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I first heard about the Foundation Course and Academy from my good friend Mary Nagler. We have become friends over the years supporting one another, cheering each other on as we move along with our career interest in puppetry. At the time she told me about Bernd’s online wooden puppet carving courses I was at a low point in my puppet interests.

Forced isolation from the world wide Covid event was pushing many of us online, and into a digital world, including me. Since my regular job as a staff scenic artist for the theater department at UC Berkeley changed radically during Covid, I had to acquire and build on my digital skills. Since now everything during this time would be online. So I learned how to edit video (Adobe Premiere) and renewed another longstanding interest of mine. Animation (using Adobe After Effects and Character Animator). I discovered that in the world of digital animation, the characters you create are referred to as puppets and the tools used to animate them are called puppet tools. So suddenly I felt like I was dropped into a digital environment I had some familiarity and interest in. It was quite a learning curve and I still have a ways to go,yet I’m still intrigued and excited to develop this skill more. A part of me thinks I would like to keep on going with the animation along with carving and creating wooden puppets with the end goal of finding ways to combine the two in a magical way. Perhaps both online and onstage. Maybe in the form of moving, animated, projected scenery that is part of the wooden puppets world.

My main career path has been as a professional scenic artist. Throughout I have had an opportunity to do some carving for scenery and is a regular part of the job description for a scenic artist. Up to this point most of that has been large elements carved from polystyrene or some other type of foam. As theater goes, everything needs to be done fast with an eye to excellence and a looming deadline (opening night). So in my head, I imagined the last thing I wanted to do was carve a wooden puppet that would probably take a long time to complete.

And then, my friend Mary told me about an online presentation being given live by Master Puppeteer, Bernd Ogrodnik at the beginning of October 2021 to introduce the Foundation Course for Carving the Wooden Puppet. Once I started watching I was hooked. I watched the presentation and Q&A session afterwards . I hung on for the whole four hours, spellbound by Bernd and his amazing wooden puppets. Afterwards I had to sit with it for a few days and decide if I was going to join the Foundation Course.

My recent hurdle has been figuring out what it means to be on a fixed income now that I am recently retired from the Theater Department at UC Berkeley with an income that is about a third of what I had grown accustomed to. So I was faced with how to navigate paying for and justifying an online course on wooden puppets. Fortunately for me I started putting money away into savings before I retired so I have a bit of a nest egg to help me through. Still there was that nagging feeling that savings wasn’t going to last forever. Yet the Foundation Course wasn’t really that much money, I thought, and besides I had most of the tools I would probably need to start. So sure why not, so I did.

As a result, I discovered so much about myself, my relationship to puppets, and carving wood. Once I picked up my carving knife and started carving away at my first buddy puppet, I realized I had found my way home. Now here I am on the precipice of starting the Academy, knowing that it is a worthwhile investment for me. I am now a part of the Alumni group and have discovered several familiar faces of puppeteers I know and love that are part of the Academy as well. So I know I’m in excellent company and meant to be here. On top of that I now have this new incredible group of international friends from the Foundation Course, many joining along with me on the next part of the adventure waiting for us in the Academy of the Wooden Puppet.

I am starting on a new puppet adventure. I am beginning the Foundation Course to Puppet Mastery taught by Bernd Ogrodnik. He is a puppet master who lives in Iceland and is known as a master creator of wooden puppets. So I will be learning from an amazing teacher, how to carve and create my own wooden puppets. It will be so much more than about carving puppets since he also shares many other tips and tricks, including staging and performing with them as well. I have already started with a couple of lessons. The first on how to sharpen and keep your carving tools sharp. Sharp tools very important to being able to carve a puppet. The official first lesson is about proper carving techniques and how to do it safely as well as introducing students to our first puppet carving project. This is going to be both a journey and an adventure into the creative process of carving wooden puppets.

