The shop has been work-shopped over the last year. By that I mean that through the actual completion of projects, wherein tools and supplies have been purchased and organized, the shop has evolved and matured. It will never be done. I don’t think that word applies to shops. But it has reached a point of humming - a point where it supports the making of things more than distracting from active building.

I spent about an hour last night here tidying things up. It was photo-ready this morning when I went in to turn the heater on. What better time to take its picture?

Since last posting about the shop 10 months ago, I’ve made 2 complete marionettes, 2 carvings, and I’m now in the middle of making 2 table-top puppets. I’m also mid-build with two automata (wooden mechanical sculptures). Besides that, the shop has been used to create more French cleat hangers for itself among other miscellaneous household wood-related projects.

This shop aims to be well-designed as it needs to contract to allow a large vehicle to park in this space. That doesn’t happen often, but when it does, I want the contraction to be minimally disruptive. It also needs to be well-organized so that working here is a pleasure and frustration is minimized. So far so good on both accounts - design and organization.

Next up: Pierrot - my most ambitious marionette build to date.

My helper was able to come by this morning to assist my husband and lift the band saw onto its cabinet. This week will be dedicated to getting the band saw fully assembled, tuned, and to practice with it. I was fortunate to attend Adam Panto’s all-day BAND SAW TECHNIQUES class last month. The lessons learned there will be invaluable this week.

Orthographic (90 degree) projections are extremely helpful when removing excess wood before hand carving. By selecting the two most complex silhouettes of an object’s 6-view projections, you can utilize the orthographic cuts that a band saw is best at. Carefully aligning the blade to the table at a 90 degree angle assures a clean and accurate orthographic cut. When you do this on two adjacent sides of a block of basswood, you end up with a rough-out as seen in the first photo of the two arms.

In a future post I’ll explain this further with lots of photos of Pim’s head block becoming Pim’s head rough-out.

I’m realizing that the puppet shop will never be finished. It will, however, reach milestones along its development. It’s close to one of those now. As explained in an earlier post, the McShop is so-named for its ability to M(agically) C(ollapse) when I need to share this garage with my daughter-in-law’s car. A French Cleat wall system, casters on nearly everything, and a design-like-a-you’re-living-on-a-yacht philosphy are coming together at long last.

The band saw will mark this current milestone - it will be the turning point from A) acquiring tools and establishing a shop to B) puppet production. I will still keep a wish list of tools and equipment that would be nice to have. However, unless a purchase is absolutely required to continue making the puppet-in-progress, I will make note of my passing fancy and carry on building.

This model was invaluable during the process of putting this McShop together. Since everything needs to stay within the white-floor (on the model) footprint - and everything in the model is to scale (1:12) - I can use the model to “sketch” in 3D. It’s also a great communication tool. I share this house with 7 other people and this model helps me explain to them my plans in a way that all can easily grasp. (PS - the chairs will move out to the yard when my daughter-in-law is here - that’s why they don’t need to be on the white-floor footprint.)

The feet are almost done now. The ankle joint hole was drilled through today and the feet were shaped and cut apart. I’m happy with the movement of the foot and am glad I took my time carving to get it just right.

The legs are roughed out now and the knee joints are working well. This photo was taken before the one above - before I shaped the ankles to fit in the shoes holes.

It took some time to sculpt a face and head to my liking. I want Pim to be pleasant, a bit on the naive side and curious about everything. Of course things change as you carve so I’ll have to see what emerges from this block. But this model and drawing give me a starting point.

This block is too big for my scroll saw and using my coping saw would create too many inaccuracies. It will have to wait for my band saw which has been delivered but is now waiting in the shop for a helper to lift it out of its shipping crate and onto the band saw cabinet. I’m glad Pim is patient too.

The French cleat rails are going up. About half are installed and the process is getting much smoother. While creating this organization system, I’ve also created a lot of chaos. To bring about order requires one to clear everything out in order to have room to work. Not shown in the photo above is the rest of the garage that is overrun with tools and wood cut-offs. It’s good in one sense that I can see all that needs to be absorbed by the tool wall. But it is frustating now to move around in the space. This angst is spurring me on to finish in a timely manner so I can restore order once again.

Concurrent with setting up the McShop is work on my next puppet: Henry. He will be a table-top puppet - controlled by one hand on the top of a table or other surface. No strings for Henry - rather - a large cup hook and rod will control his body and head -respectively. His arms will go up and down with the nudge of fingers on the controlling hand of the puppeteer. Walking will be a rythmic-pendulum affair - which leads to the next photos.

The joints in a wooden puppet need to be given careful thought. It’s helpful to start thinking about them during the mechanical drawing phase, when the puppet is a collection of blocks (so you can predrill holes at precise angles) and early on in the carving phase. I’m wondering if using a Chicago screw (also called a book binders screw) for the hip joint will work. The diameter is rather large but I love how the brass ends look. These will be visible on the side of his upper thighs. I’m also considering using a leather cord for the shoulder joints. This would give Henry’s arms a wide range of motion and help them rest somewhat naturally.

I’ll sign off with this technical drawing of Henry. It’s a starting point. You can see here what I initially planned for the joints. Part of the fun is seeing how Henry evolves over time. It really does start to feel like he develops own opinions as he emerges from the blocks of wood.

With all of these constraints, I felt the need to make a model. Mostly using cardboard and items at hand, I modeled the big items that will reside in the McShop - all in 1:12 scale, or twelfth scale, where 1 inch on the model represents 1 foot in real life. The smaller items will be contained within the tool box (represented in red) and on the French cleat tool wall (represented by the white stripes that wrap around the wall going from doorway to window). My daughter-in-law’s car is made to scale also - to make sure she has enough room to pull in easily.

This model is a plan for a McShop - it’s certainly not a reality yet. I’m hoping to bring it all to life by April of 2025. In the next five months I need to purchase both a band saw and a dust collection system (modeled with a cut-down spice jar partially filled with sesame seeds and topped with a pink balloon). I also need to build the low-sturdy workbench (I have all of the wood for it already - I salvaged it from our recent deck rebuild) and make the French cleat wall system (some of the wood and screws for this have already been purchased).

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