#finished puppet

[progressingpuppets]

28th-30th October Shadow puppetry in a suitcase

Three days working with Rough Magic Theatre. Creating shadow puppets designed to be shown in a mini puppet theatre in a suitcase.

I made simple black card cut outs however we laminated them which gave a brilliant strength to the card and made each puppet last potentially much longer. I picked a poem about a ghost highwayman, involved some torches in for interesting lighting effects. Rods were attached with twisted masking tape to allow for easier and flexible movement of the puppets. 

I also played with the overhead projector, blowing my puppet shadows far bigger and I was very pleased with the effect. Definitely something i’d like to revisit.  

[progressingpuppets]

26th-27th October Traditional Chinese Puppets

Had the great honour of working with Annie Rollins for two days. We had a great class on the brief history of puppetry in China before having a workshop in making them. The biggest difference in my puppet and a traditional Chinese one was the base material, I used a thick plastic instead of the translucent thin leather (A lot cheaper!).

It was a great introduction to a variety of techniques such as a simple but effective way to do translucent but bright colours which was just sharpie on plastic and carefully twisted wire for joints.

However the technique for manipulation was very tricky, it involved quite a precise way of holding each of the three rods as well as curling to create certain movements. It’s not hard to see why it takes masters decades.

[progressingpuppets]

23rd October PM - Finished puppet!

Once all the elements were touched up and finished (and the hands were re-painted for the 5th time) I hot glued the glove to the sculpts and spray varnished. 

This puppet took 3 days to make and i’m happy with the results, could have hollowed the head better for better balance though. Also could have upped the painting detail and neatened my sewing. Overall though i’m happy with the shape and feel, i’m especially impressed with how well that foam works as a material and the use of filler mix.