Building a Puppet for the O’Neill

By Tree

This is Purple Pete. He is going with me to the O’Neill Puppetry Conference this June. As you can well imagine I am very excited to be going. This will be my first time attending the conference. For those of you who have never been to the O’Neil, a lot of preparation goes in to pulling it all together to attend. The application process is rigorous and thorough. Lots of writing. Applicants are pushed to think hard about puppetry and what it means to them as well as to get clear on intentions for going to the conference. Since I am going to be studying with Phillip Huber for the main strand, I need to bring along a puppet to work with while I’m there. I will be developing a three to three and a half minute, short strung, cabaret marionette piece. I decided I wanted to start fresh with a new puppet. To design and build it specifically for the piece I will be working on. It’s been quite a journey. The puppet has been rather involved so I thought I would share with the guild a bit about my build process for this puppet.

My intention was to create a sort of Comedia clown character since I will be using masks as part of this performance. I also really want a puppet that has a lot of possibilities for movement. The result is to create flexibility into his body construction to facilitate his physicality. Because of this I’ve probably spent the most time building this puppet to date. Wouldn’t surprise me to figure out that I may have put in around 200 hours into this little being. Having spent this much time building a puppet, I can say the results are definitely worthwhile.

The most frequent question I get asked is, what is your puppet made out of. For those of you who are curious here is the answer:

Purple Pete consists of head shoulders, arms, hands and feet made of super sculpey (polymer clay - the gray stuff ). I made as many pieces as I could with hollow parts to reduce weight.

The broken head pictured actually is a blessing in disguise since it offers a cut away view of the hollow head and how it attaches to the body. One thing I’m finding I like about this puppet building method, is that when puppet parts do break accidentally, the pieces don’t shatter into tiny bits. The breaks are pretty clean so a good dose of epoxy seems to do the trick. If he had broken before he was painted, he could have actually been repaired by adding and reinforcing with more polymer clay and re-baking the mended piece. On another puppet I accidentally dropped my Makita screw gun and broke the head and was able to repair it good as new using this method.

There are many types of polymer clays available these days and a variety of colors to choose from if you are so inclined. I usually like to paint my creations so for me the color of the clay usually doesn’t matter. Strength and durability are more important for me. I’m rather curious to try the German polymer clay Fimo Puppen. One website describes it as “extremely pliable and dimensionally stable”. It was created specifically for doll making. My understanding is that it retains a flexibility the regular polymer clays do not have after baking. Most polymer clays are pretty rigid once they are baked which is totally fine in sculptural applications but with puppets having some built-in flexibility to the material would be a plus. In my research on polymer clay, I’ve discovered different brands of polymer clay can be mixed together. The general wisdom seems to be that the clay is baked at the lower temperature setting for the two brands being mixed.

The other great thing about polymer clay is that you can bake in aluminum wire armature to fingers as pictured. This adds structure and strength. I also use aluminum sheeting cut into tongues that are drilled with a hole for the pivot point of the axle joint for fixed puppet joints like elbows. Knees, and ankles. Aluminum is considered

the best metal to use to bake into the clay since it doesn’t conduct excessive amounts of heat which could potentially cause the polymer clay to burn and potentially weaken the joint.

Now back to the rest of the puppet construction story. The torso is cane basket strips. The pelvis and butt under his little green shorts is carved balsa wood. His legs are bamboo grown and harvested from my back yard. He also has black onyx faceted beads for eyes. The facets are nice because it adds a twinkle to his eyes. I’ve also noticed it adds a bit to the illusion that perhaps he just blinked.

As I started to build him, I started to get a bit nervous about the weight after sculpting the head, shoulder, arms and hands out of the polymer clay. That is why I switched to lighter weight materials for other body parts. As it turns out I think my choices have ended up putting most of the weight in parts of a marionette where having weight is an advantage. I think he weighs in around 2.5 pounds which I don’t think is too bad for a 27.5 inch tall puppet.

