“DR WHO - VOC ROBOT” 1976 - 1977
As well as part-time employment as an art lecturer, to financially support her own exhibitions and studio practice Rose also worked as a freelance sculptor, designer, props and model maker, from 1969 –1989. Her work included scenic design and manufacture, scale model making, monumental sculpture, 2D/3D portraits, special effects model sets, animation puppets, 3D caricatures, costumes and illustrations, in a wide range of scale and media for Theatre, Television, Magazines, Advertisers and Record Producers.
She frequently worked for BBC Television at Shepherds Bush, often with their designer Ken Sharpe, who rarely produced a drawing but would instead describe the mood that he was trying to achieve. Among a number of his Dr Who commissions to Rose were the “Voc Robots” in the “Robots of Death” series of four episodes starring Tom Baker, broadcast in January 1977. Rose was asked to create a robot that was so classically beautiful that it would seem sinister and capable of killing at a glance. She modeled the head and breastplate in plasticine and then cast them into plaster. Rose paid several of the young sculptors in the East End, including Richard Wilson, to make multiple resin and fibreglass casts from the moulds, before she spent weeks finishing, painting and fitting them for each actor.
Other work on programmes for the BBC included; Grace Jones Special – masks of film stars, Top of the Pops – frequent props & scenery, Verdi’s Macbeth – skull scenery, props and costume accessories, Valley of the Kings – repro ancient Egyptian artifacts, Spitting Image – prototype political caricature puppets, Frog Across the Andes – monumental sculpture, It’s Not the Nine O’clock News – props, Pinocchio – special effects miniature sets including the whale’s interior, Barbara in the House of Grebe – classical life-size portrait figure, Dr Who – several sets and Voc Robots, Lenny & Jerry Spectacular – chroma-key scale model Art Deco sets, and many other Drama and Light Entertainment programmes.