RaquelRabbit Blog

This is a clip from my short talk at the opening of my shadow boxes exhibition. Maybe you were not there, and so, this is what i said:

Raquel’s Talk at Art Opening from David Curtis on Vimeo.

Puppet in Progress is a journal documenting the making of my “Meta Puppet”.

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It all started with a skeleton made of sculpture wire:

It all started with a simple skeleton made of sculpture wire

Then i made a skeleton for the hands, using a picture frame hanger and sculpture wire:

This is the finished skeleton for the hands:

Finished hand skeleton

Then i modeled the head using DAS pronto clay. I bought glass eyes at the Paxton Gate store in San Francisco, e glued them in wooden balls. I’m planning to attach the eyes to the head later. Right now they are loose, i just placed them in the eyes socket to show you what type of look i’m going for.

Head in progress, no hair

I modeled the hands using “Bake and Bend” sculpey. It’s the first time i’m using this clay, and i am hopping it wil work. It bends all right, but i want to see how long it will last…

Hands

For the wig, i used a mesh and some wool. This wool looks awesome, and is hand dyed. It cost me a fortune! But hey, it’s for a noble use!

Wig Materials

Here you can see how i thread the wool into the mesh. Easy process, cool looking results!

Wool threaded on mesh

…and here is how the head of the puppet is looking so far…

Head in Progress

More coming soon…

I was happy about this article about the Shadow Boxes exhibit – it came out in the “Palo Alto Weekly”. The article captured the atmosphere of the opening night, which was truly amazing. If you were not able to be there, you may like reading this. The full article can be read in this link here (page 22) .

Last night was the opening of my shadow box show, at the Mohr Gallery. Very nice event! The work was looking beautiful and the event was really elegant. There was a good vibe all over the place, and everybody had a great time. I talked a bit about the creative process, puppets, theater, books etc, and the guests had very good questions, which made for a nice dialogue about the pieces.

Good news: our short film, How to Make a Baby, is heading for the silver screen! It will be in the competitive shorts program at the wonderfully named Disposable Film Festival. The big event is Thursday, March 4th at 8pm at San Francisco’s Roxie Theater. Sure, you’ve seen it on the internet. But the Roxie’s screen is, like, a million feet wide! How big is your screen? You can buy tickets in advance if you like, and there’s a party next door after the screening. Come hang out with us and all the other disposables!

I have an exhibition of my shadow boxes coming up soon at the Morh Gallery. The opening is Friday, February 12th at 6pm. Looking forward to it!

Teatro!

i am in Brazil right now, in Florianopolis, a beautiful island in the south. Not doing much illustration, or puppets, or books or animation in the moment: only nature and a real, much needed vacation! I won´t be posting much from here, but i will be back with some news at the end of this month! Happy 2010!