Print. Sculpt. Stitch.

The first part to my set making was to work on the walls and floors. I needed two walls overall which I made from foam board to keep as lightweight as possible but keeping the detail crafted for them. I cut the indents for the bricks making up the wall and on one side of each of them I cut in a hole for when she sees through the walls in the animation. Making one red and the other yellow so as to have the other land lights shine through.

The Floor were a series of layering up with rough plaster and tissue to give the rough grass textures of parks and gardens. I would then paint up these layers in various tones of the grass for each of two sets.

The next part was that of the trees and plants. I decided to cast one side of each maquette I made for each of them with papier-mâché and plaster mixes to keep the cast accurate and strong. This also meant they were accurate to the designs. I filled the halves with expanding foam, creating a great solid unique texture that fits a tree style while remaining lightweight. I also put metal in the bottom of each to make sure they could be magnetised to the set for animation. They were each them spray painted to full coverage of the materials before painted to the exact colours I wanted each

The blossoms of each tree were unique, I tested each style first before making. The Blue tree was made from popcorn pieces sprayed and painted before glued to the branches. The thin pink tree has painted foam blossoms pinned to the larger painted foam bush part for shape. The final tree blossoms were cut and painted on paper and stuck to wire pushed into the tree for branches. (fun fact: these took one packet of popcorn, 162 painted foam blossoms and cut and painted paper blossoms) This all made for great experimentation with materials and methods that produce some unique and detailed trees.

The Flowers were made up of wire frames for inside shapes and a series of papier-mâché and clay methods to produce the flower shapes for the red garden, sticking to the designs always. The rose bush was made from fabric, sewn together into the desired shapes of those flowers. And finally, the daisy like bush was made from wire and clay blossoms pushed into wrapped and painted cans to keep the shape designed. The blue park flowers were made of clay leaves and painted paper blooms.

I also worked on a couple of props for the bedroom set such as the carpet flooring, pulled up curtains, lamp shade and photographs for around the window. Mostly made from fabrics, some dyed myself to the right various tones.

 Overall the set making of mine turned out well, creating the sets to the scale and looks that I had hoped for and that would draw interest. You can also see how all my flower and plants research has paid off for some great sense of realism to the plant details.