: The Bellaphant - Bones!

Here is the frame for the body of the Bellaphant laid out in front of our house. You can see from the picture that she is big. Some might say huge. Without the trunk she measures ten feet head to tail, with the trunk it's close to sixteen. The two pieces resting on the ground will be attached to backpack frames for the two puppeteers. Tomorrow she makes her big move to Oakland.


-m

: the Bellaphant - Here she comes!

A quick update on the Bellaphant. We are in full steam ahead mode. Starting to build out the face and trunk and we'll soon be working in a warehouse where we have room to assemble the whole thing.

Thomas and Ricky hard at work, gluing the first section of the trunk.

The beginnings of an eye!

Stay tuned for more developments!

-m

: the Orchestra!

Circus Bella sent out a few performers (David Hunt, Abby Munn, and myself) to do some shows with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra this weekend. We not only got to juggle violins and do a wonderful acrobatic adagio parody, but I also got to perform my bottle act and to play Camille Saint-Saens' "The Swan" as a musical saw solo with the SFCO backing me up!

Abby and I making beautiful music.

My debut as a soloist.

The whole thing was really fun. I love playing with and performing for professional musicians. I am hoping that I can share a video with you all soon, but I have to work out some issues related to the musicians' union.

-m

: the Bellaphant - Skull

Finally in the building stage on the Bellaphant rather than the planning. It's really exciting to get my hands dirty. I'm realizing that a well planned project comes together really fast. Also, there is always some reworking that has to be done midstream. The picture below shows the frame we will build the head of the elephant on.
My hand is on the lever that controls the first section of the trunk from inside the skull. The second and third sections of the trunk will be articulated by levers coming off the main lever. The pipe above the trunk is where we will mount the eyes. It's a bit difficult to see in this shot, but there are also cross shaped connectors where we will attach the ears. The whole head will connect to the main frame of the body via the wooden dowels on the vertical sections in the rear. (The dowels are a bit thinner than the pipe, allowing me to form hinges.)

The trunk is six feet long. I'll be jointing it and adding all the mechanical bits to make it fully articulated tomorrow and Thomas and I will start building out the head on Tuesday. This is the most complicated part, so once the head is done, we'll fly through the rest of the body.

I can't wait.

Leave a comment, let me know you're out there.

-m

: the Bellaphant

Circus Bella has commissioned the creation of a giant elephant puppet for their 2010 season. The above picture shows the scale of the thing. (The guy pictured is 6 feet tall.) It will be manipulated by two puppeteers inside of it. They can also control the ears and the articulated trunk. He will definitely have a mouth, and hopefully we will get permission to complete his digestive track...

The main frame of the body is PVC on backpack frames, with sprinkler tubing forming the finer contours.

The skeleton will then be covered in foam and then canvas treated to look like elephant skin. The puppeteers will wear special padded pants and stand on elephant feet made from chunks of cork.

Thomas John and I are starting work on the project this month. We're currently building prototypes for the trunk mechanics, checking out materials, drawing plans, etc. Expect to see more construction updates in coming weeks.

-m

: Leg Roller

Working on this idea for a model of human legs in motion.

-m

: Wings!

These skeleton wings are mounted on a backpack. I made them for my Mystic Sister. Long story. Anyway, hope you like them. I plan on doing a little fine tuning so that they actually fully fold up and are completely hidden behind the wearer. Once the skeleton is working well I'll make some kind of fabric cover. I'm thinking about building them into a trench coat. Posting them now so you can see the mechanism.

-m