I am a propmaker. I am an event decorator. And I also design. This was in New Zealand where I lived for 21 years! After my return to the UK, I was looking for something to do. I stumbled across the world of faux taxidermy, fell in love. Now, making my colourful beasties is verging on being an obsession. A healthy one.
But what goes into making my creatures?
Well, firstly, let me explain something about me....
I'm a problem solver type of person. I like nothing more than finding a way to make something. I enjoy learning about different products and mediums, working out how they could work together, and also developing processes that are efficient and effective. I also get distracted easily - possibly because my brain is always coming up with new thigns to try, so spending 100 hours on a project is not something I do well with.
But this Is GOOD for you because it means I find ways to make my beasts efficiently, which mean it takes me less time, which means they are more affordable - right? :) It doesn't mean I rush my creations - It means I have found a way to enjoy every minute of the process.
But back to how I make these critters....
Well, I start off with master. This is usually something I have made or adapted to suit the animal I am trying to create. It is basically my animal head's form, and is what I will base my whole creation on. Here is my master for my antelope. it looks pretty rough, eh? What are all those lines for? Read on....all will be revealed....
Once I have my master done, I won't mould it straight away. It's pattern making next, and whilst I am drawing out my patterns, I'll use them to add fabric alignment markings to my master.
I'll also mark areas where antlers, horn, wings etc are located. Once I've got all this figured out and marked on teh master, you can image how much easier it is to add the fabrics and "accessories" later on! I doesn't mean I don't deviate sometimes, but even then, it's much quicker to modify if I have alignment markings in place. These marking are then etched out onto my master using a dremel.
Then it's time for mould making! For these creatures, I want to get as many pulls from a mould as possible to reduce wasting a mould, and I want to use as little silicon as possible because it is expensive! So I make fibreglass and silicon jacket moulds. It's quite the process, and I'll make a video about this one day in the future.
The next step is to cast a form. I use a combination of various materials. For noses, horns etc, I use a hard polyurethane resin because thsoe parts are exposed and resin is durable and paintable. For small forms, I use a high density, rigid polyurethane foam. For large pieces, I will backfill an outer shell of high density foam with a low density PU foam, which helps to keep the piece a ligher weight and more manageable.
Some animals, such as my rhino, have a "hybrid form" where I use all three products to create the form!
Once I have cast my form, it's time to clean it up. I use my dremel to cut out any grooves that I need, eye holes, etc - using those alignment markings that I designed into my master as guides. Then it's time to apply fabrics!
But let's go a back a bit - what about antlers, horns, eyes etc?
Eyes are either resin or glass. I make the glass eyes myself, but for some creatures ,such as hares, I just can't beat the quality and price of the supplier I get my resin eyes from - it's a surprisingly tricky process and one that can easily go wrong.
As for horns, antlers etc, I make moulds for these too. Here' a little video of me making the mould for my mini antlers. I made a box mould for these, but for larger antlers, I use a fibreglass mould.
After deciding on my fabrics, I'll cut them all out and sew up the ears. Ears may or may not have wire or ear liners to make them poseable, or give them structure. Then I apply all the fabrics - and voila! Well, almost....
Eyes, ears and any other features like whiskers, manes etc come last. And I must admit that most of my beasts look absolutely awful and very odd right up until the very end when I install the eyes - it's only then that they spring to life and become a character, and that's usually the point at which I fall in love with them. Yes, every one.
A quick clean up, check over and spray with a protective spray and we're done! And as for feathers for the owls, wolpertingers etc., that's a whole different porcess. I'll leave that for another time....
I hope that gives an interesting insight into the process of making my delightfully quirky beasts. You can find my menagerie of creature creations here.
