Day #97 and #98: The Magic of Velcro (two birds, one stone)

Technically speaking, I made four puppets, not just two. Well, maybe even more than that. We had birthday parties this weekend for good friends of my youngest daughter. I could've just gone out and got them something at the store, but I really wanted to do this instead. (I hope they like them!)

A few years ago, I took a workshop and learned about this fabulous velcro-compatible fabric. The "hard" side of the velcro will stick to it...so if you make a plain puppet...

Tabula rasa.

With a little bit of Velcro, you have endless possibilities!

Everybody loves pirates, right?

Lovely braids!

Pensive.

More pensive!

You'd be mad, too, if the other puppet got the pink braids that are longer!

The eyes, mouths, eye patches, hair, and whatnot are all removable and switchable. Huzzah! I hope they have fun with their toys! There should be many adventures!

So, for those of you who hang out here...feel free to chime in and let me know if I am cheating by calling this "two" works.

Day #95: The Ubiquitous Paper Bag

I didn't plan on posting a paper bag puppet, but my youngest daughter made this fabulous creation. I, um, think it's an insect? See the six legs?

Day #94: Skull Appreciation Day (by Tegwyn)

We made it out to Gallery5 for the "Skull Appreciation Day" show and art-making event. The show is full of skulls, skulls, skulls galore! All designed, created by many different artists from throughout the country. This morning they had all kinds of skull-centric art and activities for children and families. Both of our girls participated, and our youngest made a skull mask.

And a mask is a kind of puppet...

Day #93: Eggin' You On...

My children are often in inspiration to me.

OK, it's true that they often make doing art difficult, they make messes all over the place, they draw on the carpet, they "cause confusion and delay." (If you don't know the reference of that last phrase you are likely not a parent.) But, yes, it is ultimately all worth it.

We had some leftover Easter Eggs that morphed into puppets. Here is the basic evolutionary journey:

Eggs in a helmet. Shiny!

But then the eggs became more...

And then they became very, very scary.  (Beware: Graphic violence towards tiny plastic bear in a play-do sleeping bag may be too much for some people's sensitivities!)

P.S. I am painfully aware that I SHOULD be on Day 120. Bear with me...I hope to catch up.

Day #84: Rebirth and Butterflies

Continuing with yesterday's theme...Well, a variation, perhaps. Yesterday was death -- today rebirth! I can't think of a better image than the butterfly.

Butterflies are amazing. I'm going to have lots of them in the new show we are building. Tiger Swallowtails and Monarchs! We will have them in both 3-D and in shadow.

Today, I made a quick mock-up of a Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly. The mid-section is actually made from a "dead" pen.

When I was about nine or ten, I was really into butterflies. I thought maybe I would become an entomologist and travel the world collecting butterflies, discovering new species. Surely I would become famous and have a species named after me! I read up on butterflies. I memorized all the types listed in our home encyclopedia. (This was, you must understand, before anything like Google -- or even the internet! -- was even an idea for mere mortals.)

I collected all kinds of supplies. I was ready. Ready to begin collecting butterflies. Spring was in full swing. We were living in Virginia Beach at the time, and we had irises and zinnias in our backyard. I was ready. I had a jar.

I spotted one. A Tiger Swallowtail. I got it! Right in my Mason jar! I was prepped to do "the deed." Make it a specimen. Pin it. But I just couldn't do it. I saw it fluttering and beautiful and realized that I would never be a butterfly collector. I released the butterfly, released my dream of becoming a world-traveling scientist, released my vision for the Heidimius Danettacorus (or some other Latin sounding variation of my name)...but still embrace my love of butterflies.

Happy Spring!

Day #74: Even Creepier than the Spider...

...or so I've been told!

This was created from some magazine cut-outs, a glue stick, and some cardstock!

Day #69: A Scarf Marionette

Yesterday, I whipped up a marionette from scraps in the studio. But there is a type of marionette you can easily make from a square of silky fabric -- a great introduction to marionettes. The scarf marionette.

I've made scarf marionettes before, and thought I should get around to putting one up on the blog. Here we are!

One piece of fabric, wooden balls, head ball, string, dowel rods...

Tricky to capture motion when you are manipulating the puppet and holding the camera!

 I thought about placing directions here, but I found some online... Directionss for making one of your very own! Great for children!

View from above...sort of.

Day #64: Breakfast Theatre

Puppets: Part of your complete diet!

Ahhh...if only I were able to devote hours each day to this blog.

Today we will take a trip into Heidi's brain. This will be a bit of imagination theatre on your part, because I want you to envision the puppet act that I saw at the breakfast table today.

