….a young girl wanted to knit some stuff. Then she wanted to spin some stuff. Then she wanted to teach others to spin and so the story goes. But the metaphor for spinning straw into gold takes on new meaning when you get to incorporate your love of fibre and see it translated on camera.
The full morning yesterday was spen
t in the prop warehouse. There were thousands of metres of flax to rewind. It didn’t stop me from being distracted by the millions of things that had nothing to do with why I was sitting in the prop warehouse. Swords, marionettes, musical instrument, containers and vessels of varying sizes—-it was dizzying to be surrounded by all of it.
The prop guys are amazing. Alchemists in their own right, I was watching them create out of nothing. It’s a tougher job than I could have ever imagined and they are superstars, really.
After all the consultations, I came face to face with the Great Wheel —repaired. She was a beauty for sure, modified to fit the screen needs but not my personal needs…..(which saved me the trouble of trying to figure out how I was going to fit it in the car after shooting was over for the day)
I found the most beautiful vintage spools to wrap the fibre around and stuck to that task. The rolags had already been done and the mountains of unprocessed fibre wouldn’t be necessary until the scene was ready
to shoot. I couldn’t get over how nicely the core spun prep turned out, but not a preparation I would ever recommend for spinning bast fibres. Hence Pearl’s gift of the goggles.
The wheel was spruced up and beautiful with a new whorl and drive band; cracks were filled and it was truly a work of art. The morning flew by. The film industry is always trying to feed you, but I really didn’t have much of an appetite and didn’t want to leave the prop room even for a minute. I did enjoy mega doses of caffeine which was in sympathy with the pace I was working at.
Then setting the stage was before lunch. The green screen is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Very little was on set except for the wheel and fibre and a table full of alchemist tools and potions. So I went to work, first the unprepped fibre mountain, and then the collection of rolags piled on top and arranged just so and then arranging the wheel and the fibre for the actor.
Then a walk through of the scene with the actors and suddenly everyone was gone…Lunch. OMG, cold grilled mushroom salad, steamed orange roughy and a rhubarb crisp –and more coffee. I’ll let you know how the afternoon went tomorrow. I still have a lot to process and I think a massage may be on the agenda.