The Resurrection Of The Enchanted Colonial Village

The Resurrection of
Lit Brothers Enchanted Colonial Village
...( Creating the new African American Figure )

Originally when the Enchanted Village was displayed at Lits Bros. it seems like figures were added from time to time ..But ever since it started on it`s new path the tradition stopped so Please Touch Museum has decided to take it upon themselves to scratchbuild a few new members ..adding a bit of welcome racial diversity along the way.
This series shows the construction-process

Step 1 (Copying the original head)

So Originally we were thinking of making a lifecast off one of the Aces students (high-school students in a museum work-program) which would`ve been fun..but the trick was to have the character blend-In with the other animated-figures so we started with a plaster copy of one of the other heads and simply rescultped the features (that also leaves more of the artistic control of the overall look up to the artist and not whether the lifecast looks right or not)
This is the original head sitting in the back-half of the plaster mould, surrounded by various creative-debris including plaster, plaster bandages, gloves etc.
(The head in the backround is one of the other heads during sanding.)

Step 2 (Resculpting)

The mould was used to make This Plaster Copy of the original-head that we could use to resulpt the features on and not destroy an original head.
One of the tricks to getting clay to stick to plaster that I knew of was to rub vaseline on the plaster..but in this case I tried floor-wax and it seemed to work a little better.

Step 2 (Resculpting)

So it was tough to get the right balance of making the facial features look African American..without Overdoing it (since the original Hofmann figures were sculpted with everything a little enhanced) ...just to make sure I xeroxed about 20 pics of people from a book at the library (nice thing about the city ..everything including the free library with it`s hUge image-bank is about 1 block away!)
You can`t have too much reference.
Turning the lights out and sculpting by a single light-source (in this case the Window) helps you see every little bump and imperfection in the sculpture before you committ to making a cast of it etc..
(this is probably the halfway point in the sculpture.)

(For those Sculptors out there)
I used Klean Klay to sculpt the new features.
It`s a nice soft Cheep clay (had free shipping too!) which also doesn`t contain sulfurs which impede the curing of Platinum-based-Silicones if that`s what you`re casting out of.

Step 3 (Latex Mould)

To keep the number of toxic things in this one project down I used Latex to make the moulds from.
This is the latex mould with a couple layers of latex+pastemaker on the outside to speed things up a little.
(The girl in the backround is destined for the upper-window of the Watchmaker Shoppe)

Step 4 (Mother Mould)

Usually you make a plaster shell (to hold the floppy latex mould in it`s general shape as you dump in the casting material to make the final head.)

The front-half is a little pink because if you make each section slightly different color ..and a chip popps-off from somewhere..it gives you the chance to at least figure out what section it came from.

Just another shot of the moulds.
The moulds of the original head are on the top-shelf (with the head)
The Latex mould is in the middle (split down the back) with the mother-mould-halves on each side.
(as the watchmaker girl keeps guard)

Step 5 (Casting the resin head)
(..and eyeballs)Jumping ahead.
So I used plastic resin to make the head.
Just mix two liquids ..pour them into the mould ..swoosh them around and in 5 minutes it turns into hard plastic (giving off toxic fuuumes the whole time)

Here the head`s been sanded and smoothed a little, the eyes were painted darker to make sure the pupil alignment was right (tough to tell when everything`s white) and the lower lip's been shaved-off to be replaced with a motorized lip made of plumbers-epoxy-putty.

Step 6 (Mechanics)

It`s Really tough to see but in front of the head are the beginnings of the mechanics to make the lower-lip move. It`s basically a rounded piece (with a silver shaft) that sticks into the neck ..which holds the rectangular block above it on a couple threaded-rods (which will end-up being where the back of the head is).
There`s two thin wires sticking out of the block which will then stick forward out a couple holes drilled where the lower lip goes ...bend the ends of the wires a little ...stick on a plumbers-putty lip ..then make some mechanics that pull down on the wires now-and-again to make the lip go down now-and-again and voila (viola?) ..you have a talking head.
(freddie jr.) (named after one of our employees :)

Step 7 (Painting)

I always say if you can get it 75% there..painting takes it the rest of the way.
The final head wasn`t too bad, fairly smooth but there`s aaaalways some little area that I wish I would`ve sanded a little better.

Step 8 (Hair & stuff)
This is soo lucky because towards the end of a project like this ..you basically figure out one or 2 ways of doing something..and if it looks good it`s good and if it looks bad you`re stUck with it .. and gluing hair on a head one curl at a time is one of those things that can either look 'ok' or reeeally reeeaally baaad ..
We originally looked at a couple wigs (one doll wig and one human puff-ball sumthin) and it basically made him look like buckwheat (or buckwheat`s sister) so I got a curly set of hair extensions for $23 and "whew!" .. it wasn`t bad (actually it even looked good)
(The trick was to cut about an inch of hair ..roll it into a loop and hot-glue it on one loop at a time ...then if you let-go as the glue`s drying it expands a little ..if you hold-on longer it gives a tighter curl.)
lucky lucky lucky