'Road Train'. Mon sixième.

Mercredi, je pars pour Sydney. Ouais, je l'ai appris avant-hier. Mon focus puller a insisté pour que j'aille faires les tests avec lui chez Panavision. Il a l'air bien, mon boss. L'équipe se forme tranquillement, et ça promet. Mais mercredi! C'est après-demain! J'étais supposée faire la préprod à Adélaide seulement, dans 10 jours!

Pas grand temps pour me préparer alors.
Je suis plongée dans ma préproduction à moi depuis deux jours, et ça me fait le plus grand bien. Il me reste 3 shifts au resto. Il n'était pas trop tôt, ça fait longtemps que j'ai des fourmis dans les jambes.

On tourne en majorité dans le désert.
Le désert, encore le désert.
Je devrais commencer à penser m'acheter un chalet là-bas...

Hawker, 70KM au Nord de Quorn, où habite la mère à Allen.
6 heures de route en voiture.

Je n'ai pas encore lu le scénario, je viens de l'avoir, ça sera ma lecture dans l'avion, mais si l'histoire est poche, ça ne me dérange pas.
Le réalisateur est motivé.
Le dop est talentueux.
Mon focus puller est sympatique.
En fait, l'équipe de tournage au complet est pas mal hot.

Et on part dans deux semaines.

Yé!

And the rebuilding began.

I arrived at my last upholstery class with the skeleton of the chair I had guttered the week before.

As it was the last class I was going to attend for a while, David, our teacher, told me I should start with the back of the chair because it had no springs, therefore was less complicated and I could do it in less time.

So I started. From the empty frame, I had to install jute webbing. 5 nails on the end of each strand, then fold the ends over and put 5 nails more. I was getting pretty handy with the best tool ever invented: the magnitised tack hammer.


Once the webbing was done, I covered the frame up with heshin. Tacks all around, while folding around the arms, and doing a nice little border and tacking it all around again. While stretching it straight at the same time of course...


Then using a bag needle and nylon sting I had to learn how to make specific slip knots and go around the heshin to make up loops that would hold in the flock. I had to make a specific pattern...I took notes with lots of arrows...


Then I packed the flock under the loops and over the loops until I had a thick and soft layer without any lumps or holes. (This takes much longer than you think)


And then I cut a piece of callico and started nailing it in with temporary tacks all around, compressing the flock in and making it nice and round on all sides. After the first go, I had to do pleats so the fabric would go nicely around the arms and back and I pulled all the tacks one side at a time and pulled the callico tigher. All sides, about three times so that it is at tight as it can get.



So that's where I am at. I didn't take a picture of it finished though... That took about 2 and a half hours, and my teacher told me he was impressed with my speedy work. So it gives you an idea of how much work goes into a chair.

And I am not finished yet! The fabric will have to go over the callico, I will have to put a trim around the back, and that's only half the chair done! The big challenge will be the springs on the seat of the chair...

To be continued!

For Megan.

Have the best time!

Anatomy of a chair

I started another chair in my upholstery class.

I will not finish it in this session, because it's quite a bigger project. But I have started, and I am now down to the skeleton of the chair. I have guttered it, and wednesday I will start rebuilding it.

I had my camera with me with I did it, and I took pictures of every step, mostly for my mother, who is a quite envious of my class. I also wanted to share how long a process it actually is.

I have rarely seen such a great chair in such poor condition. But I feel it's going to be a goodie. To start, the fabric has to come off. It's pretty tacked in, to you need special tools...



What you find underneath is called flock. You have to cut it out because it is sown in.


Under that you find heshen. Here, the springs of the chair have ripped through it, therefore losing their support and it made the chair lump sided and uncomfortable to sit in.



It's dirty, it's messy and in this case, there are more than 60 years worth of dust and dirt and crap in there. I even found an old knitting needle inside it.


Once the heshen is off, the springs must be cut out and the weaving have to be taken off as well.



After all this, only the skeleton of the chair is left and the rebuilding begins. I will be sanding, staining and polishing the arms. And I will post pictures of the rest of the steps.