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Wallace and Gromit Studio Loses History

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the violent-mood-changes dept.

TheFarmerInTheDell writes "CNN is reporting that the Aardman Animations building in Bristol, home of Wallace and Gromit, has been destroyed by fire From the article: 'Today was supposed to be a day of celebration, with the news that 'Wallace and Gromit' had gone in at No. 1 at the U.S. box office, but instead our whole history has been wiped out'"

2 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. Not everything is lost, only a warehouse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    An e-mail sent this morning to all the subscriptors of the Aarmand website:

    On the day that Aardman celebrate a chart-topping opening weekend in the US with
    Wallace & Gromit 'The Curse of the Were-rabbit', news of a fire at our storage
    unit in Bristol has been devastating.

    The facility used to store sets, awards, and historical artefacts, is not a part
    of the Aardman studio, and we are glad to report that no Aardman staff have been
    affected. However, we have lost a number of irreplaceable storyboards, awards,
    props and pieces of film memorabilia from our 30 year history.

    None of the material from the new Wallace & Gromit film 'The Curse of the
    Wererabbit' was in storage at the time, but we have lost many original sets from
    Chicken Run, Creature Comforts, and the three Wallace & Gromit short films, that
    were used for reference and toured around the world for exhibition.

    This will not in any way affect existing or future Aardman productions as 100%
    of sets and props are purpose built for each production.

    Wallace & Gromit 'The Curse of the Were-rabbit': http://www.wandg.com/

  2. Firing clay figures by pbhj · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm a bit of a beginner with this type of thing but ... the only general fire figures I could come up with put burn temperatures below 700C. Granted the commercial setting and open space of a warehouse probably promotes fast burning.

    Earthenware is fired to 1000C (roughly 1700F, I think). It seems that the temps reached may not be enough to properly fire the pieces. Also there's the quartz inversion point at about 570C - heating too quickly up to this point could be disastrous.

    I also doubt that the pieces are wedged properly to remove air (as they aren't intending to fire them) and so explosion with the air expansion is likely.

    Finally ... I thought they used plasticine!

    Plasticine (aka "modelling clay") melts when heated, FWIW.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasticine
    http://www.vanaken.com/howclay.htm (note "melting them in a large vat")