Hearing Squeaking?

Of course, it's The Guinea-pig Express!

Dear Reader,

are you hearing squeaking? No? Well, have a look at my first ever stop-motion animated character film and you will. It’s all of 28 seconds long and includes silly sound effects, jerky animation, minimal background, visible prop supports (white-tac) and even the animator’s hand appearing briefly. This is the sort of quality you get with a first-attempt!

I made this little animation because I have put together a little kit for making a pocket-sized doll with knitted clothes which I took to the Netherlands to sell on my market stall. I’m preparing to have a limited sale online of these kits and wanted to photograph the dolls to market the kit a little. I had trouble positioning the dolls as I wanted without my hands or other obvious support elements visible in the photo, so I decided to make another doll, again following the kit pattern, but with a wire armature inside for better posing. Here he is, the star of the show, so far without name (I know, how can he be famous without a name yet? Any suggestions?).

At the same time I’ve just started following (and really enjoying) a wonderful Substack paid newsletter on stop-motion animation by Rachel Bevan called Animation Pie. Each month Rachel runs an online session where we co-work on a mini animation project, and June was all about animating toys. Having just made the body for my little armature pocket doll I really wanted to animate him but ran out of time to finish him first. So I borrowed his clothes from another doll I’d made from the kit (whom you can see in my earlier post here) and jammed a hat on him to hide his lack of hair. Then I just needed some other toys for him to interact with and I was ready for Rachel’s animation session. But there was no time to make any more toys!

I’m a big fan of the quote by Arthur Ashe that reads:

Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.

So, I rummaged around and found my children’s old Brio train and some tiny guinea-pigs that some good friends made for us (thank you both very much); two mini crochet guinea-pigs made by Nathasja of Smilla Handmade and three needle-felted guinea-pigs made by Julia from Edinburgh. In the end only one of the larger, needle-felted guinea-pigs made it into the film in a cameo role as the train driver. The other two were too busy and couldn’t fit my production into their hectic schedules.

‘Why all of these guinea-pigs?’ I hear you ask. Well, our family has had guinea-pigs for a good few years now and both of the friends who made these tiny critters took turns in caring for our actual guinea-pigs whilst we were away (thank you again!). Julia looked after our earlier Edinburgh clan and Nathasja cared for our current Trieste tribe, who are living in my studio with me just now because it’s cooler on this cellar-floor of the house. Perhaps their presence at my feet guided me to pick guinea-pigs for my animation?

Here are our real-life and current three pigs, chillin’ out with some play time on the floor. They are triplet sisters and from left to right are:

Jota (a type of Trieste soup made from beans, cabbage and sausage), Kren (the Slovenia name for horseradish) and Carsolina (either a local type of bread, or a local pastry a bit like a vanilla slice). Yes, Carsolina has cataracts but they don’t seem to bother her at all. They are so full of character and are much-loved members of our family.

So, after much ado, here is my new little film entitled ‘The Guinea-pig Express’. Catchy don’t you think? Get your pop-corn ready and settle back for 28 seconds.

If you’d like to hire any of the cast for other engagements please contact me, I am acting as their agent in these matters. If you are looking for press photos, here’s a portrait shot of our hero and co-star…

… and a landscape shot.

Anyone wishing to purchase a kit to make their own film star pocket doll can message me here, or email me on hannahsanguinetti@yahoo.com, or wait for next week’s newsletter to learn more about their limited-time sale coming up at the end of July.

Thank you to Pixabay for the intro and outro music and the train sound effects in my little film.

Hannah xx

P.S.

Did you know that I had my first solo exhibition in Trieste at the end of 2024? You didn’t? And you’d love to know more? I have a video tour of my exhibition free to view up on Youtube, you can view it here.

Many thanks to Michael Munnik for allowing me to use his beautiful music in the background of my tour video and also alongside my time-lapse video here, go and listen to his songs on Bandcamp here.