Jesus lives, though not the trees

Posted by hil

My flight path into Adelaide yesterday went over the area where the once mighty River Murray now trickles into Lake Alexandrina and the sea, and where an ecological disaster has been unfolding over the past decade of drought. Ironically, only minutes further on I saw this  ‘Jesus lives‘ spelt out by lopping down trees. Join the dots, people.

Then I was delighted to glimpse of a large teddy bear on a bicycle on the grass between the Adelaide Airport runways as we landed! Apparently his name is Buck, he’s been around for 27 years, and his attire changes every now and then to reflect local interests. This time he was celebrating the Tour Down Under which took place in January.

Cool ceramic precision cutter

Posted by hil

I chanced on these ceramic precision cutters by Slice the other day in a Howard’s Storage shop. I’d never heard of ceramic cutters before, and I’m still a bit in the dark about what exactly the ceramic material is, but they are very effective. The blade is tiny when compared to hobby knives, ideal for fine work that doesn’t require much depth of cut, and for opening those horrible plastic packs that electronic gear comes in. The overall design is cool and nice to handle, too. OhGizmo has a review of the Slice range.

Cloudbuilder’s 3D iPhone puppets

Posted by hil

cloudbuilder's 3d puppets

Kara Jansson Kovacev (Cloudbuilder) creates intriguing and creepy 3D iPhone puppet images on an iPhone 3gs using the Sculptmaster 3D and Brushes and/or Layers apps. She also makes puppets and toy theatre.

On my first attempts using Sculptmaster 3D I found controlling the results difficult, and my images very blobby. But perhaps the lumpiness is intrinsic to the app, and part of the spookiness of Kovacev’s images comes from the juxtaposition of that lumpiness with the definition added with the other apps.

Sand and other fluid animation

Posted by hil

Kseniya Simonova created a sensation in last year’s Ukraine’s Got Talent with her sand animations. I think my mum will like this one.

In terms of creating story through such fluid re-drawing and re-framing, I draw connections to  Terra Prenyada (The Pregnant Earth) by the master puppeteer and Spanish artist, Joan Baixas, and to the wonderful work of William Kentridge. MoMA’s present Kentridge exhibition website offers much to explore.

Beautiful curiosity cabinet illustration

Posted by hil

curiosity cabinet by sakurasnow

When I was making the seagull skeleton prop recently, a google image search took me to sakurasnow‘s drawing of a seagull skull, and then more generally to her lovely blog. In particular I love her beautiful curiosity cabinet designs. And I think there are some new ones on the way!  Occasionally they are available in her Etsy shop, and she is also working with them on fabric.

Awesome 3d papercraft portrait

Posted by hil

papercraft self portrait by Eric Testroete

Eric Testroete, a 3d artist in Vancouver, made this awesome papercraft self-portrait head mask for Halloween last year. If you scroll along at his site you can see the making process. Wouldn’t it be cool to use heads like this in theatre?

Hand shadow wallpaper design

Posted by hil

hand shadow wallpaper

I rather like these wallpaper designs from Paper Boy Wallpaper. The hand shadow puppet one comes in inverse colouring, too.

animal skeleton wallpaper

Two puppet-related iPhone apps

Posted by hil

Small Wonders’ Battle of Puppets is described in a detailed review in the Your Local Guardian as ‘a quirky, inventive, beautifully styled and thoroughly likeable castle defence game’. Likewise, most reviews I have seen have been favourable. It’s certainly a cute idea to frame the game as a puppet show. I quickly lost interest in the game itself, though lets face it, I’m not particularly adept or interested in that kind of game.

I think I might have more fun with Elmo’s Monster Maker:

Erth’s magnificent tiger puppet

Posted by hil

Erth's metal tiger puppet

(Photo credit: anthonyung. Thanks for the CC licence. Click to enlarge)

This magnificent tiger puppet was one of the highlights of the recent Chinese New Year Twilight Parade celebrations in Sydney. Videos at the ABC, and on YouTube show it in action, and e_yew at Flickr has a close-up of the tiger’s head.

According to Street Corner:

The 3.5 metre tall City of Sydney float is operated by nine puppeteers and has an audio system in its belly to make it roar and purr.

Constructed from found and recycled materials, the float celebrates the Year of the Metal Tiger and is a symbol of City of Sydney’s commitment to sustainability.

The Metal Tiger was built by renowned prop maker Erth and its parts include vacuum cleaners, take-away food containers, aluminium cans, bicycle parts, grid iron and hockey guards, pool noodles, old speaker boxes, kitchenware, hub caps and motorbike components.

The float will be adorned with 100m of LED bud lighting, 90 metres of rope light, and tips the scales at approximately 300kg.