboard rings to go around it to create the look of a pipe. I knew this was being covered in fabric so didn’t worry about its basic look as it is just the skeleton.

Next I sprayed the whole pipe with fixative glue and using some coffee dyed driller cotton. It looks really effective once I had added some layers of aging with paint and water. I then painted the showing bits of rubber pipe with PVA to make it shiny to look more like the hard plastic they were made from.

To make the mask I first made the eye pieces using my own head as a base for scale against photos and research I have.

I cut out two disks of clear thermoplastic to the right size and used sand paper and some glue to mist and scratch them. Next I added to cardboard outer rims to build up a tissue edge to match the sunken look in the pictures. Once they had dried I painted them with a silver/copper mix.

Whilst I waited for that to dry I measure round my head and cut out a rough size and shape of material, as I knew it was going to be gathered and elasticised, and using my sewing machine hemmed the raw edges.

I then sewed on stretched elastic around the base of the mask to get the tight fit and then was going to add more elastic in straps around the back. However the elastic didn’t gather in the mask as much as it needed to do, and as the fabric is linen/ cotton mix I felt it to delicate to pull out the elastic. Therefore I adapted the original design by putting on the mask and crossing over the gather at the back of the head until it felt tight.

Before I did this I added a circle of textured thermoplastic to the inside about where the nose was because my research images made it look as if there was a piece there.

I then pinned it in place at the back and also pinned in two darts at the top of the head to make the fit snugger. I left it pinned and stretched it off my face to ensure the elastic was still able to stretch.

When I felt that the shape and fit was right I hand sewed the back pieces together and machined in the small darts at the top.

Now that the eye pieces had dried I added these to the mask using the eye marks I made beforehand as guides as to where to cut the holes using glue.

Once that had all set I cut a hole for the mouth pipe and glued it into place.

The mask can now be finished once I get the respirator tin done.

I have also nearly finished my clown today.

First I made a pattern from the research pattern for the size of my clown but then realised as I had adapted him a pattern from his original clothes would fit much better. Using that as my guide I made up a pattern for the jump suit, hat and ruff and then cut all the pieces out. I then aged them using sandpaper, a file and coffee staining as I knew this would be harder to achieve when they weren't flat.

Next I sewed together the two halves of the jumpsuit and hat, and turned them through, leaving room at the neck on the jumpsuit to get the body block in. I then glued in the block and stuff the hat and body with wadding.

Once he was stuffed I stuck in his hands, feet and head and then using a loose running stitch gathered the fabric around each of them. After I had sewn up the neck gap I glued on the ruff and he’s nearly done. All I have to do now is age him which with all the effort and detail I have put into him is hard to do.

Simon found a gas mask pipe!

Yay Simon has found a near perfect hose for me. It will need changing or lengthening in some way. As it needs to be covered in fabric I could cover or recreate the middle section of the pipe so as to lengthen it.
It is almost the exact same shape of the ones found on the original gas masks. I didn't manage to find out where he got it from but now I can really get constructing my gas mask.

Get proping!

Today I thought I’d found the perfect tin for the base of my hurricane lamp in the pound shop in the form of a Fray Benthos pie tin however, as I didn’t have any printed images or measurements with me, it turned out to be far too small for the vase so have decided to use polystyrene to carve the base using tin as a shape guide.

The polystyrene base has come out really well. I am covering it in a filler coating and then painting it to get the look needed to make it period appropriate and match in with my other props. Because of the size of the vase I have realised that compared to my research my final prop will be some what bigger than the original, and closer to the size of a wall mounted hurricane lamp. However the proportions of the item will not suffer as all the other elements will be scaled up appropriately to ensure that it doesn't look odd.

I also printed up my clown fabric today using masking tape to rule out the stripes and ensure I got a clean edge and then blotted each square with blue or red paint. I am going to age the fabric once I have cut the pieces.

Ahhhh... still not pipe!

I had a talk with Simon and Andy about not being able to find a pipe for the gas mask. They suggested looking at hardware shops in the plumbing etc. areas for parts of pumps or hoses that can be cut from any part of another object.

I was in the fashion shop today buying calico and found a fabric named ‘Driller cotton’ which looks perfect for the clowns outfit as the clothes that he came in are too far away from what is needed. I plan to print on the stripes and then age the fabric with sand paper and coffee staining.

Finishing touches to the helmets!

Today Andy showed me how to add strap loops to the edge of the helmets using wire and some strips of plastic.
Firstly I bent a length of wire into four rectangle strap loops to make enough for two for each helmet.

I then cut some lengths of thermoplastic which I then bent around the wire loops using the heat gun to melt the centre point of the strips first.

Once the plastic had turned back solid I cut the excess off with the plastic ban saw and attached them to my helmet. For the plastic helmet I just scratched off some of the paint on the inside of the helmet and used plastic weld to attach them. For the fibreglass helmet I had to use a file to rough up the inside points of the helmet and the plastic on the straps and then attached them using super glue.

