Furry Hands!

Obviously the Grinch is entirely covered in fur... his hands are no exception! What was I doing yesterday I hear you ask?? Covering gloves with fur thank you for asking.

Before I started adding the fur I sewed lengths of Ridgeline (flexible plastic boning stuff) to the ends of the fingers so they would be longer - bit of an obvious statement to make...

Then, I covered each finger using a tube of fur and tacked them down at the bottom of the finger.

The rest of the hand is covered in strips similarly to the rest of the bodysuit that I hand-sewed on.

And here they are! 

Modelled by yours truly... Pyjamas, Quiff and some furry hands - good look!

Short and sweet update - only little jobs left to be done now really...

2 weeks and 1 day til deadline!

Polka Dots EVERYWHERE!!

So over the last few days the Grinch has taken a back seat and I've been concentrating on Cindy Lou. I showed you pictures of the toiles I made and here is the final costume in progress!                    







Alas, she is currently sleeveless.

The bodice is just a basic child's block and the skirt is pleated on the stand: 4 double box pleats at the front, back and either sides as well as 4 single box pleats in between each double on.

Take a little look underneath...

How pretty does that look!? Its a three layer 1950s style net petticoat that I have bound off with red cotton binding. The binding ALONE took me four and a half hours but doesn't it look awesome!!

I'm secretly hoping that I will have this dress almost completely finished tomorrow - if not on Saturday - so that I can then concentrate completely on the Grinch! Deadlines a-looming! 2 weeks and 4 days! Scary stuff.







I know its quite a short blog but Cindy isn't as interesting as the Grinch... She's much prettier though. So, until next time folks, look after yourselves and each other ;) x

Finished Mask!!

I know, I know, it's been a while and I've been neglecting my blog. But you know what they say - better late than never... Not sure that will apply to my 9th May deadline so I had to put the blog on the back burner!

So, since you last saw the clay face I built up a ModRoc wall around it so I could fill the bowl shape with plaster. I had to build it up in layers and it took FOREVER (when I say forever I mean about an hour - I was just being impatient at the time). The reason its so deep is because it had to come past the nose so that it could be completely covered by the plaster which would then form my mould.

This is the head covered in plaster... Pretty dull photo and pretty self explanatory but at least you can say you've seen it ;)

Once the plaster was completely dry (left it about a week while I swanned off to Venice) I peeled the ModRoc off from around the edges and laid the flat surface you can see in the photo above on the work top so that I could pull the head out of the mould.

Richard was worried that it wasn't going to work as the last head he pulled out of a mould went wrong so I was pretty nervous also! But, we managed to get it out!! When I say we I mean myself, Richard and Alistair - Alistair being the muscles of the operation. Actually... when I say we... I was just watching...










Now the head was out in one piece nothing could really go wrong now. The clay needed to come out next and once I got it away from the edges it came out pretty easily.

This is my mould. Its a negative version of the clay moulding that I did. You can se in the photo that its still got bits of clay and plaster in it so Mr. Richard suggested I do a latex version of it to a) clean the mould out and b) to use in my exhibition as I wouldn't be able to use the gelatin one. He's full of good ideas... not all the time, but most the time.










   


LATEX STINKS!!! Just sayin'! As I was going to use this mask for my exhibition I mixed yellow and blue acrylic to get a green shade which I then mixed in with the latex. I also used a slightly darker shade for the nose so that it wasn't all the same colour.

I painted on about 4 layers of latex leaving each one to dry after I painted it. This was just to build up the thickness of the mask so that it would be strong enough to stay in one piece.

I peeled away the latex just as I had done the clay. The white stuff you can see is talcum  powder - we used this so that the latex didn't stick to itself. Pretty nifty little tip if you ask me!!




Et Voila!! One latex Grinch mask!

I have yet to cut the mouth out but LOOK HOW AWESOME IT IS!! I'm really really happy with it.

I'll try and keep you updated a little better than I have been recently! 3 weeks and 2 days to go and so so much work to do!!

DISASTER DAY!

MAY DAY MAY DAY!! CARELESS CLEANER ON THE LOOSE!

I know, two blogs in one day is verging on crazy but it has been one disastrous day!! Went into Uni this morning thinking "I'm going to be very productive today - crack on with my bodysuit, mould my head..." Then the minute I get in the door I had Caz telling me that my Grinch face has been damaged!!

Here's the damage done...

 




So some careless cleaner waltzes into the workshop, having a little sweep around, probably has a good look at my handy work, turns around and stabs it in the face with her handle!

Part of me thinks she did do it out of jealousy...

I know it looks pretty minor but it took me just over and hour to a) get over it and b) re-shape the new nose back on which put a hole in my expected productive day.

The observant ones among you will notice that the new nose is slightly smaller - those of you who haven't noticed, scroll down and compare - and as a matter of fact I prefer this nose to the other... NOT THAT I WASN'T HAPPY WITH IT BEFORE!!

After the mornings trauma I built this little housing for it this afternoon. This is basically so that we could lie it flat and fill it with plaster to create another mould.

