Caroline Walotka
Experience
Something Here
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- July 2023 - Current
- Ghent
- Freelance
Independent puppet fabricator, get in touch!
Laika
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- November 2019 - June 2023
- Portland,OR
- Hair and Fur Fabricator
VRT
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- April 2019
- Brussels
- Prop Maker
Making props and puppets for TikTak, a TV show for toddlers.
View Photos- fabricating stop-motion puppets
- fabricating marionettes and hand puppets
- creating background worlds made of food and accessories
- working with felt and recycled materials
- co-working with head of props and director
DINH VAN FX
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- March 2019
- Liège
- Prosthetics Assistant
Assisting the FX artist in the creation of prosthetics for a French film.
- making a mold of prosthetic finger using clay and PU resin
- cleaning and preparing molds for casting
- casting face and finger prosthetics in silicone
- trimming and seaming of silicone prosthetics
Factory Create
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- January 2018 - July 2018
- Manchester
- Silicone Department
Silicone casting and on-set maintenance for Universal Kids' Norman Picklestripes.
View Photos- casting puppets in silicone and soft foam
- mixing and matching silicone colours to Pantone samples
- hair insertion
- trimming and seaming puppet body parts
- replacing finger wires, fixing silicone hands
- making armatures for hands, wiring the fingers
- vacuum forming eyelids for all the stages of blinking (open, half closed, closed)
- sanding edges of eyelids
- priming, colouring and sealing eyelids with airbrush
- on-set puppet maintenance
- on-set repair of silicone tears in puppets
- on-set tensioning of puppet armatures
- making armatures for hands, wiring the fingers
- casting new faces and hands for broken puppets
C-MINE
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- September 2017 - December 2017
- Genk
- Prosthetics Designer
Creating rat ears worn by dancers in an immersive live performance.
- life-casting ears on actors
- sculpting rat ears on plaster positives
- molding and casting silicone rat ears
- trimming and seaming silicone ears
- airbrushing and finishing
- applying and styling ears to performers
Isle of Dogs (2018)
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- September 2016 - September 2017
- London
- Puppet Hospital
Mending and maintaining puppets on set for Wes Anderson's latest feature film Isle of Dogs.
View Photos- on-set puppet maintenance
- on-set repair of silicone tears in puppets
- on-set tensioning of puppet armatures
- final checks of puppets before each shot
- continuity checks of puppets
- creating background puppets using wire and silicone
- styling fur
- styling hair and wigs
- creating spare hands for each character
- trimming and seaming
- air brushing for silicone
- mixing silicone colours
- casting plastic eyes, glueing paper pupils onto eyes
- sanding and painting miniature 3D printed characters
- making replacement collars for puppet's shirts
- sculpting, molding and casting for dog tongue used in closeup
- creating "singed" look on dogs using coloured hairspray
- creating "wet" look on dogs using hair gel
- punching and laying fur on silicone puppets
- adding paw pads to dogs when needed for the shot
- opening rigging holes in silicone and fabric
- mending torn costumes
- airbrushing bruised foot
- redesigning old puppets into new background characters
- paint matching puppets during each movement stage for replacement animation
- repairs and paint blending of silicone puppets
- painting "growl" dentures for dogs
- cleaning stained costumes
- altering silicone puppets to allow exaggerated movements
Factory Create
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- May 2016 - September 2016
- Manchester
- Puppet Maintenance
Mending and maintaining puppets on set for CBBC's animation series Scream Street (Puppets by Mackinnon&Saunders).
View Photos- vacuum forming eyelids for all the stages of blinking (open, half closed, closed)
- sanding edges of eyelids
- priming, colouring and sealing eyelids with airbrush
- on-set puppet maintenance
- on-set tensioning of puppet armatures
- repairing silicone tears in puppets on set
- making armatures for hands, wiring the fingers
- casting new faces and hands for broken puppets
- painting faces, feet and hands
- replacing faces, feet and hands
- working as puppet wrangler, keeping track of each puppet, delivering puppets to set
- assembling new characters using existing parts
- restyling puppets when needed
- reorganising the "puppet hospital"
Artem
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- January 2016 - March 2016
- London
- Fabricator
Designing and fabricating a pregnant belly for ASOS pregnancy wear.
- working with reticulated foam and lycra
- hand sewing
- sanding and smoothing down foam belly
- fitting belly to model
Madame Tussauds
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- May 2015 - April 2016
- London
- Junior Moulder
Moulding and casting a variety of celebrities, sanding and assembling before they're passed on to the painting department.
View Photos- moulding life sized clay bodies
- working with fibreglass and moulding silicone
- cleaning ands prepping moulds for casting
- casting body parts in fibreglass
- lifecasting hands using alginate
- filling alginate moulds with plaster
- moulding plaster hands using silicone and fibreglass
- sanding cast body parts and assembling bodies
- priming hands and bodies
- co-working with sculptors
English National Opera
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- April 2015 - May 2015
- London
- Prop Maker
Making props, including life-sized gargoyles, for The Queen of Spades.
