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Work experience Evaluation

My time in work experience has been eye opening. Not only has it allowed me to realise working in films is not something I wish to do, but it has also allowed me to learn new techniques and more efficient processes.

I decided I did not want to work in film due to the hours of which you would work during that time that don't allow for much life outside the work. Theatre work I thoroughly enjoy because you create something that is there for a limited time and only few will see it. Theatre is always jumping between projects regularly working on more than one at a time. The work is always there and you have time outside it to live the rest of your life something I feel is very important to me personally.

Whilst my time in film may not have been the best example I feel its not something I would enjoy in the long run. I love the idea of working 'on set' whether that's in film, theatre, exhibition work or theme park. Film -I believe may not provided me with this to the level I want it to. However theatre and theme parks may hold just the ideal conditions I am after.

I am grateful work experience has broadened my skills additionally as some of the things I learnt with them I doubt I would have learnt with Bruford. Dye work is something I was immensely pleased to learn about and although it may be something I only use on rare occasions I am glad to have learnt the skill.

Most of my work experience may have been doing tasks that were not related to artistry in anyway (such as making tea or cleaning) I felt it was important to have insight into the work place nonetheless. While NDA's may not allow me to talk about what I have done I am glad to have had these opportunities and to know I have made a difference.

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Work experience end of projects

Thanks to my time in work experience there was multiple benefits of my time spent there. On the Friday of my fourth week I was able to go see the dress rehearsal of Pinnochio. I was thoroughly impressed and was able to pinpoint a lot of the props I worked on making me incredibly proud of the time and attention I gave to working there. I was surprised at Christmas when I received a postcard through in the mail with concept art from the show and on the back was a thank you letter from the production team I had worked with.

My work on Upnoor castle's piece will soon be viewable at the castle.

My work with Elstree will be visible in a advert that will be released when the client chooses to use it.

None of this work will receive recognition beyond this though.

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Work experience week 5

In the final week I was continuing with week four's production team. This time we had relocated to Wembley stadium for the film shoot. This was spent being on hand to fix the set and props of the shoot.

During this time we only had one minor problem which was a panel being changed by the choice of the director.

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Work experience week 4

My work experience in my fourth and fifth weeks was working with a production company at Elstree studios. Unfortunately these weeks were also under NDA so I am unable to discuss anything other than vague techniques that were used in the time I spent there.

I started with helping to clear up and pack away the workshops in help with the wind down from the last job. After this I was asked to help cut wooden boards for storage and for additional external projects.

Once the components for the next job arrived we got to work. I was generally cleaning the components and putting them together making sure that the electronics worked. The cleaning was simply removing dirt and grime from screws and under metal plates.

Other than these few things simply making drinks was the only other activity I did whilst at Elstree.

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Work experience week 3

For my third week I worked with Creekside Props and Models on their project for Upnoor castle's display for battle of Medway. This project was more laid back on what I was able to talk about so I am able to be less vague about the work I undertook.

The piece had already been started and I was asked to do only some small minor work to it. The piece was a large wooden wall with a shelf on the front at waist height with support beams around the back.

My task was to apply the premade eyelets into the correct positions under the shelf with metal hooks connecting them. After this I needed to place hooks on top of the shelf in line with those underneath. These hooks would be used to display a ships rope rigging complete with wooden eyelets.

For applying the black eyelets I needed to mark out and drill the holes whilst trying to create tension for the metal hook rod between them so the rod wouldn't be able to be stolen from the display. The black eyelets screws were covered in gorilla glue and screwed into the holes. During this process it was particularly difficult to get the tension between the rods and some adjusting was necessary.

Moving on I screwed the other black eyelets in the top of the shelf making sure they were in line with the ones underneath. I had to wait until this was dried before moving on to the next step as it required using the hook. So once the glue had dried I looped rope through the hole and backed on itself for about two inches and glued the two pieces together with a hot glue gun. While the glue was drying I used some garden twine to create a decorative bind to hid the glue. I did this by wrapping the rope around the bind tightly creating a spiral and hiding the ends inside the bind. I repeated this for the next three eyelets.

The rope I then looped around the wooden eyelets and repeated the hot glue twine binds. The remaining rope was cut into four, looped through the wooden eyelets and thrown over the top of the wall. I bound the rope to the support struts behind using reef knots.

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Work experience week 2

Second week began with finishing the fabric dye work. I took the fabric down from the dowels and down into the workshop. I applied the same paint job to the fabric as I had done to the aging project and left them to dry on the workshop floor.

I was then asked to cut stripes of leather for some other props that were being made. This was easy simply putting a leather cutter into a vice and pull the leather through it while trying to keep as straighter line as possible.

After being inducted onto some of the machines I was asked to make a large box out of wood. I cut the wood with a band saw and glued and stapled them together. I applied an aged paint job to it.

