Bristol - Model Makers Bristol / Amalgam Model Making

Five secrets about the famous Bristol arts trail, Gromit Unleashed 2

June 26, 2018

With Gromit Unleashed 2 launching all over Bristol, we can finally start to tell the story of our involvement in a bit more detail. There has been a lot of fun and hard work building the sculptures for this summer’s art trail for The Grand Appeal. We were thrilled to announce our involvement last year and since then, the team has stretched their combined creative muscles to prepare the sculptures in time. It’s been a pleasure working with the artists and the organisers, and now it’s nearly time to reveal our own design – InCognito.

Ultrahaptics exhibition display

April 30, 2018

Next-generation interactive technology for Ultrahaptics exhibition display

Creating Aardman sculptures for The Grand Appeal 2018 Sculpture Trail

November 17, 2017

We were honoured to be asked by The Grand Appeal to sculpt the characters for next year’s 2018, Bristol sculpture trail, Gromit Unleashed 2. The three characters, Wallace, Gromit and Feathers, were unveiled yesterday at an event in Aardman HQ in Bristol and we were lucky enough to be there to witness the great reveal. Please keep an eye on this space where we will be talking more about the processes involved with making these iconic sculptures!

The New Crystal Maze props and replicas

June 23, 2017

Amalgam was extremely pleased to be asked to work on key props for the new TV version of the Crystal Maze which starts this Friday at 9pm on Channel 4. We were asked by James Dillon, who was the designer on the original early nineties TV show, to produce the Crystal Dome Timer Table as well as a large prop for an extra special one off episode to be shown later this year! We designed the table in 3D CAD software, CNC cut the panels then finished it using a variety of textures and paints to match photos of the original, supplied by James. The program was filmed here in Bristol at the Bottleyard studios not far from Amalgam's workshop. Amalgam offers a one stop shop for prop buyers, film makers & other media in the local area and rest of the UK, offering our services and resources to those in need of…

Megamorph, Aardman’s desktop icon gets supersized.

June 15, 2017

Still Naughty at 40! - Megamorph, an Amalgam giant poly sculpt. To celebrate the Morph: Still Naughty at 40! exhibition at The Mall at Cribbs Causeway, Amalgam Modelmaking was asked by The Grand Appeal Charity to produce a 3 metre high Megamorph. A giant version of one of Aardman's most iconic characters, Morph. Having previously made a life sized version of Wallace and collaborated on the touring exhibition "Wallace and Gromit Present a World of Cracking Ideas" we were honoured to be involved in such a prestigious project. After several discussions about which pose Morph should be in, we were supplied with a model made by Peter Lord, Morph's original creator, to use as reference. The next stage would usually involve us 3D scanning the model and then using a 5 axis CNC machine to produce the basic form, but in keeping with Morph's handmade look and feel, we decided to…

Developing TOTSUP, the Big Red Bus reward chart for children – on Crowdfunder from 15 March!

March 16, 2016

Graphics design lecturer, Sally Marks, is the inventor behind TOTSUP, the Big Red Bus reward chart for children aged two and a half to six years old. Once Sally won funding to develop a working prototype, she came to us to turn her design into a real product. She had been given Mike Harvey’s name at Amalgam by a contact at Exeter University, where she first sought support for her start-up. https://youtu.be/66RKQRmK-6E After the final TOTSUP prototype was unveiled, we heard from Sally that feedback from parents who have been trialling it has been resoundingly positive. The additional research conducted using the prototype led Sally to launch TOTSUP on Crowdfunder, to secure funds for developing the mobile app. The campaign is on from 15 March for 30 days. From design to prototype Here’s Sally’s story from bringing her idea to meet us at the workshop: “As a parent,…

Behind the scenes at the Bottle Yard studios – Amalgam’s on-site exhibition and meeting space is open

January 8, 2016

The Bottle Yard Studios opened in 2010, transforming a disused industrial space into a vibrant and busy creative hub for production. More international companies are bringing filming to the south west to use the space, which is great news for Bristol and the creative businesses here. However, for the art department, there is a significant challenge to find a company they can trust to produce high quality props, if they require last minute items, artefacts or signage to complete their production shoots. The site is on the outskirts of Bristol, with superb access to some of England’s most exciting film locations on its doorstep, from Regency Georgian to gritty industrial and picturesque coastline. However the majority of traditional creative service providers are based in the centre of the cities, like Amalgam’s central workshop in Bristol, which makes it pot luck for production teams seeking help with their props and physical…

An Overview of our Sculpting Services

October 30, 2015

We are in the run-up to our third annual Halloween Pumpkin carving competition, the #AmalgamCarveOff, and being professional makers we are in with a good chance - however, the competition is stiff. With sculpting vegetables at the forefront of most people's imaginations this week, it's worth talking about the sculpting services we can offer, the projects we've worked on, and the role this traditional skill plays in the age of 3D printing. Animals and Props Our sculpts tend to be one-off, bespoke pieces, but in some cases serve as casting masters to create multiple copies in different materials. The Big Midge for BBSRC has been artworked to high levels of realism, and beyond hand-making and paint finishing required no further processes. The Rats of Medusa, for the BBC fantasy series Atlantis, took some thinking about how to create a texture that was both fur and stone. We settled on…

Laser Engraving Service: Drummond + Hammett Cigar Box Guitar Components

July 10, 2015

As well as a complete design and fabrication service, we offer each process within our workshop - from CNC machining, to vacuum casting, to sculpting - as individual services. We recently provided our laser engraving service to local cigar box guitar makers Drummond + Hammett, etching their distinctive buffalo logo onto various surfaces and components of their instruments. Their exquisite, hand-finished craftsmanship is contrasted with subtle, precision-machined touches, as seen here featured on their 'ResoPhonic' guitar model. These guitars are stunning works of craftsmanship and passion - head to the Drummond + Hammett website to find out more.

Stainless Steel Sculpture for Blue Peter

June 11, 2015

Our sculpture of the BBC brand icon, the Blue Peter Galleon, is afloat in Bristol! When the BBC rang to ask us about making a sculpture of their iconic galleon which features on the Blue Peter badges, we were delighted to explore their options. As with most television props, the timing was tight to design and build it – so that filming could go ahead on schedule. We had a total of five days, from taking on the brief, to have the model ready for collection on the Monday by the Blue Peter presenter Radzi. The Blue Peter Galleon is easily recognised, so it was a challenging job to preserve the image and accurately re-produce it in 3D stainless steel. The background In conjunction with Avon Wildlife Trust, BBC Bristol has been developing a wildlife garden at the side of the Broadcasting House building on Whiteladies Road in Bristol –…