There was one lonely leftover pancake. So sad. We were all full. The pancakes were great -- I've been working on my gluten-free variations. Today I added chestnut flour that my sister-in-law brought back from France. It gave everything an extra special touch.

But there was one left. I hate to waste it, so I wondered if I could make a puppet...

This is what my brain saw... Imagine a beautifully laid out breakfast table. Pancakes, maple syrup, a bowl of fruit and some almonds. Coffee. Tea.

Cue music. (Something classical with flute.) A banana moves upright and peels itself. The peel wanders over to the plate of pancakes and taps it with one of the peel pieces. One of the pancakes "stands" up. The peel separates and morphs into the legs and arms...and hair...

Two little almonds then leap from the bowl along with an apple slice. They bounce along and leap onto the pancake to make a face. The puppet does a pirouette, wanders around the table, burns its peel on a bit of hot coffee, explores the breakfast table...

I could go on and on...

I would have to build a break-away marionette (of sorts) to make this work. I'm sure if I was having breakfast with Phil Huber or Joe Cashore or Albrecht Roser I could totally have pulled this off!

Play with your food and have a great day!

Day #64: Cast-Off (well, actually, ON)

I've collaborated on several of my posts. Today's post I created with some "help" from my four-year old.

Yep. That's my girl!

I must preface this by saying that my youngest daughter knows no fear. She is an active child who loves ice skating, gymnastics and climbing over everything. Our couch is a balance beam and a diving platform.

So, guess how she broke her finger? Doing one of these dangerous things? No. She simply fell off the couch while watching a movie with her sister. (TV is dangerous.)

She has been a trouper. We didn't even realize she had broken anything right away -- the child has a crazy high pain threshold and doesn't like anything to stop her. She never complained about the pain, but the big purple bruise and swelling finally swayed us that she needed medical attention. Now she has a lovely pink cast -- the inspiration for today's puppet!

The cast was set with her hand "bent," so there is a great angle and a spot to put a long tongue. I used a bit of yellow wool roving for hair and found some eyeballs from my "stash." Voila!

My husband was quick to point out that the cast wasn't even an hour old before it became a puppet!

Day #63: Spring!

It was such a beautiful, glorious day. Sunshine. Flowers. Yep! It was a great day...but I spent most of it indoors working in the studio. Mixed bag.

On the plus side, I did receive a package in the mail -- so at least I had new goodies to "play" with at the studio. (Fiber fans will understand when I say I have the softest Cormo roving in the most luscious shades of dark moss and chocolate....Mmmmmm.... Really, it's just amazing that I haven't drooled all over the keyboard just typing about it!)

Um, back to the post.

I took a bit of colorful pencil-thin wool roving...

Day #56: In the Doghouse at the Farmhouse

I've created puppets for this project in my studio, at home, and in moving vehicles. Today's creation happened in at Urban Farmhouse, a great farm-to-table restaurant in Shockoe Bottom.


There was a gathering of 365ers (a bunch of people in the area doing their own unique and fabulous 365 projects) at Urban Farmhouse, and the energy being around a group of creative people is really amazing. Today's project was born of this gathering.

I had the pleasure of sitting between Noah Scalin of Skull-A-Day fame and Madonna Dersch of Happy Homemaker. During the course of the conversation I was illustrating something with my hands and had the idea to create a "hand puppet" that I'm sure has been manipulated on many a restaurant table. The ubiquitous "hand dog."

I don't know if what I was doing  is really called that, but you get the picture. Kids do this -- especially making the dog raise a back leg so it can mark its territory, right?

But I was fortunate enough to be sitting next to Madonna...and we were both inspired! You see, Madonna is making houses and structures of all types in all sorts of media, both 2-D and 3-D. She has made houses from oranges, houses that would be great for Hobbits, and she's doing a great series of houses where she has a different house for each letter of the alphabet -- even Q (I told her they would make a great children's book).

I bet you can think of some sort of structure that goes great with a dog. Ta-daah! Two blogs in one fell swoop.

I didn't imagine we could actually pull this off in the restaurant, but Madonna had a bag that reminded me of Hermione's purse in Harry Potter Book 7 -- a bag that had an invisible expansion spell put on it so she could keep all of her books (a whole library's worth!), clothes, a tent, and all sorts of things necessary for young wizards on the run.

Me: Hey, does that sketchbook have any new houses in it?

Madonna: Not really. It's still pretty new. I only have some basic sketches in it.

Me: Wow. It would be so cool if I could actually make a real dog right now and you could make a doghouse! Then we would be done with our projects for today.