Other work I did whilst there was general cleaning and assisting the other artists with their work.

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Work experience week 1

Week 1 was spent working with the National Theatre on the production of Pinnochio. I started on familiar territory - mould making. I placed clay around the object creating a single sided mould (the other side would be moulded later.) I used a hot glue gun to glue small pieces of wood together creating a border.

Once set I would glue the corners and edges to seal. This would stop any of the silicone leaking out. I mixed the two liquids together and steadily poured the mixture into the mould. Once full I hit the mould with a hammer and my hand to release the air bubbles trapped in there. I left the mould to set.

Afterwards I was asked to file down some other props and dowels to create smoother edges as they had come out of moulds rougher than needed. Once my moulds had dried I took them out cleaned them up and covered them with Vaseline to ensure the fresh silicone would not stick to the old. I repeated the process a second time to make the second half of the mould. I waited for it to dry and used the pieces to create a fibreglass mould of the object. I repeated this mould making process another three more times.

After this I was asked to do few small paint jobs fixing up previously chipped or unfinished pieces.

On the final few days of the week I was asked to age some wooden props we had bought in. This was a relatively enjoyable process of using various different brown, green and grey washes to age the piece. The piece was then used in a harsh way to make it look more aged than the paint job already did. Since of the pieces setting I had to then apply a unique paint job to make it look right in its intended setting.

While waiting for these to dry I was given my final project for the week. This came in the form of dye work. This was the first time I experienced any form of dye work and thoroughly enjoyed this. I washed the fabric to remove the fire proofing and prepped the dye bath. I began with filling the bath with boiling water and mixed in a few cups of salt to stop the dye from leaking out of the fabric after it had been finished. I mixed in two tablespoons of each dye that was used (three in total- all shades of brown). Using a stick I stirred the mixture until it had become one.

I put on heat protective gloves and submerged the fabric into the bath. I stirred the mixture around for twenty minutes making sure all the fabric had been covered in the dye. I picked up the fabric and placed it in the draining sink and ran cold water over it. I removed the plug from the bath and let it drain out. The fabric was squeezed and then placed in the spin dryer. Once completed I laid the fabric over dowels and hung them to air dry over the dye bath over the weekend.

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Work experience write up explanation

Due to the marking of the previous scarab beetle project I have not posted anything regarding my work experience. I have however, been writing pieces separately on word documents. However, almost all of my work experience was under NDAs so unfortunately I am unable to describe a lot of the work I undertook in this time period.

Although I will do my best to divulge what details I can including work techniques and skills used. I will write a post for each week explaining what I am obliged to say for those weeks. My third week was not under NDA but I was only able to get a photo of the finished project so as such this will be the only photo I am able to provide.

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Scarab Beetle Statue Evaluation

Over the past five weeks we have brought the concept of creating an egyptian statue from paper to reality. Through our own individual research and work we have each succeeded in our own ways. The opportunity this task propsed to us allowed us to experiment with our skils in alternate ways than what we have experienced before. It has brought us to new levels of skill in our prop making whilst still retaining some of the familiarity of last years work. The project has enabled us to work on larger scales than previous projects and also gave us more insight in our knowledge of materials that we knew from last year such as polystyrene. No project goes perfectly but the more we have worked on projects the more I feel I learn. Or in other words, I feel I learn equally from my mistakes as from my success. However, lessons learned from my mistakes I remember to a greater degree.

 I approached this project in a different way this time than how I have with previous projects and found it to be a better way to begin the work. By this I mean that when I went to on the research trip to the British Museum I filled a page with drawings and observations of the selected object. Most of the notes were irrelevant but I feel helped in the long run. The immersion this approach gave me allowed me to have a better understanding of the model than the life drawing method we had been using previously. I suppose I can transfer this skill to shows by writing and drawing in small sketchbooks when discussing the designs and concept with the artist. I believe this techinque to be better than the life drawing as I am able to go back over the notes and drawings to remind myself of what the vision for the project is. Whilst life drawing does this to a great level it only works once and if you forget the vision you learned through life drawing then partaking in it in the first place would have been pointless. I am happy to use this method and use it to help shape my future work even if briefs do not require work of this kind. I hope with it giving me a better understanding I can produce better quality of work.

 When deciding on my statue I chose the scarab, not because of a need to chose something that was a easy option, but because I felt like it was the only statue there I could do realistically within the time constraints and achieve a level of perfection with it I would be satisfied with. I liked the idea of creating a smooth stone surface that would be a stark contrast between its polystyrene origins. During the time at the musuem I felt it was important to explore the other rooms that was there and 'shop' around the egyptian sculpture room to enhance my vision of my making process and while I did not find anything that I would have preferred to have done (save for the Rosetta stone), my research did help to bring a understanding of the the level of smooth texture I needed to achieve on my piece.

