It’s official. Stop-Mo-Studio is up and running, ready to make some quirky stop-motion animations. While our website is still ironing out its final kinks, our studio is set up and we are ready to get started. From here on, we plan to post monthly blog articles about our adventures, and the interesting solutions we find to the problems we face in any project. To kick things off, we’re going to revisit an old project from our early days of learning about puppets, props and set building for stop motion. In today’s article, we will examine the process of creating a functional folding chair at a 1:6 ratio.

Choosing what to make

When initially confronted with the task of building a miniature chair, the possibilities of what to make were endless. From rocking chairs to bar stools and all the lies between, the decision was far from easy. For the sake of adding a greater technical challenge to the task, we elected to create a fully functional folding chair, based on a standard wooden chair from Ikea. This proved to be a fantastic choice, presenting an exhilarating collection of challenges, including bending wood, creating hinges, and finding a way to allow the seat of the chair to swivel up, folding the chair flat.

Tiny hinges

One of the greatest joys of stop-motion animation is scuttling through hardware stores and brick-a-brak shops, hoping to stumble upon some perfect component that will complete whatever you’re making. Unfortunately, when it comes to miniature hinges, the only remotely useful found-object were some teensy nails. Armed with a collection of these teensy nails, we resorted to the one thing that never fails in these situations: A trusty old can. Beer, Coca-Cola, tonic water… whatever, it doesn’t matter. Point is, these cheeky little rubbishes are a fantastic resource in the world of stop-motion animation, and can be crafted into all sorts of sneaky bits and bobs. This is one of the many examples of re-using discarded materials, supporting our goal of sustainability, but more on that another day. Later on, we used this technique to build 2-piece hinges for the fishing rod case on the production Make Do.

Swivelling Seats

Our tiny nails have been imperative in the creation of hinges and all sorts of things, but with our folding chair, they proved particularly important. In order to accurately replicate our original chair, we needed to find a way of allowing the chair to swivel upward so that it could be closed. To do this, we used our tiny nails to create small holes on the inner side of the chair’s legs. We then cut back two teensy nails and inserted them in the side of the seat, so that they stuck out and could be placed into the holes on the inner side of the chair’s legs. This, in combination with our hinges, allowed us to create a fully functioning folding chair.

Bending back-rests

The final challenge in creating this chair was bending the wood to create a perfect backrest. The first challenge here was figuring out how to actually bend the wood, as well as how to measure it out so that it would fit the rest of the chair. We eventually resorted to steaming a very thin piece of wood and drying it out by sticking it to a curved surface with masking tape, which allowed it to dry with just enough bend. To ensure the backrest fit the chair, we bent a longer piece and then cut it down to size after it dried.

The start of a new chapter

This chair was the start of a new chapter that opened the doors to so much more. From here, we went on to learn about all sorts of fascinating techniques, and even to invent some of our own! (More on that later…). Our folding chair now resides on the shelf, waiting for the day it gets to make its debut in a stop-motion animated film. We have every intention of creating a second chair as part of a set. Exactly what set, we’re not quite sure yet, but we’re always open to suggestions. If you’ve got a cool idea you’d like to share, don’t hesitate to reach out!

A good old call to action

So you’ve made it to the end of our first Stop-Mo-Studio blog. We’re still writing about past projects for now, but that’s only because we’ve done so many exciting things that we would love to share! Our goal now is to share all these fabulous tricks right here for now, but soon, we’ll be sharing new tips, based on new stop-motion projects. Stay tuned for our next crazy adventure: Soap and Mirrors. And maybe one day, a newsletter, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves now.