Madonna: We really should!

Me: But I need some scissors...

Madonna: OK. (She pulls out a pair.)

Me: And markers...

Not only did Madonna have just a few markers -- she had several zipper bags with a wide variety of markers. Even metallic markers!! (Seriously. Even metallic markers.)

Me: Um...glue?

She had two glue sticks. I was set.

And we both set to work.

The sketchbook became both doghouse and puppet stage. (See the glue sticks to the right?)

I'm so glad we were able to collaborate on this. It was so fun to talk with other 365ers about the joys and frustrations of doing these yearlong creative commitments. I look forward to doing it again!

After we left the restaurant, I headed to the studio for a little bit more work. I needed to shellac something so it would be dry by tomorrow morning. While there, I made a little video of my "hand dog" in action.

I'm going to have to get a bag like Madonna's for puppets on the go.

Day #48: Fuzzy Wuzzy Caterpillar

Spring is in the air! Thought a giant, fuzzy caterpillar would be appropriate.

As I've said before, I don't always like the word "cute" for puppets. This puppet is just that. No getting around it! Made with two strands of feather boa, two thin pieces of bamboo, a touch of wire (for attaching the boa to the rods), and two big eyes I had in my "stash" of eyeballs.

 The only problem with working in the studio and then taking the pictures is that I can't do video clips while manipulating puppets at the same time. This puppet actually coils nicely around your neck (in a cuddly, non-python sort of way).

Yep. Cute.

Day #46: Based on a true story

I was in the studio working away and wondering what to do for the blog today. I'm itching to post up one of the new puppets, but they still need some tweaks (and they need to be dry!).

What to do?

That's when the phone rang. It was my ten year old daughter, calling past her bedtime.

"Hi, mom."

"Hi, Sweetie. What's going on?"

"Um...I lost my tooth and Daddy is asleep already."

"OK...you lost a tooth?"

"Uh-huh."

It dawned on me a moment later. "You are worried that if you don't tell me that maybe the tooth fairy won't figure out that you lost a tooth tonight, huh?"

"Um....well...uh-huh."

So tonight I will get home and need to make a special delivery to underneath my daughter's pillow.

Before we hung up, my daughter asked me what my puppet was for the day. I told her that I hadn't figured it out.

"Maybe it could be about my tooth?" she suggested. "Maybe you could even make a tooth fairy puppet!"

Of course, I can totally make a tooth fairy puppet. Thanks for the inspiration! So here we have it -- our sparkly tooth fairy.

Wings!

(For those of you who have been visiting a while, you might recognize the head...yes, it's the same head from Gramma of the Little Red Riding Hood finger puppet series! If you remember, I had to attach the head with Velcro so I could "disguise" the wolf!)

Good night! I am heading home to figure out what the going rate is for a molar...

Day #45: Wild about rod puppets

I've had fun putting together all the Little Red Riding Hood stuff, because I enjoy stories and their various structures. But, structurally speaking, I love rod puppets most of all.

I spent a good chunk of time in the studio today and I knew that I wanted to build a non-glue-stick puppet today. Rod puppets are my forte, but they are usually time-consuming and detailed and...wait a minute! Surely I could think of something that I could put together somewhat quickly, right? I mean, that's what all the stuff that I have in my studio is for, isn't it?

I will say that my studio is pretty well-organized. Supplies are categorized and accessible. I have a great studio.

I took stock. Dowel rods -- of course,  I have lots! And tubes...and paper cups...and lots of fabric...and cardboard.

Great texture on this sponge-painted fabric made by some former students.

Sometimes I get my inspiration from fabric. I love fibers and textiles of all sorts! I have several pieces of hand-painted, sponge-textured fabric that were made by students I had done a residency with about a year and a half ago. Great kids -- and they loved anything that had to do with painting! We made these really large giraffe and zebra body-puppets. I still had some of the fabric. Ah-hah!

Well, OK, but does it really move?

The method behind the movement of this rod puppet is pretty straightforward. There is a dowel rod attached to the head. Surrounding the rod is a tube that is connected directly to the body of the puppet. This means that the head and the body can be moved independently. It's very simple and we've used this for a number of puppets -- mostly in our Little Bread Hen show for all the chickens and the sheep dog.

Enjoy the video -- especially the backside wiggle at the end!

Day #44: Happily Ever After? (Contains puppet violence)

Let's be honest, "Little Red Riding Hood" is a pretty gruesome tale. Wolves, strangers, dark forests, big teeth, devoured grandmothers, and an axe. Not your typical Disney special.