 When we came to partake in a life drawing session connecting to the project the session was supposed to give us a better understanding of our statues. However, the session I felt only helped with my drawing as always but when it came to understanding the statue's shape, texture and shadows I felt it did little more than sitting viewing the object in the museum a few days prior. I felt the session would have been better used by trying to recreate our stones colours and damaged areas. However, drawing it in its entirity somewhat ditracted from the learning experience. As mentioned before my intial approach was a way I felt, was much better at obtaining a better level of knowledge looking at around the statue.

  When it came to marking up my large mistake of scaling which I mentioned previously, led to time lost that I regret not being able to resolve sooner. I did however have the foresight to do the intial marking out in pencil only going over in pen when I was sure my lines were right. Once I started cutting, the piece began taking shape and allowed me to visualise my end goal more clearly -something I felt every step enhanced more. The rest of the carving process went by relatively straightforward and without event. I was happy no accidents happened with the knives of which I was very careful with. The steady process of slowly picking away at the polystyrene allowed me to examine what I was doing exactly with the material and how I was using the equipment to carve it. Slowly but surely teaching me better techniques with the tools at my disposal.

  I was glad that throughout the process I wore my jump suit because we ended up with a sea of white baubles covering the workshop. Unfortunately when working with a material such as polystyrene such a mess is to be expected. In this situation it is better to know how to contain the mess rather than preventing it. Also devising ways to clear up afterwards that allows you to be efficient. I say this because one of my work colleagues tipped a open bin of polystyrene baubles into a open top bin and the wind spread the mess over the courtyard -we are still finding bits of it today. I would advise bagging any and all poly whether for binning or storing to be kept in black plastic bin bags.

When it came to fibreglass and jesmoniting the model I found that due to the temperature of the room and the quantities of materials the jesmonite would dry before I could finish off a batch leading to a few tubs of hardened jesmonite to be thrown in the bin. -I'll bring it up that it is also important to throw it in the bin and not down the sink as after coming back on a Monday morning we had found someone had poured an bucket of jesmonite down the sink and it had set. I fixed my problem by as I mentioned prior, changing the quantity of the catalyst and replacing the lost material with water. This drastically reduced the drying time and allowed me to always use all of my mixture even if it was a little runny. I would like to note the fact that I found it peculiar the mixture I was originally drying so quickly. The room was relatively cold and jesmonite sets at warmer temperatures so technically it shouldn't have set so rapidly.

  During the time of jesmoniting the model I attempted to give the model a base so it would fit to a display stand better. However, despite numerous attempts the contact adhesive did not achieve a strong enough hold and so the base would fall off. I resolved this by adding a thin layer of jesmonite to the base to give it a smoother base for the board to grip on. This alteration proved successful.

The sanding process afterwards took a substantial amount of time as due to my statue being incredibly smooth my work had to reflect this. If I failed to replicate this the statue would not be able to give a convincing stone aesthetic. I used many different variations of sanding blocks to achieve the smoothest surface possible even going back over with jesmonite in some cases to fill dipped areas. This was beneficial for areas where the fibreglass shell broke open due to air bubbles underneath. However, I sanded the edges down filled the small dip with jesmonite and allowed it to dry before sanding it again. It toke me a while to achieve a stage I was happy with but once I felt it was right I applied the sealant and began the painting.

The first layer of paint found difficulty griping the surface but I found this was due to a combination of grease, dust and damp sealant. These things I rectified before continuing. I waited for the sealant to fully dry before using a thick brush to dust off the work. The grease was in such minimal portions it wasn't necessary to do anything about. Once these were rectified I painted the primer and base coats on. As I went through the painting stage I felt my earlier assessment of glazing the perfected areas and then experimenting over them was a successful approach which I derived from the sampling phase. With each new layer of paint the piece looked more and more heavy. By the end of it psychologically I had convinced myself the table wouldn't be able to support the weight of the stone statue but somehow it did. This is a point anyone who I show pictures of my statue to rectify usaully in their disbelief that it is made of polystyrene.

I was a little disappointed the display base I created I misunderstood the height I could have given it. However, this proved a happy mistake as the area it was finally displayed in was surrounded by taller objects. This gives this emphasis on the statue I found to be compelling to believe the work I had created was a success. I hope that given its indoor resting place this statue will be allowed to stay in its place for years to come. I hope next time to change this display mistake by assessing the select area before making or marking out anything.

The scarab beetle proved to be a significant challenge to begin our second year on developing what we had learnt and taking us to a new level of understanding of our craft. I was immensley pleased with the final outcome and particualrly happy with the paint job the statue received despite not being incredibly happy with my painting samples. I think from this I can take away knowledge of newer materials, a few new modelling techniques and a insight into the more in depth side of prop making that we previously had only glimpsed.

