I wish I had more time. Today was a public holiday in New Zealand (Queen’s Birthday) and I had hoped I could catch up on a lot of work, but the day is coming to an end and there is still plenty of things left on the to-do-list. I spend all day working on new  puppets. My goal is to finish 20 puppets for the exhibition. Under normal circumstances that shouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately the working conditions are far from perfect: the house still isn’t finished and I don’t have a studio space. I share a little table with the builders and of course I can only use it when they are not here.

This leaves me with the weekends and nights. Fair enough. But while the house is water tight it is not totally enclosed yet and we are approaching the middle of winter. Okay, one could argue New Zealand is a Pacific Island and therefore the winter can’t be that harsh. After all, there is no snow in Auckland. But then, there is not much between here and Antarctica either and it is frigging cold at night.

Enough whingeing… I have nearly completed eleven new characters. The picture shows Lap Dog and Court Jester, two companions of the King. He is acquiring quite an entourage. I know Lap Dog won’t keep him honest, so I pin my hopes on Court Jester.

(Notice the ladder in the background? I wonder where these two want to go with it!)