Last Friday I finished Lizzie’s film (Lizzie is the pink one in the middle). It is now awaiting music and a last edit from the script writer. This is a project I started last year together with an Australian therapist, who I met at a puppet workshop in Melbourne. The film is to raise awareness of Lipoedema, a condition that is present in 11% of the female population, and it will premiere at a conference in Auckland in three weeks. I will show it in due course on the blog.
Now that one major project is finished, I asked what we should do next and it turns out that two puppets are already working on new projects. L’Artiste has to create a set of new puppets for a nutritional blog that Garden Guru Dee Pigneguy has just started. If all goes to plan, L’Artiste’s puppets will be present at the launch of Dee’s new book in the Takapuna Library next month. He has shown me his ideas on paper and I love them. L’Artiste is a very quiet worker and an extremely reliable guy, so I am pretty sure we will see his creations soon.
Witch, who is into nutrition as well had an idea of her own. She has always been a strong believer in cooking everything from scratch. She doesn’t buy bread or spaghgetti from the shop. She makes it herself and along the way she experiments with all sorts of ingredients, like buckwheat grouts or teff flour. Most of the time she can’t repeat what she cooked, as it is all chucked together, but anything she cooks is a treat. I can’t ever remember her presenting us with something ineditable. The weirder the better. Unfortunately the Dede household is pretty strapped for cash at the moment, so fancy ingredients are off the menu for a while. Instead of moping and complaining that she can’t fulfill her job description as the supplier of nutritional food, she decided to turn the shortcomings into a challenge. She is working on a recipe book with the working title “The artist’s survial cook book – 101 meals made from flour and water“. We discussed her draft yesterday, and while I have to admit she is cheating a little, (she uses, in fact, a handful of ingredients in different combinations) I am totally amazed at how many different things she can conjure up with those few really basic ingredients. On top of it, none of them seem to be very time consuming. (Oh sorry, yes, flakey pastry does take a bit of time, that’s why we only get it on very special occasions.)
The books starts off with the basic of all basics: Bread buns, which she is baking for lunch today. I asked her to take photographs and maybe we can have the recipe on the blog as a teaser tomorrow.
dedepuppets 
Looking forward to seeing the complete film about Lizzie
I thought you would be more interested in witches 101 ways with flour and water :)
Well, really a film and a book, but not one about the other. What next? Let us know when the recipe book comes out… I’m looking forward to the film – will you be submitting it to Cannes?
On another tack I’ve started creating puppet heads for a very traditional Punch and Judy show. The artistry not nearly as stunning as the Dedes (bless them) but they will have their own characters anyway. I’ll blog about them sometime.
Cheerio, Tony
Oh yes, please, I want to see your Punch and Judy. Didn’t you do marionettes before? I am still pondering about a live show, but I am absolutely no performer (except when I stand in a room full of students. Teaching does have an element of performing, doesn’t it?)
Wonderful thing about puppetry is that you are hidden (if you choose) from the audience and can say what you like; it is the little ones talking. I fully agree about teaching being close to performance. After giving a lecture I’m washed out and need to rest. It also gives me such a great zing it is a little addictive. Cheers, Tony
I agree with you here entirely and on all points.
Re puppetry, it is so amazing how the little ones can make the audience think, because the audience has no pre-coceived ideas aobut the puppet’s value system. As if the humans let their guards down.