So there you have it for this article on building of Purple Pete. If you have any questions or need of advice please feel free to contact me through the guild.

Happy puppet building!

-Tree

Fundraiser link to Puppet Parade and Performance SA

Here is the link to my fundraiser. There is more detailed information regarding this funding campaign available through the GoFundMe site. https://www.gofundme.com/puppet-parade-and-performance-sa

Rehearsals and development for Renosterbos Parade in Smitsville / Barrydale, SA. This year the Puppet Parade and Performance will explore the impact of humans and our relationship with the endangered rhinos of South Africa . I haven't posted anything to my blog in a while. I feel it important to post now given that I am doing a fundraiser that will directly benefit these communities in South Africa. I invite my followers to join in if you are willing and able to help financially support this worthy cause. I will post a direct link to the fundraiser so that those of you who feel inclined can contribute to my fund.

My Satyr puppet.

Satyr Puppet Pics

My Satyr puppet shown in the pics has been an ongoing project . This puppet has been evolving for over a year now and has been in my head and waiting for realization in 3D for over 8 years now

Process of building the Tree Puppet

Yesterday my puppeteer friend Nicole was looking at the pictures I posted of the tree puppet and texted me afterward, curious about how I created the arms and legs of the puppet. At the time I was on the bus headed home from work so I intended to text a simple short reply. Then as I wrote I just decided to keep on going and describe my creative process for this particular puppet. What follows is a copy of that text. Creating a Tree Puppet- For the head, chest and torso I used 2 different size paper tubes that come on wire hangers. I think they were 1/2" and1" diameter.The arms and legs are just 1" wide black cotton twill tape ties I salvaged from an old theater drape we were getting rid of at work. Then I used spray foam caulk in a can called "great stuff" and carefully sprayed it onto the cardboard tubes and the twill tape leaving room for the joints. Then once the foam had set I carved away what I didn't want. Because the foam is unpredictable how it will expand, I just allowed the expanding and curing process to inform the shape of the trees organic shape. The hands, feet, shoulder and head limbs are actual branches I hand selected from the dead stuff that dropped off the elderly elms in my front yard. Then once all the bits and pieces where hot glued and attached together, I used sobo craft glue, painted it on to the surface of the foam and limbs then covered all of it in three types of paper. Brown paper and white bond paper soaked in water then placed in pieces onto the still wet glued surfaces. The toilet paper I just wrapped around the wet glue not soaking it first. Then I brushed more glue on top of the TP. The paper mache technique I learned from my Ukwanda puppeteer friends in SA. It all ended up working out well since the paper covering made a nice bark texture with some careful wrapping. The process continues. I have started painting the puppet so it no longer looks pasty ghost white. It's starting to take on a more earthy appearance. I will post more photos as the puppet develops.

A new wise old tree is about to be born

New puppet on the horizon

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything new. Took me a while to come back from my SA trip. It was one of the most awesome trips ever and I have been continuing to nurture those friendships and stay connected to those friends so very far away. I even experience occasions where I feel homesick for South Africa and my friends that live there.

Anyway I am posting a pic of a new puppet I am working on. It is an art piece in progress. I’m making it just for the sheer joy of creating a puppet. I don’t have a show in mind that its slated for yet but it will become part of my growing cast of characters in search of a story to tell. There is still much to do like painting, maybe adding some leaves and moss. Most importantly figuring out strings and control mechanisms. Regardless I am having fun with this new creation.

