After making a couple of recycled creatures a few months ago, I’ve become a bit obsessed with the idea, and have been haunting the local op shops and trash and treasure markets, looking for suitably interesting bags and belts. I’ve now got far more than I have had time to make up! One side effect of this obsession is eyeing-off bags that people are carrying in shops and on the street.
The bunraku-style puppets I was working on are for production called ‘See Beneath’, being presented by Hidden Corners Theatre, Canberra’s award-winning theatre company of young carers. This is how the puppets turned out:
‘See Beneath’ is a play by and about young people dealing with disability in their families, directed by Robin Davidson and barb barnett, with the assistance of Max Barker. Its written by Rebecca Meston and the cast of Hidden Corners, and plays in Melbourne and Canberra during July. Here are season details:Melbourne: Theatreworks, 14 Acland St, St. Kilda.
13 – 16 July, Wed – Sat @ 7.30pm; Sat matinee @ 2pmCanberra: The Street Theatre Studio, Childers St, Civic
21 – 23 July, Thurs – Sat @ 7.30pm; Sat matinee @ 2pm
I’ve been enjoying PuppetVision Blog for a while now. Based in Toronto, Canada, it casts its net much wider, and looks at video and film puppetry.
PuppetVision’s blogger, Andrew, is also creating Bear Town, a web-based puppetry project. Part of the ‘behind the scenes’ information there is a step-by-step series of articles documenting the making of Tumbles B.Bear. There’s a useful tutorial about a soft foam puppet construction method nicknamed ‘the wedge method’, (free pattern) where a series of wedges is used to a make hollow ball of varying shape, as well as information about how Tumbles’ arms, hands and mouth are made.
Updated 2015: some links broken, some renewed
I’m making some bunraku-style puppets at the moment. They are about 60cm tall. I’ve just got to the stage where they are more-or-less complete in construction and movement, but still rough in finish. This is a stage I love – there is something very aesthetically pleasing about it – and I think it would be really interesting to use them unfinished in a play. I always almost regret having to finish them.
They are moving really nicely:
A few other pics of them below: the woman, the man, bending. Now I have to paint their faces, forearms and hands and the woman’s leg and foot; and dress them.
The theme for Month of Softies this month was ‘May Flowers’. My first thought was of daffodils, as I remember loving how they came up all over the place in lawns in the chilly spring in York and Cambridge; and I thought I might try to make Talitha, the brave daffodil princess from the book ‘The Mouldy’ by William Mayne, and illustrated by Nicola Bayley:
Then I decided to consider Australian May flowers. There isn’t much flowering here in May, except some irises which usually flower in July, but this year are muddled by our late winter and drought. But there are a few winter-flowering eucalypt trees, so I started planning a red gumnut flower fairy. I thought the stamens could make a kind of drop skirt, or hat fringe, but in the end decided that I liked the flower just as a flower.
Its quite big; including the leaves it measures just over 40cm (16in). For the stamens I used lycra, an idea that I had previously found worked well for making small octopus tentacles! I like the soft colours, too. There are few more pictures:
Over at Puppetry Australia, Sean Manners has put together a pictorial account of the building of the parade puppets for Nature Band, a community puppet project that ran as part of the One Van Puppetry Festival earlier in the year, held in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains out of Sydney. The puppets, five yellow-tailed black cockatoos, four trees and three
waratahs, were made by participants in community workshops that were held over several months.
‘The puppets were initially designed by Jenny Kee; realized by Paula Martin, a local designer and sculptor; the workshops were facilitated by Sean Manners, puppeteer and community artist; and the performance and project as a whole was directed and choreographed by Sue Wallace of Sydney Puppet Theatre.’
The Victory Theatre Cafe and Antique Centre in Blackheath has a cool community mural along one side, that surely must also have been designed by Kenny Kee:
There is also a bus shelter on the edge of Blackheath that I liked because it has been painted to celebrate the puppetry festival (click on the thumbnails for larger images):
I heard the distinctive yellow-tailed black cockatoo calls when I was in Blackheath. They are wonderful birds, quite big – about 60cm – and I always feel its a good omen when they are about, though their calls are somewhat plaintive. In Canberra it used to be quite rare to see these cockatoos, but since the devastating bushfires in January 2003 they have moved into the suburbs. A few weeks ago, we had the first ones in our garden. They spent several hours ripping the bark and branches of a dying gum tree to bits in search of borer insects.
You might have seen pictures in the news of the Prime Minister and his wife dwarfed by a giant platypus, on the occasion of the opening of the Australian Pavilion at the World Expo in Aichi, Japan a couple of weeks ago. It was made by a team assembled by the Melbourne production company, think!OTS, and there are some images of the platypus there, if you check their portfolios.
Yesterday I was delighted to also find photos of the making of the platypus exhibit at Australia at Aichi World Expo 2005 in their Pavilion Photo Gallery. Starting with an artist’s impression, they move on to show how the over-all shape was constructed out of foam, filled with plaster, coated with concrete and covered with leather and soft fur. It’s not clear to me from that description how they end up with hollow sections, but I’m guessing that its the concrete layer that forms the shell. The platypus measures about 11 metres.Here are a few other picture links:
‘Our Mary’ and Prince Frederick with the platypus
‘Our Mary’ sits on its tail
Mr and Mrs Howard with the platypus: 1,2 (both photos by Penny Bradfield)
Update: Platy-cam! (not available anymore)
I had a lot of fun with April’s Month of Softies theme, recycled monsters; thanks, Claire. Firstly, please meet Patrick, who is channelling Patrick White:
And now Esmé (‘don’t mess with me… I play bowls’):
They were made from an old bag and belt apiece, and Esmé has half an old cricket ball for a nose. There are more detailed pictures below. And thanks to Belinda for helping me see some extra dimensions to their characters!
These cool recycled monsters were made by my friend, Belinda, for April’s Month of Softies. I’ll let her introduce them to you:
Gronk: “I couldn’t think how to make him until I saw Hilary’s bag-monsters. Then I
found these things in various junk drawers around the house. His nose is
made from a rubber finger-stall pinned to a cork; his teeth are
toe-separators. His facial hair is chicken feathers sewn into a band – I
found this ‘braid’ in a local haberdashery and bought some so I’d have
feathers to add to my cat patchworks. I think he looks rather like Alan
Ginsberg, although as yet he hasn’t written any beat poetry. I posed him
with a cigar (my last home-grown tomato of the season) because I like his
raffish air.”
Doris: “This is my first recycled monster. She started life as a tea-cosy. My
daughter’s drawer of “special things” was invaluable in providing the hat
(which used to contain lavender), the bangle for her mouth, the plait and
the flowers. I used polished stones and two star anise for her eyes. Doris
is demure, fragrant and very ladylike. She represents my long-lost
daintiness.”