After I had attached them all to the inside I painted them to camouflage the plastic pieces. I had already painted the inside of my helmets so I had to make up a colour match as close as possible although it wasn’t perfect I am happy with the way it has come out.

Making Cheese!

Today I have made my cheese using the polystyrene and muslin technique. I have chosen to make a Flanders cheese called Mimolette. It has a very rough whitish outer skin and then a bright orangey yellow inside. To create the texture on the top I was going to use this white paste called Idendum but I ran out of time and wanted to get my cheese finished for the next day so I used tissue paper and PVA and then painted it white with a yellow tinge.

Mimolette cheese image found http://www.cowgirlcreamery.com/prodinfo.asp?number=MIMOL

My finish slice of Mimolette cheese

Ahhh sardines!

I stuck together sardine cans together with super glue and started painting them but found that the paint wasn’t sticking or drying very well to the tin so I am going to get one with as much of the mask as possible and paint the tins in Covent garden primer at the next possible point.


I found a cheese that I want to make it’s called Mimolette cheese made in Flanders.

Clowning around!

I started on my clown doll today, I collected together all the images and information that I had about the Schoenhut clowns and made up some sketches and a plan in my sketchbook. Then I worked on getting the basic shape of the wooden elements right using the different sanders in the woodwork room (wearing my goggles and overalls) until I felt I got the shape I needed.

I then smoothed the edges with a bit of medium grade sandpaper by hand and filled in the little holes from wear the strings had been. I painted the shoes red and face and hands white as shown in my research but am leaving the aging until the end to ensure consistency.

Since I had got the head shaped and painted I have spent tonight clay sculpting the face, continually referring back to my research, onto the clown and then once dry have painted it to match my research images. I am really happy with the outcome; he looks as menacing and accurate as I feel I could get to the picture even though he is too clean and new to be right just yet.

The modeling air dry clay I used for the face from the art shop.

Getting the basic shape of the face, refering to research images.

I let it dry a bit before adding in the delicate detail of the lips.

Base colour white and start of the detail. I let each colour fully
dry before doing the next so as not to smudge it.

The finished face, just needs pom-pom ears and aging.

Shopping!

Today I went shopping in the charity and pound shops to find the elements for my props from a list of possible items.

In one of the pound shops I found and bought a cheaply made string puppet who I have decided to adapt to make the clown doll rather than making all the separate parts as I think it will be cheaper to make it the way than buy all the parts separately. Also it has enough wood on the body parts to sand them into the Schoenhut clowns shape instead.

I also found Tesco sardine cans are the right size and shape to make the respirator for my gas mask I have bought 6 cans to stack together. I am very pleased with how they look stacked compared to my research images as they provide a very realistic base shape that won’t need to much work to be done on. I also found a skirt made of a thick cotton linen mix in a size 16 which should provide more than enough material to make the face mask on my sewing machine. It is also a khaki brown colour which means that it has a good base for aging and adapting.

In Oxfam I managed to find a small glass vase that I feel will be perfect for the hurricane lamp chimney. I did not manage to find any other elements of the lamp however so may have to construct this myself using other methods which will take up more time.

Photoshop lessons

1st lesson 23rd sept
Today was our first lesson where we learnt the basics of fixing photographs using the different auto fix functions and the colour graphs to sort things like the shading and white balance of a photograph. We also looked at the cloning stamp and the spot healing tools to edit sections of a photo out and to camoflage them to get the desired look we wanted.

I found the lesson very easy as I am very experienced with Photoshop previously but hope to learn something more difficult and new to be in one of the coming lessons.

2nd lesson 30th sept
In this lesson we were taught about layers and there use in Photoshop. We used the magic wand to select sections of images and to transfer that selection into another image to create a new layer. This means that you can alter that part of the image so that it matches in without altering the whole image.

I found this lesson easy to follow and do quickly as we have not got onto very advanced areas of Photoshop yet.

3rd lesson 7th Oct
We learnt how to play with the filters on Photoshop today and how to select sections of an image to apply the filter to just that section or colour. I know how to do this already but he also showed us a short cut to doing it which I didn’t know before. We also looked at using the sponge and burn tools to add different looks to the filters.

Edited using the artist chalk filter and burn tool.

4th lesson 14th Oct
Today we were using photo booth on the Apple Macs and importing these images into others using functions such as using the magic wand to select a section of the photo and then placing it into another picture. It was interesting to learn some other bits about Macs because I have not really used them before but hope to use them alot more for future work.

Face photo cropped in from photobooth and text insert.

5th lesson 21st Oct
General practice of using Photoshop and the chance to get any questions answered of any queries we had or bits of graphics work we wanted help with. I have alot of previous knowledge of photoshop so have not needed any help but have enjoyed helping others in class when they have got lost or want to know how to use some of the other tools.