Nestled in the heart of London at the iconic Somerset House, Makerversity has awarded three recent Kingston School of Art graduates a free six-month residency to continue honing the skills they developed during their BA. They’ve had full access to our professional workshops, a vibrant creative community, and mentorship from our team. Meet Esther...

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What have you been working on?

Hello I'm Esther Marshall, my business name is @flockofharpies! I'm a printer and animator, based in Brighton, specialising in stop-motion animation and puppet making. I'm very much into horror, theatre costume and mythology to inspire what I'm working on. Tactile materials are what I gravitate to as well as learning hands on processes. I find these styles of working really satisfying as you can see your progress in understanding the machines or materials in the outcomes as you go.

My past few months at Makerversity have been spent learning lots of new machines and testing out new methods of puppet making. An example of this is learning how to use a metal lathe and a mill to try my first attempt at making a ball and socket joint armature for stop motion puppets. In shorter projects I tend to use puppets with aluminium armature but seeing ball and socket metal armatures used in feature films I was curious to start learning how to make the more complex versions. Along with metal, I have learnt how to carve and use a Dremel to create marionette puppets which led me to produce one of my favourite outcomes of the residency a small wooden bunny.

What challenges did you face after graduating?

After leaving university I felt pretty overwhelmed by the challenge of building a career and network for myself whilst dealing with how insular animation and illustration jobs can be. But during my time at Makerversity I’ve been able to lay the groundwork of my practice outside of school. This included building a new schedule, revamping my old website I made during University and creating friendships through a board games club which has now developed into a DND group I have regular meetings with. This was grounding and the variation within Makerversity helped me realise how I can market myself and apply my skills in different settings.

Did you meet/get advice from any members during your time?‍

My favourite thing about Makerversity was definitely the people. From Charlotte and Louisa who guided me and advocated for us during the residency, to the people I attended the board games club with and the amazing technicians Mackenzie and Tareg who did a great job whenever help was needed. They made the experience and I appreciate everything they’ve done to help me progress. Overall Makerversity was a really encouraging social space and I loved meeting all the other companies and people based in Somerset House.

A particular conversation that stood out to me was speaking to filmmaker and theatre designer Yoav Segal about my puppet and animation work and his advice on my portfolio and where next to look for work. As theatre sets and costume are a big interest for me I was really excited to get his input due to his own stop motion work he had done as a director. Specifically, he told me to look more in detail at puppet making to perfect my techniques which lead to my experimental approach to the rest of the residency.

What were you hoping to achieve during the residency and what did you achieve?

My goal for the residency was to experiment in the workshops and refine the skills I began learning in university. To do this I wanted to create a new stop motion film however this changed when I became more engaged with using the 3D printers, wood lathe and fashion workshops. Having become confident using all the spaces I then wanted to narrow my focus to push myself in the wood and metal workshops.

Having this extended time I could be more brave in attempting more complex projects. I wanted to attempt making a ball and socket armature and a marionette puppet. This is when I began practicing in the engineering room using metalworking machines for the first time.

To create the parts needed for the metal armature it took a lot of trial and error making tools for the lathe. The process took time, grinding the high speed steel down then measuring and dremelling the correct circumference. Using the tool on the lathe it would create perfectly round balls on the ends of my materials which would act as a stronger and cleaner outcome than soldering. The lathe was intimidating but extremely fun to learn as I progressed through different hardness of metals whilst using the tools I made. After completing my work on the lathe I moved onto the sockets performing different operations on the mill. It was precise and detailed work I found more difficult than the lathe but also enjoyed growing my confidence on such a handy machine.

During my time in the wood room I grew very comfortable with the machines and similarly to my time in engineering, I learnt about how materials can react to processes which in turn informs how you use them. I ended up creating two types of puppets from walnut and pine the walnut becoming one of my favourite projects I worked on.

Looking back if I was to do this again I’d choose to immediately focus on the wood and metal rooms to perfect my techniques. Whilst I loved trying all the workshops, even using the laser cutter to produce a print series, I would have enjoyed having more time on my favourite machines.

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How can people follow your journey?

Apart from breaking into the animation industry I am also expanding my puppet making practice. I am looking into local metal workshops to build upon the puppets I began at Makerversity as well as creating larger scale puppets for use in performance pieces.

An upcoming project I have is a commission for a drag artist to create a puppet for a new act they’re working on. We’re currently deciding between a wooden puppet or a fabric one. I’m very excited because the character they want me to recreate is very bright and gives me a lot of opportunity to experiment more with what I learnt at Makerversity.

You can find my work on my website:

FlockofHarpies

esthermarshall.cargo.site

As well as follow my progress on projects on my Instagram:

@flockofharpies