Notes from the bench · 01

Tuesday

The bench opens at nine. Coffee, then the checklist that decides the next eight hours: which stage of which piece, how many hours we have, what will fail if we do not finish it today.

This week CINDERELLA · 0007 is on the bench. Face is done. Skeleton is done. She is dressed but not sealed. Sealing is a two-hour job you cannot leave halfway — the silicone tacks up in about eleven minutes, and if you stop to answer an email the seam shows for the next thirty years.

What no one sees

Most of the day is preparation. You cannot just start sealing. You have to take the wig off (it lifts a millimetre if you forget), wipe the seam line three times with isopropanol, cut two strips of masking tape at exactly the right length, warm the silicone to room temperature by hand for eight minutes so it flows without air pockets. All of that is invisible in the final photo.

A visitor asked once why it takes twelve weeks. It does not take twelve weeks. It takes about sixty hours of actual work spread across twelve weeks — because between every stage something has to cure, or a paint layer has to age, or a joint has to settle before you know if it holds.

The small mistake today

Painted the left iris a half-tone too warm. Caught it before sealing. Removed the layer with acetone-free thinner and repainted. Cost: forty minutes. Not a big deal. What matters is that we caught it — because the next stage would have sealed it in forever.

This is the reason we do not split production across factories. In a factory that painter has moved on by the time the sealer notices. Here I paint her and I seal her, so the "notice" happens in my head, not in an email chain that never gets sent.

Next

Tomorrow: cure the seam, dress, box. Photos on Thursday. She ships Monday.

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