In 1976, Bruno Bettelheim wrote a book called The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. It's been a while since I read the book, so I will just quote from Wikipedia (please excuse my laziness...it's late!).

In the book, Bettelheim discusses the emotional and symbolic importance of fairy tales for children, including traditional tales at one time considered too dark, such as those collected and published by the Brothers Grimm. Bettelheim suggested that traditional fairy tales, with the darkness of abandonment, death, witches, and injuries, allowed children to grapple with their fears in remote, symbolic terms. If they could read and interpret these fairy tales in their own way, he believed, they would get a greater sense of meaning and purpose. Bettelheim thought that by engaging with these socially-evolved stories, children would go through emotional growth that would better prepare them for their own futures.

Point is, Bettelheim makes a case for the necessity of sharing dark stories such as "Red Riding Hood" with young children. How else will children develop and be able to confront the darkness within our world if they do not have the basic archetypes within their consciousness to grapple with it or to even acknowledge its existence?

For today, I think you know what's in store...We've seen Little Red, The Wolf, and Gramma so far. That leaves us with just the Woodsman.

I feel I must state that no real wolves (only a symbolic, archetypal wolf who really deserved it) were injured in the creation of today's post. The next few images are as graphic as it gets in the world of finger puppets. (You have been warned!)

And they all lived happily ever after...except, I suppose, the wolf.

THE END.

Day #43: ...What Big Teeth You Have!

Today's post is a tribute to Georges de Mestra. Who is this? Well, this is the Swiss gentleman who invented Velcro back in 1941. This man did not know it, but he revolutionized puppetry! Seriously, what puppeteer could imagine having to hang curtains with hook and eye and other contraptions.

Friend to all puppeteers!

A puppeteer friend of mine even suggested that my husband and I name our firstborn child "Velcretia." We, um, didn't go that far.

But for today's project we are continuing with out "Little Red Riding Hood" theme. These are all finger puppets made from studio scraps placed over the plastic tubes from leftover glue sticks. We've done Little Red, The Big Bad Wolf, and Gramma. Today we have:

What big teeth you have!

"Gramma."

The fun thing for me was that this puppet involved a little bit of Velcro and not much time. I took the wolf finger puppet and decapitated it. (Yikes!)

When I made Gramma, I attached her head with Velcro. So all I had to do for today was switch heads and -- voila! -- new puppet! Now I can even do scary things like this:

Very scary...

Which leaves us with just one more character in this story...

Day #42: Gramma...

Yes, I'm continuing with my glue-stick-tube series from "Little Red Riding Hood."

C'mon...you totally knew this one was coming!

Yep. Gramma!

The cast so far...

And tomorrow...???

Day #41: The Big Bad Wolf!

How could we have "Little Red Riding Hood" without...

The Big Bad Wolf!

They should look scarier, don't you think? (A bit more Grimm!)

Day #40: Recycled Riding Hood Finger Puppet (and Rat Update!)

It's tough blogging about puppets and fun stuff when the world is falling apart and people are in real danger. I have been racking my brain trying to think of something to do that's related to what is going on, but my brain just locks up and I am unable to move beyond the horror of reality.

I guess I'll just stick with the basics.

I had a productive day at the studio working on my rat/possum experimental puppet. It's coming along quite nicely.

Eyes, eyelids in place -- working on the mouth.

For my puppet posting du jour, I was inspired by a glue stick.

I use these in workshops, but I always feel horrible about the plastic waste involved. I picked one up today and noticed how very, very perfectly the external tube fits nicely over your finger... I looked around the studio a bit more and located a ping-pong ball.

I'm sure you see where this is going!

I have lots of scrap fabric that needs a purpose, so I gathered up some of that, too. Voila! Little Red Riding Hood.

Perfect Fit!

If you stick the finger puppet back on the glue part, it even stands up. I was able to use leftover materials for this (most puppeteers have ping-pong balls, scrap fabric, glue sticks, and other weird stuff on hand at all times!).

Day #39: A Radishingly Beautiful Ballerina

Well, yesterday's ballerina was a bit of a...well, a dog. During dinner tonight, I noticed a vase of seedpods. I love seedpods; they look so alien, some look so bizarre. These particular seedpods look like this:

If you know what this actually is, please let me know. I just like the way they look!

As I was looking at it, I noticed that if you were to invert the shape...it looks a lot like a tutu. What can I say? I just have ballerinas on the brain. I do have two daughters and my house has been swathed in pink crinoline for a while!

It took me a bit of rummaging through cupboards and the fridge before I found the perfect head: a radish!

I strung her up so she will spin -- my daughters will have fun with her in the morning.