The last few working days I’ve been making a couple of giant butterfly body suits. These are to go with the masks and wings I made some years ago for The Fool Factory. You may run across the new butterflies at the National Folk Festival at Easter time in Canberra.
This animation introduces the two mascots for the London Olympics, Wenlock and Mandeville, and the story of how they originated from the Bolton steelworks where the girders for the Olympic stadium were made. It was written by Michael Morpurgo, the author of War Horse and many other children’s books. There are follow up adventures which also serve to meet the desire expressed by children that they have stories associated with them.
The mascot design and maybe in particular the bodysuit puppet versions have been mercilessly derided for obvious reasons. I’m not very fond of mascots generally; with these I’m disconcerted by their saggy bottom halves, but quite like their faces.
