A mighty worm was he.
He sat upon the railroad tracks...
The train he did not see.
Ooey gooey!
-Ogden Nash
I should not try to watch the Oscar's while working on puppets. I lost track of time and now I have FIVE minutes to finish this post!
I was a bit stumped as I, once again, had to make a puppet away from the studio and all of my supplies... A brief look around led me to some Play-do. Not the ideal material. But we've made excellent sculptures with Play-do in our house. (My older daughter has sculpted beautiful roses.)
The red Play-do called to me. A worm, naturally.
The only problem is that, in truth, you cannot make puppets out of Play-do. I made some rods by robbing a sushi made, and was able to stage some puppety looking photos.
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| The "saddle" of the worm. |
But, like I said, this really isn't a puppet.
It doesn't move well; puppets are supposed to move.
So I made another worm. It doesn't look as sculptural. It's not as photogenic. But it moves well and would function much better as a worm in a performance.
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| I confess. I robbed the sushi mats to make these rods. |
So which is the better puppet?
It would depend on the application and how close up the audience sees it. The paper one might work better for a real show, but are the models used in stop-motion animation still puppets? They move, if only in tiny increments in real-time, but on film they move fluidly and the more detailed play-doh worm would be ideal for that.
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