How did you get into prop building,
was it something you’d begun in school and progressed through college with, or
are you naturally a creative person who has picked up the skills along the way?
Jennifer: Prop building is just something I sort of
fell into. As a kid, I was always tearing things apart to see how they worked.
My mum was into all sorts of kinds of crafting, so I'd steal various bits of
things she had to make stuff. Usually it was every dowel rod we could get our
hands on to make bows and arrows for me and the boy two houses down. We made
our own Halloween costumes every year, so my first actual props were things I
made for those outfits. I play a lot of
miniatures games, so I did a lot of kit bashing to personalize my models and to
create variants that there were no actual model for. And creating actual prop
replicas of things from tv or movies grew out of that. Later on when I attended college, I double
majored in Art and Education.
Jennifer: The first
thing I can remember making was a prop sword and shield for a school project.
We had to dress up to present out report and mine was about knights. So I made
myself a cardboard shield and used one of the legs from my mom's standing
embroidery hoop for the sword (she wasn't happy about that!).
How long can a prop take to make?
Jennifer: It depends
on the prop and how complex it. Also, it depends on how much free time I have
available to work on it. For small items
that I have already made a mould of, it takes less than an hour. The perception
filter keys only take me about an hour to make. But I
worked
on my Dark Archer costume for about three months. For me, the longest amount of
time is usually spent researching all of the details of the prop and then
sourcing out the correct pieces that I need to work on a project.
The figures you gave to John
Barrowman, the Jack and the Gwen, were these figures you’d created from
scratch, had you had a template to work from?
Jennifer: The Jack
figure is actually made by Crooked Dice, so I just had to paint it up and add
the little details. But Gwen was made from scratch. I took an existing
miniature to use as a base body and then used green stuff to sculpt the hair,
clothing changes, extra guns, etc.
Have you created props for other
people and do you have an actual business at prop building, or is it more for
your own pleasure?
Jennifer: I don't
have a prop business because this is just something I do for fun in my spare
time, but I have made items for a few different people as commissions. The
Soulless mask was a request for a friend to wear to an upcoming convention. And
several of my Doctor Who cosplaying friends have asked me for perception filter
keys and Torchwood ID cards. My big
upcoming project is a commission from a friend that cosplays Martha Jones. She
wants me to make Project Indigo for her to wear at Gallifrey One 2015.
The white gun is a River Song gun is
it not? How long did it take to put together and what was the process, how was
it created
Jennifer: Correct!
The gun itself is actually a Nerf Scout IX-3. You can get them in a 2 pack at
Walmart really cheap. It only took about a week to make because the base gun
just needed to have holes and things filled in. Then it was just a matter of
creating the extra bits and assembling all of the pieces. Sometimes I'll sculpt
the bits out of clay, create my mould, then cast them up in resin. But for
other things, plasticard and card stock are easier.
Do you have a website where people can
see your finished products, have you ever aired them for public viewing before?
Jennifer: I don't
have a website specifically for my props (at the moment). So most of the time I
just stick the pictures up on my Facebook, or I'll post them over on the RPF.
Your TARDIS keys, I love those. Is it easy picking up those pieces you need
for the backs of them? I have a TARDIS key but wouldn’t know where to start in
putting the fancy computer chip pieces on the back. But would be cool to create one. Have a ton of old Yale keys knocking about
the house.
Jennifer: It's super
easy to find those bits. Any store that carries electronic parts has them, or
you can order them online. You just need the resistors, timer chip, bits of
wire, and a cell phone's sim card to cut up. Because I love all of the little
details when making things, I took a
ton
of screen caps of the Doctor's key until I had a good enough picture that I
could file my key blank so the teeth were as close to screen accurate as
possible. That one is now my master key so I can just get them professionally
cut when I need more.
Credit to SJ Fleck for photograph |
Jennifer: It
was! When I got married in 2012, I had
decided that I wanted to do something fun for our cake and the table
decorations. My husband is huge into Battletech and I love Doctor Who, so we
decided to try and incorporate both of those things. I created the first
TARDIS,
made a mould, then casted up a bunch of them in resin to use as centrepieces on
half of the tables. The other half had centrepieces with a Battlemech.
I
also made chocolate mechs and TARDIS' for the guests. For our cake, I made his
gaming logo on rice paper, along with various Whovian symbols. Plus as a little
added geeky touch, I wrote our names in circular Gallifreyan. The TARDIS on the
top of the cake was solid chocolate and so were the ones around the base. As
the final little touch, I took a pair of sonic screwdrivers and converted them into
our cake knife set. They could still extend, light up, and make the sounds. So
I had a lot of fun playing with that.
The Captain’s Vortex Manipulator – how
long did it take you to source the material and does it look anything like the
original inside, beneath the leather cover?
Jennifer: I cosplay
as Jack Harkness and always hated the look of the toy one, so I ripped it apart
and used it as the basis for my leather one. The VM only took me 2 days after I
gathered the materials. I ordered the lambskin and veg leather from Ebay, then
found a seller on Etsy who had the exact same snaps for sale that were used for
the real one.
It
was my first project working with leather, so I learned a lot while making it.
I'm planning on making a better one when I have the time. I already have all of
the electronics and leather, the pieces for the faceplate, etc.
Your orange and black mask was this
for Arrow? The hardest part for me would be to make absolutely sure I was dead
centre for the line, or was this less of an issue for you?
