Monday, March 9, 2009

Starting. Stop. Motion.




I've begun the long and arduous process of building puppets for a stop-motion short. I first sculpted the head using a wooden dowel with a ball joint and Sculpey III modeling clay. Baking a small sphere of clay around the dowel, I then began molding a proper head. The face was made blank so the eyes, hair, and mouth were added later using Claytoon, which is an easily moldable clay that both comes in an assortment of colors and never dries. 

The body was built using 16 gage wire and plumbers epoxy to fasten the arms and legs to the trunk. I've wrapped the frame with knitting yarn, making sure to leave the hands uncovered as they will be fashioned with clay.