Friday 22 October 2021

Partial Piglet, Stand Creative / Boehringer Ingelheim / FreVAX

 

Design and fabrication of vet-demo models, cast in Platsil Gel 10, made to look and feel realistic, for accurate demonstration of a new kind of vaccination method for piglets. This model is still in its prototype phase.

 

This is testing the replaceable skin section, to ensure the rubber isn't destroyed by the pressure from 
the vaccination gun, and also to check there are no leaks of liquid on the outside of the model.
 
 









Cow Teats, Stand Creative / Boehringer Ingelheim

 

Design and fabrication of vet-demo models, cast in Platsil Gel 10, made to look and feel realistic, for accurate demonstration of a new kind of teat cream and cream-insertion syringe for cows.



 


Horse Nostrils, Stand Creative / Boehringer Ingelheim

 

Design and fabrication of vet-demo models, cast in Platsil Gel 10, made to look and feel realistic, for accurate demonstration of a new kind of inhaler for horses.




Amalgam

Various projects at Amalgam in Bristol


Brief to make crash test dummies to be dropped from various heights, for a TV show about velocity



 

 

Brief to make a replica of a genuine vintage trunk, to be dropped off the back of a horse-drawn carriage.

The fake one

The real one




Brief to make realistic dead rat, for a shot of rats eating each other in a TV production of War of the Worlds (made using rabbit pelts)



Wednesday 14 November 2018

Lizzie Props

I've done a few bits and pieces for Lizzie Props over the last few years, for theatre productions like Wind in the Willows, Big: The Musical, Aladdin, King Lear, Oliver Twist (open air). Here are some of them -

Wind in the Willows, busts as set decoration for Badger's house


Wind in the Willows, drinks for a party at Toady's house! Real colour and green colour champagne, complete with fizz!


Wind in the Willows, cakes for a party at Toady's house! Each has 4 threaded bars running through, connecting it securely to the baseboard.

Multiple layers, easy to carry and very securely fixed together. Body-filler icing, decorations selected.

Lizzie completed the final decorating - they look great!

Aladdin, 'stabbable' / fireproof straw mattress. Inner and outer cover wip. There's a concealed magnetic strip allowing a knife to enter and 'rip'.

Complete mattress. Gold runner was decoration for a set of a different production (last minute, got thrown in with the mattress!)
 Aladdin; this basket had a baggy saggy excess of fabric hanging out and so needed the lining repaired, 
which I was happy to do!

King Lear; this chicken was moulded in resin, cast in silicone, with a hole and empty inside
for Rhys Ifans to put his hand into it and wave it around during the show
The Rocky Horror Show; Narrator's Book 






Wednesday 17 October 2018

HodgePodge, directed by Ben Aston

Just found this little video on Vimeo, a short comedy I worked on with Ben Aston a few years ago. Look out for the hairdresser-antlers, the inflatable pregnancy belly, and the forehead-ear. I made those.





Sunday 30 September 2018

Sidekick Books; Birdbook: Saltwater and Shore

Here's a little illustration I did for a beautiful book of poems and drawings based on British birds, published by Sidekick Books. My drawing is one of the spreads shown as a 'peek inside'. Which was a nice surprise! Follow this link to visit the site, see my work, and buy a copy of this lovely book.


Tuesday 7 March 2017

The Birds



A series of reconstructed-taxidermy birds, created for the Natural History Museum in Saudi Arabia. Each of these birds is either a modified taxidermy specimen, or a full reconstruction. They turned out really nicely.

Yemen Linnet

 Dunlin

Arabian Woodepecker

Below is a small selection of 'making of' images from this project. If anyone sees this post and has any questions about this type of reconstruction, please do feel free to get in touch!

 Reconstructing the face of a Collared Kingfisher; rehydrating the skin and pinning it in place to dry.
The skull was moulded, cast in biresin, and then the beak was painted and matte-varnished. 

 Partial face reconstruction, with the skin of the eye now in the right place.

 Wing construction for a Bruce's Green Pigeon - using parts of a pigeon wing to construct the wings for this 
specimen. This bird was actually given to me to fix as someone else on the team had struggled with it.


 Lining up feathers in a natural spread on the left, ready for gluing together


LEFT: Top part of wing made with a wire base; I used a fresh pair of pigeon wings, carefully removing all muscle 
and bones before precisely reconstructing the primary feathers.
RIGHT: Wings of this bird before and after it was given to me to fix. The bottom wing is the one I made, using 
hand dyed feathers, individually glued and laid to create a natural wing position. 

 Rear and top view of near-finished specimen - wing position is beautiful, the hand-dyed feathers look so 
natural. I was really, really happy with how this one was saved!


 Making parts of the Arabian Woodpecker - this bird is endangered, so this specimen was made completely 
from scratch. Here you can see how I put together and shaped the wings, the body core, and how the 
feathers were laid on. All feathers were hand-laid, individually, and it really ended up a thing of beauty!