Second stress of the day was that Richard isn't sure whether its 100% going to work. The last similar head mould he took apart the clay fell apart as well as the mould and was a complete right-off... UH OH! So he was worried that by just filling the bowl with plaster covering the face that the same might happen.

After a little while of heart to heart discussions we decided that we would just go for it and fill it entirely with plaster. Other options were discussed but I thought we should take the risk!

We are going to leave it dry completely so I have to wait until MONDAY to find out if it has worked or not... Don't think I'm going to be able to sleep!!

If all goes to plan the plaster mould will come away from the head and I will have a negative plaster version of my sculpted face. The idea is then to fill this negative with green gelatine which will then be the face piece that I stick onto Charlie. Wish me luck!!

My Grinch Face Finished

AT LAST! I finished sculpting the head today!!

I emailed the photos to my mum earlier before I blogged and she was moderately impressed... Didn't quite understand why she wasn't completely impressed! It wasn't until she Goggled an image of the Grinch that she became very complimentary of my handy work... "It looks exactly like it! You're so clever!" - Delayed reaction but at least I got one in the end!

So now all I have to do is create another mould - the same way I did originally with Charlie's face - but with this clay face. Then instead of filling the negative shape with plaster I will fill it with gelatine and Voila!! One prosthetic Grinch face! 

Currently sewing the net onto my body suit - will have some more images for you soon! Don't go away!

Grinchy Grinch Grinch

Hello! Welcome! Here's todays blog!

I had my second fitting with Charlie and as you can see the body suit has changed colour. The cut and fitting of the suit has also changed but its not quite so obvious from the photos. Everybody love the green Lycra?? Sexy sexy huh?!

You can't really see from the photo very well but the cut of the body suit is crucial to the rest of the construction. The high arched legs makes the legs look longer and will help shape the Grinch's beer belly when I sew the net padding on (details to follow) and the shape of the sleeve and the way it has been sewn in gives a more rounded shoulder shape.

What happens now I have the bodysuit I hear you ask? Well, I have been shown a technique that was used in the Royal Ballet's Peter Rabbit. It was a technique they used to pad the costumes to make the dancers look like animals. Obviously the costumes needed to be light and they needed to be able to move in it so they used rows and rows of gathered net.

The net is gathered, sewn onto the bodysuit then sculpted into any shape you want!! It's difficult to describe but it won't be long before I will be able to show you.

But for now... I'm just gathering net...

      and gathering...

         




                 and gathering...

              

                   gathering some more...

                      ...and still gathering!!














Its going to look amazing when its all sewn on and cut into shape - can't wait to show you!! I'll keep you posted!
   

Cindy Lou Fittings

Firstly, I would just like to apologise for the fact that I haven't updated my blog for a whole week! I've been so busy with Uni and working and there just aren't enough hours in the day! Still loving it though!! Plus in 8 weeks and 4 days (not that I'm counting) is MY DEADLINE! ARGH! Stay calm... Breathe in... top it up... and let it all out... 

So, down to business. Cindy Lou Fittings! My model is the daughter of my dissertation tutor who has kindly donated her for my project. Her name is Izzy, she's 12 and has long blonde (ish) hair which is PERFECT for Cindy Lou.

I made three slightly different style of dresses:

This is the first dress. It has a centre front fastening with a triangular yolk detail which you can't quite see from the photo,a small puff sleeve and a gathered skirt worn over a petticoat (which is awesome even if I do say so myself!)

The bodice was a little to long and the sleeve was a bit on the small side. You can also see how because the skirt is gathered in it gives more of a bell shape and the bottom rather than just falling over the petticoat.

All in all, not my most successful toile ever..

Second dress!! This little number also has a front fastening. I enlarged the pattern of the previously smaller puff sleeve and this one looks much bigger and better. I also took two inches off the bottom of the original bodice pattern so that fit a lot better.

This is a circle skirt which, for those of you who don't know, is basically just a huge circle with a hole in it. You can see now by comparison how much better this skirt hangs over the petticoat - pleased with this one!!

This one is my third and final dress. After running out of the lovely wine coloured cotton I found this pastel green instead - just incase anyone was wondering why it was a different colour...

This one has a centre back fastening this time and I have taken another one and a half inches off the bodice pattern - I think this is the best position for the waistline. 

This skirt has double box pleats with every other one a single pleat. It falls well over the petticoat and the pleats give it that bit more extra detail.

Showing off my double box pleats

I have made the executive decision to sue the pattern from the third dress with the puff sleeve from the second! Reason for this are because I think the third one makes her look younger than the second and as I am working from the Dr. Seuss book where Cindy Lou was only two I'd rather she looked younger than older. I like the detail of the pleats which is why I'm using that skirt plus the circle skirt looked like she was going to prom or something!

 TA - DAH! Cindy Lou!

Next time you see her the dress will be made in, what us costumiers call the 'real' fabric; red with white polk dots! 

For now I must away to work but I will make sure I update you all during the week this week - can't believe how quickly  the weeks are going by at the moment! All going well though!

Over and out! x