Workroom

Hello. I am a technical artist and prop maker based in London. I graduated from Wimbledon College of Art in 2013 with a BA (Hons) Technical Arts and Special Effects. Email me at [email protected]

[rachelsalenius]

This is what I’ve been working on for the past few months - making puppets for the production of The Shepherd’s Life at Theatre by the Lake in Keswick, Cumbria alongside designer and director Jimmy Grimes.

The play is based on the autobiographical book of the same title by James Rebanks. We’ve made 2 border collies (called Floss and Tan), 1 newborn Hardwick lamb, 1 border collie puppy, and 12 Herdwick sheep including 2 tups, 1 hogg lamb, 1 yow that gives birth live on stage, and 3 rows that are sheared live on stage.

The show is now open and is playing until 23rd April http://www.theatrebythelake.com/production/14224/The-Shepherds-Life

[rachelsalenius]

Puppet head I made for Blind Summit Theatre recently. Carved from polyfoam and covered in jesmonite with a moving mouth mechanism.

[rachelsalenius]

Puppet head I made for Blind Summit Theatre recently. Carved from polyfoam and covered in jesmonite with a moving mouth mechanism.

[rachelsalenius]

Way back during rehearsals. Chats about Topthorn

[rachelsalenius]

War Horse promo events from over the past year

[rachelsalenius]

Chipping Out And Sanding Seams

Chipping out took me a day and a half - thought it would take much longer so was pleased with that. Back floating leg was added with a piece of wood inside it and lots of resin and fibreglass mushed up in it. Seam lines were filed and sanded, although they came out of the mould looking pretty good and lined up so I didn't have to do that much work on them - lucky!

[rachelsalenius]

[rachelsalenius]

Splitting And Cleaning The Mould

Haven't updated this in yonks! So this was ages ago, but the pics show the process of splitting the mould.

[rachelsalenius]

Yesterday I shimmed my sculpture (used brass fencing where the mould pieces would join together), and today I made a plaster mould with help from Rach! The mother mould is the main mould piece which the other smaller caps are attached to, so we completed that first before moving on to the small caps. The back leg isn't attached to the mother mould, it's just floating, so when I come to cast it I'll have to cast the leg separately to the rest of the sculpture and attach it later. Steel bars reinforce the plaster so that (hopefully) it doesn't break! It was a job keeping all the seam lines clean and visible, but I think we've done good. Gotta de-mould on Monday, so I guess we'll see how good we did then if it's successful!

[mydarkenedeyes]

Tom Wood | Tumblr.

[rachelsalenius]

I made a tiny flayed leg in plastinlin to help me try and understand the muscle structure. I used some silicone I had left over from last year to make a mould, with a plaster jacket, and ran a couple of resin casts out. I'm going to cast a few of them so I can use them to practice colour on later.

[rachelsalenius]

Been working on the torso recently, and struggling with the shoulders. Might need to get Jack in again to take alginate moulds of his back so I have something 3D to sculpt from. Allan pointed out that I needed more mass on his back, so have seen to this accordingly!

[rachelsalenius]

Last week I worked on mapping in the legs and head, and building up the chest area and shoulders. Still trying to get the feel of the pose... and still don't think it's working how I want it to. The side view is the main problem - the back foot looks like it's flopping around like a fish and there just isn't enough angle to the torso. His rib cage needs to thrust out more, or his bottom does, or something! Got to work on that this week!

I've also decided that I might actually sculpt the arms down (obviously being held nicely like a dancer does!) instead of up in the original planned pose. Jack's torso, in the photos I took of him with his arms down by his sides, has a breadth and openness to it which is gorgeous and I think the arms up will hide it! It might just look plain and boring though, so let's see. I'll probably change my mind again.

[rachelsalenius]

Armature Build

At the start of last week I took a morning to make my armature. I welded together 10mm circular steel for the torso and supporting leg and 3 lengths of 6mm steel for the arms. Due to the pose, these need to be strong but flexible, so I can bend one into the shape that I want, and then the others. It is much easier to bend than the thicker stuff, and stays strong because there's 3 lengths of it. For the head I used 12mm steel, and for the left (not weight bearing) leg I use aluminium. Padded the torso out with polystyrene and chicken wire, added about 6 butterflies to the bum and away we go. 

Sculpt So Far

Last week I worked a bit on the torso, and today mapped in a rough head and right thigh. I know I'm probably going to have to do more armature bending once I've got more clay on and can see it properly. At the moment I'm still unsure of the exact positioning of the legs and arms. The torso/spine needs to have more of a curve to it, and I need to continue to build up its depth as well as figuring out what's going on with the shoulder blades. Everything is a rough outline at this stage, but pleased with progress so far.

[rachelsalenius]

Third Year!

This year for my final project I'm doing a life sculpt of a male dancer. I'll be sculpting in clay, doing a plaster waste mould, and casting in resin (or that's the plan). I'm writing my dissertation on masculinity in the male dancer, and want to bring my studio work into it. My research is looking into strength vs fragility in the male form, masculinity in western society, prejudices against male dancers etc. I've taken photos of my model, Jack, who is 6'2, and have also used alginate to take plaster casts of his face and hands. The sculpt won't look anything like Jack, I'm just using him for reference!

[rachelsalenius]

Prosthetics

We've recently done a very short introduction to prosthetics project in which we made prosthetic noses. We cast out model's face in plaster by making an alginate mould, and then sculpted a nose onto the cast. We then made a mould of that, and cast the final nose in gelatin ready for application. Getting the seams feather thin is v. important. Colouring was frustrating!

[rachelsalenius]

Nijinsky for Afternoon Of A Faun, 1912.