Sally the Sea Star Posted by Russell2005 on Jun 29, 2012
Hey everybody. Just thought I'd share a little about a new project I'm working on called "Sally the Sea Star" It is based on the book written by Kathy Steel. We discussed some of the ideas and methods on another thread. I actually started to feel bad like I'd hijacked the thread so I decided to start my own here. Sorry about that.
Anyhow, when I started making these shadow figures I was trying to replicate the color effects of some really great Chinese shadow puppetry I saw on youtube. Short of skinning a goat and tanning the hides and dying them, I think I've tried nearly everything I can think of. I'm posting some pictures here in my gallery of the construction process and materials I used as well as some preliminary screen tests with some of the characters assembled. These characters were cut from clear acrylic plastic sheet and dyed with a mixture of Pledge Future Floor Polish w/acrylic and Crayola washable marker ink. The color worked pretty good and is durable after it dries. However the plastic parts are heavy and will break if dropped hard. I'm going to use them for now as my schedule is getting tight. But, will experiment in the future with other paper type materials and some sort of starch or textile hardener. That may work better. here a a few images of the screen test I did.
I'm going to change the screen material from silk polyester which is too thin back to the shower curtain I used earlier or something else. Also, the lighting will be changed out to two 4' florescent fixtures, one at the top and the other at the bottom in order to minimize the shadows cast by the control rods. The colors on the plastic are pretty good. Also, I can do front projections with them too. Whenever I pass them in front of the light the image is reflected on the wall. I thought that might be interesting.
Anyhow, when I started making these shadow figures I was trying to replicate the color effects of some really great Chinese shadow puppetry I saw on youtube. Short of skinning a goat and tanning the hides and dying them, I think I've tried nearly everything I can think of. I'm posting some pictures here in my gallery of the construction process and materials I used as well as some preliminary screen tests with some of the characters assembled. These characters were cut from clear acrylic plastic sheet and dyed with a mixture of Pledge Future Floor Polish w/acrylic and Crayola washable marker ink. The color worked pretty good and is durable after it dries. However the plastic parts are heavy and will break if dropped hard. I'm going to use them for now as my schedule is getting tight. But, will experiment in the future with other paper type materials and some sort of starch or textile hardener. That may work better. here a a few images of the screen test I did.
I'm going to change the screen material from silk polyester which is too thin back to the shower curtain I used earlier or something else. Also, the lighting will be changed out to two 4' florescent fixtures, one at the top and the other at the bottom in order to minimize the shadows cast by the control rods. The colors on the plastic are pretty good. Also, I can do front projections with them too. Whenever I pass them in front of the light the image is reflected on the wall. I thought that might be interesting.
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