View Photos- cutting up existing mannequins for repositioning
- working with fibreglass
- sanding mannequins
- making a steel structure for the wings
- fabricating feathers out of plastazote
- creating skeletal arms for mannequin made of wood and fibreglass
- priming and spray painting gargoyles
Artem
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- March 2015 - April 2015
- London
- Fabricator
Creating a giant inflatable underwater scene and shadow puppets for the 2015 Take That tour.
View Photos- fabricating large plants
- glueing and stitching
- using polyester fabrics and plastazote
- cutting and painting flowers made of plastazote
Teletubbies
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- August 2014 - February 2015
- London
- Fabricator
Working with Niki Lyons on the build of the iconic Teletubbies for the reboot that launched in 2015.
View Photos- making Teletubby antennae of hard foam, wire and soft foam
- enlarging existing patterns according to the size of each character
- applying patterns to reticulated foam
- cutting out each pattern
- glueing and forming foam patterns to create Teletubby suits to be worn by performers
- fitting and adjusting suits to performers
- creating anti-slip soles for Teletubby feet
- dressing performers on set
National Film and Television School
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- July 2013 - August 2013
- Beaconsfield
- Model Maker
Building and painting set and props for several stop-motion animation productions.
View Photos- sculpting, moulding and casting severed arm of silicone
- silicone painting with airbrush
- using plasticine, sculpey and balsawood for sets and props
- creating cardboard and paper props
- painting props with acrylics
National Theatre
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- January 2013 - February 2013
- London
- Costume Props
A six-week work placement in the Costume Props department, helping in the preproduction of The Captain of Kopenick as well as the hustle and bustle during the performances.
View Photos- redesigning hats
- making veils using existing lace patterns
- creating foam troll mask
- working with lycra, Varaform and latex
- assisting head of Costume Props during fittings
- making belts for army uniforms
- dyeing fabrics
- dressing actors
Lifecast Inc.
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- September 2012
- London
- Workshop Assistance
Gaining experience in a professional environment, helping with the development and execution of projects including exhibitions and film props.
- assisting the lifecasting of a leg
- casting, trimming and seaming in silicone
- making fibreglass props for a V&A Museum costume exhibition
- sanding and priming fibreglass props
Olympic Opening And Closing Ceremonies
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- February 2012 - June 2012
- London
- Costume Volunteer
Working intensively in the costume department.
- customizing costumes
- creating large masks
- helping with costume fittings
- assisting during rehearsals
- measuring performers for costumes
Carrion Crow
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- October 2010
- London
- Costume Designer
Designing and making costumes for a Victorian age inspired music video.
- altering existing clothes to fit era
- costume assistance on set
De Fonz
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- March 2010 - June 2010
- Brussels
- Costume Designer
Working as costume designer on this short film about superheroes.
- designing and fabricating lycra superhero costumes
- styling all characters
- costume assistance on set
Misschien Later
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- January 2010 - April 2010
- Brussels
- Costume Designer
Co-working as costume designer on this short romantic comedy.
- costume design
- styling all characters
- costume assistance on set
Hitomi
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- October 2009 - January 2010
- Brussels
- Costume Designer
Working as costume designer on this short film with Japanese influences.
- designing and making a kimono
- styling all characters
- costume assistance on set
Little Shop of Horrors
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- September 2009 - December 2009
- Brussels
- Costume Designer
Designing and making funky costumes from scratch for this student musical.
- creating fatsuit for character using foam, latex and jersey
- assisting during rehearsals
- measuring actors
- altering existing clothes to fit style
Quest for Avalon
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- January 2008 - June 2008
- Brussels
- Costume Assistant
Assisting the costume designer on this short film set in the middle ages.
- buying and styling costumes
- costume assistance on set
Courses
Neill Gorton's Prosthetics Bootcamp
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- 2018
- Falmouth
Crash course in film prosthetics taught by Neill Gorton.
View Photos
Introduction to Knotting
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- 2017
- London
Learning the basics of wig making
Technical Effects for Performance
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- 2011-2014
- London College of Fashion
Learning all the tricks of the Special FX trade. Making maquettes, puppets and creature suits. Focusing on stop motion in my final year.
View Photos
Costume Design
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- 2006-2010
- Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp
Design and making of modern and period costumes for both college projects and collaborations with film and theatre students. Introduction to scenography and puppetry, studied in-depth during an Erasmus exchange at Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan.
Skills
- painting
- silicone painting
- airbrush
- moulding
- silicone
- fibreglass
- casting
- life casting
- hair insertion
- wig knotting
- costume making
- fabrication
- sculpting
- model making