Mackinnon and Saunders!!!

Way back in January we were put in touch with a lady called Sara Mullock who works for the model making company Mackinnon and Saunders. Have a look at the huge amount they've done at - http://www.mackinnonandsaunders.com/

Sarah invited Jess and myself to Altricham to visit the studios so in March we made the trip. Sara showed us around the workshops and introduced us to all the lovely folk who work there. After the tour, Sara, along with Ian Mackinnon and Peter Saunders very kindly took time out to to discuss with us what we needed from the puppets and offered their help in making them. We couldn't believe it, sat in a room surrounded by puppets from the Corpse Bride, Mars Attacks and the upcoming Fantastic Mr Fox!! We nearly bit their hands off when they offered their help!

It was amazing to see the puppets in person, the level of craftsmenship is unbelievable and we even got to see some top secret u and coming projects....shhhh



We refined the designs and Jess went back for a few days to build the armature...

Here is the rough layout for the armature, as done by Jess's Dad, John. Cheers John!

The pictures below show Jess working at Mackinnon and Saunders and the armature coming together.











































We returned the next week for a day with our friend Alison Cross who's helping create all the wonderful little things for the set. Ally and I even got to help by putting the fingers on the hands!

Jess really did an amazing job as you can see from the pictures and got loads of help from the guys there. A MASSIVE thanks to them for taking the time to help us out.