paper

Working on a shell

Posted by hil

Shell mold

I’ve promised myself to try to focus more on projects of my own, in between contract work for other people. I find it so easy to fritter time away when I’m not meeting other’s deadlines. So I’ve started back working on a big shell project I first started over 3 years ago. Back then I got as far as sculpting the shell out of clay, and making a ridiculously big and heavy plaster mold of it.  It’s about a metre long. Luckily I did have the sense then to make a cradle on casters for it, so I don’t break my back trying to maneuver is around.

A few days ago I sealed the plaster with layers of shellac, which turned it this beautiful golden mustard colour.

Shell mold

Now I am paper mache-ing it inside with tissue paper. I want it to look flimsy and papery and almost transparent, but I don’t know how few layers I can get away with, and still have it come out of the mold intact. The idea of using very fine fibreglass is tempting, but I am sworn off working with fibreglass.

Shell

There are a few more photos at Flickr, where I’m making a photoset.

Dragon

Posted by hil

Dragonz

Dragon is a beautiful animation ad made for United Airlines. It’s made using paper cut-out stop-motion puppets, and you can see the process and team, lead by director, Jamie Caliri, in The Making of Dragon. Caliri also directed the ending animation for Lemony Snicket.

(via Lines and Colours)

Automata

Posted by hil

Sometime last year I happened across the Flying Pig Gallery, a site which houses whimsical paper automata models for you to cut out and make. There are numerous models in kit form, such as this hopping kangaroo, while others like the Agreeable Sheep are free to download. There’s also a very cool section of animations that illustrate mechanisms that are used in automata. They assure us that no sheep were hurt in the making of the trebuchet animation :-).

Of course if you are interested in automata, and haven’t come across them already, you need to know about Cabaret Mechanical Theatre, a Museum of Automata (Mechanical Sculpture). In particular, follow the artists links to see some wonderful creations.