Parting thoughts on making puppets in a South Africa

I am so ready to leave and be home. It's all been good, and fun, and wonderful, and yet, I'm ready to be done with all this travel for now and be home. Getting around SA is not as easy as at home or in London. I much prefer public transit and here in SA it's not reliable or safe. Beyond that, the walled in houses with security alarms and the spikes and electric fences are starting to get to me. It's kind of feeling like a prison within a prison. I think after being here a while I would find it difficult to live here full time. Even out in the country like a small town such as Barrydale, there are places with high walls and or fences topped with barbed wire and or electric fences. The school in Barrydale was like that. If you were to see pictures and never experience it in person you'd get the wrong impression of South Africa. Being here and experiencing it is far less scary than it looks. It's just the realities and result of a country attempting to rise above a disgraceful form of prejudice and separatism. Where economic inequities have created a desperation for survival for the majority of the population. Lots of desperate non white people here. There are desperate white people here too. Just not as visible given population sizes. Apartheid really screwed this country up good and the recovery from it will take a very, very long time and may never happen. Look how bad it still is in the US and we have over a 150 years of freed black people and 50 years of civil rights behind us and we're still screwed up and uncomfortable with it all. We have yet to manage to get beyond the separatist ideas humans have embraced around race, gender, sexual orientation, and religion. I still wonder is there an end to it? Even given everything I just said, I still want to come back. In spite of the negative aspects, the country is still quite beautiful and the people I've met, black, white or colored are incredible folks in spite of what they've gone through with apartheid . Somehow people have come through it all with there hearts in tact. And I find that remarkable. I actually feel more hope for South Africa in some ways, than I do for my own country. The pace of life is slower and the people seem much more thoughtful and connected on a personal face to face basis. In the US so many of our personal connections seem to revolve around a digital connection. It's not that it's all bad because you are now ironically being connected to me and my thoughts through this media. However, this trip has made me aware of how much more the rest of the world seems to be connected in a face to face manner in their daily lives than we are in America. Perhaps, as a result, life seems to have become very fast and change appears to happen so quickly. I think humans are in general, having a difficult time adapting socially to a digital world that is outpacing the ability to cope with this rapid social shift. Having done theater most of my life and now embracing puppetry as a mode of connecting story telling to people in a face to face manner, makes me realize that perhaps I'm part of the last of a tribe of people who find and desire that face to face connection. I think it's an incredibly important thing to keep alive in human culture. My hope is that I will come away from this experience remembering the importance of a personal connection. I got a lot of that on this trip and I'm grateful for every moment of it. Since I've been away, I haven't watched any TV and apart from my plane ride from the US to South Africa , I haven't watched a single feature length film. My time on social media and the Internet has been quite minimal. It's been an incredible freedom to not be connected to the world in that way. Now the conundrum becomes how to take this awareness and use it to shift my own life away from the growing dependence on social media, email and the like in my daily life. There is no substitute for a real physical connection with the world in my opinion. That is where and how I believe, true, lasting, positive change happens. I got to see that in action in Barrydale and how that personal connection is changing people's lives. And I got to do it with puppets! How marvelous is that! Now that I am on the cusp of this incredible experience coming to an end, I now hope to take what I've learned and perhaps change how I interact with the world in a more meaningful manner. It's yet to be seen if I can resist the dreadful pull of technology onto the slippery slope of social oblivion. My hope is that I can keep the best of both worlds intact without having one rule the other. Don't get me wrong, technology is not a bad thing in itself at all. The real question is, how do we use it. Do we use it to create the plow or the sword? I vote for the plow myself. Actually in my case, the puppet. Anyway that's my parting thoughts in regards to this trip and it's an important lesson for me to keep in mind as I move forward with my life. So now here I go back to the States. I wonder now how the next chapter of my life will read and what direction the plot line will take. Stay tuned. There is more yet to come. Another chapter to be written and a new adventure about to begin.

The above photo is a drawing for a puppet design I am currently building here in Cape Town. I'm creating this one for myself. I am staying with Janni Younge and she has graciously opened up her home for staying and her studio for the creative part. This includes use of tools and materials of which I'm ever so grateful. So we'll see how far I get before I leave. I hope to have it completed before departing South Africa. It's rather ambitious. So here goes it.