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Jesmonite, Artex, Milliput, super sculpey and rough sketches from research trip.

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In Hindsight- Material research

Jesmonite

A powder like substance that when combined with its catalyst and mixed creates a batter like mixture that will harden to a concrete texture. It can be used as a substitute for either polyester or fibreglass. It is considered a non-toxic material and will produce no toxic fumes and requires no harmful solvents. It is advisable to wear gloves and dusk mask while mixing and applying. It is considered flame retardant and impact resistant.

Artex Only harmful when in powder form artex is used to create a textured suface without requiring any plastering skills. Its base form is powder but like jesmonite it can be mixed to a batter form and air hardened.

We used jesmonite as it works as a much stronger shell than artex combining with the fibreglass stripes.

Milliput

Milliput is a putty like substance that comes in two parts (catalyst and milliput). It is activated by combining the two parts until they are one complete colour. It is non toxic and safe to handle with bare hands and produces no toxic fumes. It is similar to super sculpey and playdough in both feel and smell.

Polystyrene

Polystyrene can be solid or foamed. It does not provide any protection from water vapour nor is it air tight. It also has a low melting point. It is one of the most highly used plastics with several billion tonnes being used every year. It is naturally transparent but can be coloured by using colourants. Polystyrene is typically used in plastic packaging. The type we have been using is polystyrene packaging.

It was discovered in 1839 by Eduard Simon through the use of storak the resin of the American sweetgum tree. He distilled a oily substance, a monomer he named styrol. Several days later he found the substance had thickened into a jelly he named styrol oxide because he presumed it to be oxidation. But in 1845 it was proven the solidification took place it was proven the solidification took place even with the absence of oxygen and it was called metastyrol. In 1866 it was correctly identified as polymerization process. About 80 years later it was realised the heating of the started a chain reaction. This eventually led the substance to receive its name: polystyrene.

In 1941 Dow Chemicals invented a Styrofoam process. Before 1949, the chemical engineer Fritz Stastny developed pre-expanded PS beads by incorporating aliphatic hydrocarbons, such as pentane. These beads are the raw material of moulding parts or extruding sheets.

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In Hindsight- Scarab Beetle Materials and Equipment List

I thought it might prove beneficial to write a list of every material and piece of equipment I used so and what they were used on.

Brushes - painting, shell creation

Pens/ Pencils - marking out

Blue towels -painting, shell creation

Silicone gloves - shell creation

Heavy duty dusk mask - polycarving

Metre ruler -marking out

Tape measurer -marking out

Jesmonite - shell creation

Artex - milliput preparation

Milliput - additional modelling

Jigsaw - base, display box

Table saw - base, display box

Knives, scrappers, files - modelling poly

Sponge - painting

Scales - material measuring

Buckets - material mixing

Sandpaper - sanding

Exterior sealant - final sealant

Glaze (gloss and matt) - painting and sealant

Scrap wood - display box, base

Screws - display box

Screwdriver - Display box, base

Rosco paints - painting

Fibreglass sheets (fine and rough) - shell creation

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In Hindsight: Display Base

To ensure our pieces would be displayed in the professional standing they deserved we created boxes for them to sit on. Again these were made out of scrap materials. These boxes would be painted black, glazed with a matt finish and screwed into the base of the statue. The box would be a suitable size to the statue and not be too big to outshine it but not to small for it to look out of place.

Admittedly I made mine a bit too short but in the end I was happy with the low casual feel it gave to the piece. In making the display base I used body filler to fill in the screw holes and a sanding block the smoothen the wood and remove any splinters. I chose a matt glaze finish for my display box so the shine of the scarab beetle would 'outshine' the display box.

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In Hindsight: Final Seal

To ensure our statue was ready for display we applied two layers of outdoor sealant to the statues this would ensure they could be outside in different weathers and have a reduced amount of damage as possible.

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In Hindsight: Painting statues

We began our paint work with applying a layer of primer that was most convenient per our statue. Mine being a layer of dark grey which was built up of two layers before any further work was added. This was to ensure the material colour underneath would not shine through from under the primer.

Once dry I gave it a layer of glaze knowing my next step would require a lot of washes. Once the matt glaze was dry I was able to apply layers and shades of washes picking out details in the jesmonite surface and creating wonderful smoky patterns along the way. Like before once I was happy I applied matt glaze and let it dry.

Final touches such as paint stippling and extra washes were added. I took time in this period to ensure the paint matched the surface texture and was faithful to the source material.

During the painting puddles would form in areas which were easily cleared out by blue towels which I had to hand. In the process I used large broad brushes for washes and priming and sponges for the stippling.

Upon finishing I applied three layers of gloss glaze to my statue before applying an extra coat over the top to bring out the shine of the piece.