Jennifer: The
Mirakuru soldier helmet. Easiest project ever because it's a paintball mask
that they painted half orange! Most of the time, I hate trying to get the lines
dead center and end up measuring it a million times. But thankfully for this
particular helmet, it's formed so it
has
a slight ridge down the centre of the mask. I just used some blue painters tape
to line it up, covered up the one eye hole, and spray painted it.
I love the set of arrows you have,
they do look pretty lethal, how long did they take to build and what did you
use for the tips?
Jennifer: Those
things were a nightmare to make! I wanted to make some convention safe broad
heads that wouldn't cause security to have a heart attack. The arrows
themselves were simple and I just had to fletch them. But the broad heads were
a big problem! I made a bunch of different moulds to try and find a way that
would work the best. The originals are serrated and the blades themselves are
very thin, so getting any air bubbles when casting the blade meant it was
ruined and had to be redone.
In
the end, I had one mould for the blades themselves and one of the broad head
part they inserted into. At first, I tried to make them out of resin, but they
were too fragile and the blades kept snapping. So I switched over to a flexible
plastic that would give me the strength I needed, but allowed the blades to
bend a little without snapping off. To make a dozen of those things took me a
couple of weeks. They drove me crazy, but ended up looking amazing by the time
I finished them.
When you’re not prop building what do
you do to relax, or are you like all creative people, you don’t really properly
switch off, even if you are sat watching tv or out socialising, you’re always
thinking of the next build...?
Jennifer: I love to
read, play video games, and I still draw and paint when time permits. I'm also
into RPGs and tabletop games Battletech, Warhammer 40K, Super Dungeon Explorer,
etc). I also train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai, and archery. I don't ever
really switch off because I always have something I'm doing or working on.
When
I was a kid, people thought I had ADHD just because of how busy I always was
and how my mind would jump from one project to the next. I'm pretty much always
multitasking. When I go shopping, I'll see something and it'll remind me of a
piece from some prop or another. My mum is the same way though, so I'll recruit
her to join the insanity and we geek out on how to make things, or how to sew a
particular project. She's renovating her craft area in her basement at the
moment and I've volunteered to help her paint the exploding
TARDIS
Van Gogh on her wall as a mural.
The Soulless masks were extremely
haunting in Miracle Day, and you’ve captured it well in your mask. What did you use for this and how many of
these have you made?
Jennifer: I love the
look of those masks! It's such a simple design, but very haunting when you see
a bunch of them on screen. I've only made one of them and it's for a friend to
wear to Wizard World Chicago. She was trying to find one of the ones they gave
away at SDCC
a
few years back, but they're not popping up for sale like they were a few years
back. I'm lucky enough to have one of the screens used ones in my collection,
and an SDCC promo one. To make her replica, I used half of a giant plastic Easter
egg, my dremmel, some black plastic mesh, and the paint. From start to finish,
it took about 2 hours to complete. I sent her a picture of it on Facebook and
she can't wait to wear it.
As a cosplayer, how many costumes have
you made for yourself over the years and have you made any for other people?
Jennifer: For actual
cosplay costumes, I've made: Jack Harkness, Gotham City SWAT, Colonel Hogan
(from Hogan's Heroes), PC Gwen Cooper (her Heddlu uniform), Sgt. Andy Davidson,
an Ood, and a Silence. And I just finished my Dark Archer costume.
I'm
going to be making the "Stolen Earth/Journey's End" Martha Jones
costume for a friend, along with the Project Indigo backpack. It's the first
complete costume I've made for someone else, unless you count helping my mum to
assemble her Heddlu costume.
The Hand in the Jar – That looks
absolutely fantastic, it’s a wonder John didn’t want to take it home for his
collection. How long did that take to
put together and how many times have you used that in Cosplay? And I’d imagine
you must have tremendous biceps (muscles) lugging that around an arena, with or
without water in it. And now signed by
Captain Jack Harkness, I bet you still smile when you see that?
Jennifer: Thanks! I
half expected him to steal it, especially with the way he kept playing with it
and running around in his signing area!
I've
used it twice for cosplay. It debuted at Gallifrey One 2014. Just getting it
there was an adventure because the protective storage case is one inch too
large to fit inside of the overhead bins. So on the first flight, they strapped
it into its own seat. Then on our connecting flight, it rode up front in the
pilot's closet. The security guys at the airport had a blast watching it go through
the scanner and I had a detailed print out explaining what it was, what it was
made out of, etc.
It
took about two weeks to build. But yes, it weighs a ton when filled with
water! When empty, Handy weighs 9 lbs.
But once I fill it up with water, it weighs 17lbs.
Since
Motor City Comic Con (where John signed it), I've finally finished it by
swapping out the handle for the correct one. Nick Robatto put me in contact
with one of the gentlemen who provided bits and things for Doctor Who and
Torchwood. He didn't have any left, but did share that they were off "some
military thing". A few months later, Bob found two spares while they were
packing up set dressing items for the new Star Wars films and sent them to me.
What other props are you currently
working on that you can tell us anything about?
Jennifer: I just finished working on my Dark Archer
costume last night, so I'll be wearing it for the first time to Wizard World
Chicago this weekend. I'll be working on my friend's Martha costume starting
next month. Other things I'm planning on are the updated VM, a new version of
my Captain Jack earpiece, some custom Torchwood
miniatures, and a slightly smaller version of Handy that'll fit properly on
airplanes.
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