Visiting Ancient rock paintings outside Barrydale

Monday, December 14 was a much needed day of rest. The morning was spent taking down the set and scaffolding used for the performance the night before. After that was done, my energy was pretty much spent from all the prior activities, so I took the rest of the day as down time. It was becoming clear though that my time in Barrydale was coming to an end and I still hadn't seen the rock paintings yet. So before I retired for the day those of us who took down the scaffolding made our way to Net Vir Pret the local Smitsville youth organization to see Jill Jouberts puppet show the Willow Pattern Tale. We were the first audience to see it. It was wonderful. After the performance I managed to make arrangements and found a knowledgable guide in Angelo our secretary bird puppeteer. He agreed to guide us out to the rock paintings on Tuesday December 15. On Tuesday a group of five of us left to see the rock paintings. Our group consisted of Angelo, Dylan, and Clarisa each of them had participated as a performer in the show. We also were joined by my friend Brandon. So the five of us made our way up this steep grass and rocky trail. It wasn't an easy trek since it involved climbing and scrambling over boulders. Some of it a bit precarious. Given the rigorous climb the end of our labor was totally worth the effort to get there. We were greeted with the most amazing grouping of rock paintings. At least one of the figures done in a yellow ochre I'm told is a rare find. Most of the figures we saw were the red painted version. The figures represented were both human and animal. Some were clearly hunting parties outfitted with clubs and spears. There were some figures I'm still mystified as to what they represent. I have an idea but not sure if my guess is correct. This was definitely a hi light of the Barrydale experience and glad I didn't miss it. You don't get to see cave and rock art that is estimated to be over 20'000 years old every day. I'm glad I got to do it this day. It's absolutely an unforgettable experience.

Ancient Khoisan rock paints at a hidden national heritage site near Barrydale. You would have to be told and guided to the site, or stumble on it by accident. I'm sure an effort is made to keep them hidden from tourists to protect them. And with good reason since they are both fragile and beautiful pieces of ancient history and art that belong to the local people.

The Parade and Performance in Barrydale

Finally catching up on my blog. Needless to say the parade and performance was amazing! The parade was magical. I did the route through Smitsville and so glad I did. The parade starts in front of the school for Smitsville and makes a loop around the town and back to the school. At one point in the parade we rounded the corner of the road to head back and were greeted with an astounding view of the valley as we came around the curve. Absolutely stunning and seemed a bit of poetic justice that the poorer of the two communities had the best view in all of Barrydale. It actually brought tears to my eyes. Once we got back to the school we made our way around back to the play field behind the school. By this point the stone bleachers were completely filled with audience. It was incredible. I was asked along with my fellow puppet builders to help in the tortoise transition from its horizontal to vertical shift. We had a tense moment when the shell that was tied on with twine got knotted as the performers attempted to undo it. So we had a bit of worry and delay to the start as we fumbled a bit and made do since no one had a knife on them. Fortunately Ned was able to cut the rope on a bolt head. The only other fluke was an unexpected power failure for the lighting. Only one fixture was working. It ended up being one of those unexpected moments where a fun solution was found and turned out to be a community participated event. Aja, our amazing director, got several people to provide side lighting with their car headlights. It was one of those incredible moments where a solution was found. And as we all know, the show must go on. In spite of the rough spots I can't imagine a more beautiful, energetic, and meaningful outcome than what we had that evening. At the end of the performance the audience was invited to come down, given "wings", and dance with the performers. Words can't adequately describe the feeling except to say it was absolutely magical. After all was said and done it was clear to me that all the energy and creativity put into the prior weeks of preparation, rehearsing, and puppet building all paid off big time in the end.

This is a vid of the final performance. This turned out to truly be a community event in that the electric system partially failed which meant only one light was operational so surrounding cars provided side lighting with their headlights. It really added something special in the end and as always the show must go on!

This is a short vid of the Barrydale parade. This is the culmination of all the work that was done in the previous four weeks of puppet building of which I participated in three weeks of the process. Pelamana the slave puppet was built the previous week before my arrival.

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