Archives for category: Art

birdy and ghost

Uhuuu, I haven’t posted for a long time. The reason might be that the blog is called Dede puppets and I am currently going astray with other types of puppets. These here are two marionettes who are currently rehearsing for a busking gig we want to perform at the grand opening of puppet festival in August.  You might notice, that I pinched L’artiste’s tunic for the ghosty figure. That seems a bit nasty, eh, as L’artiste clearly needs his tunic for confidence. But I let you in on a secret, he actually has six or seven of them in his wardrobe. So he won’t notice one missing and I just love the material for it’s colourfulness. I am not entire happy with the two characters, but only rehearsal will bring out the flaws. The bird character is too cute for my personal liking, apart from this I don’t know where the design came from. I made it from a picture that was stored in my memory. I must have seen wooden birds of that type long time ago. He would work better if he was wooden, as marionettes rely on gravity. This one is made of dry-felted balls. To weigh his feet down I glued some old coins at the bottom, for good luck. I deemed this appropriate for a busking bird and I tell you what, he tap dances like a pro.

Last Friday Cath and I did a workshop at the Mairangi Arts Centre together. It was a holiday workshop for kids aged 7 to 12. Originally we wanted to do two days. The first day should have been puppet making and the second day creating the stop motion film with the puppets from the previous day. Unfortunately there weren’t enough takers for puppet making, though the stop motion part was reasonably popular. So we had to create the actors for the film on the same day… It was all a bit rushed, but I finally learned my lesson: Don’t mention puppets!

Of course, on the day the kids were really happy to create their puppets. They had heaps of fun, but would they enrol in a puppet making workshop. No way!

Ah well, here is the result: As I said it is all a bit rushed, but it was certainly a good sign that the kids didn’t want to leave when the class came to an end.

I had some good news recently: in August Puppet Festival at the Estuary Art Centre in Orewa is going ahead as planned. Kim Boyd, the Centre’s manager has allocated the entire month to all things puppetry. I am really excited as I hope it will show how diversified puppets can be. We have Anna Bailey, a puppeteer from Wellington, coming up for 2 weeks and running workshops on puppet making and she will also perform some of her wonderful string puppet shows. Sarah-Jane Blake a performance designer, working in the UK and in NZ will also run workshops on story development and telling. Finally in  the last week I will be facilitating stop motion animation workshops.

The Festival will start off with a buskers and market day on Saturday the 9th of August and then continues with an exhibition called “A story-teller’s world.” If you are in New Zealand and want to partake in the exhibition of puppets and other object which elicit imagination please get in touch with either me or the Estuary Arts Centre.

The bad news is that my Artstation workshop has once again very low enrolment numbers and is unlikely to go ahead. It is so sad that most people when they hear the word “puppet” dismiss it as a children thing, at least here in New Zealand.

While I was preparing my course, I came across this wonderful interview with the amazing Candadian puppeteer Ronnie Burkett by Gary Friedman (also a puppeteer working on a film about politicial puppetry at the moment). Ronnie explains so eloquently here what puppets are all about, its really worth watching.

Here it is, the long awaited sequel to “Life of an Artist”. One year on, L’Artiste is still saddened that his art wasn’t perceived that well last time. Remember he threw his tunic in an act of despair at the end of the original film? Obviously, Skeleton picked it up and kept it for him in her closet all this time. Now she thought it was about time for L’Artiste to snap out of it. Surprisingly, once he slipped back into his tunic, he regained his confidence (I wish I had a magic tunic like this :) But what am I saying to you… watch the film.

sequel

Finally I got round to attend to my Dedes and I made good progress on the sequel to “Life of an Artist”. I can tell you as much: Skeleton felt sorry for poor L’Artiste who was still stitting in the corner crying. She brought him his tunic back and convinced him to have another go. For the rest of the story you have to wait… I hope I will have the film finished by tomorrow.

I though I’d share this page from the Artstation Term 2 Programme with you. It promotes my upcoming course. Kit Lawrence, the photographer,  has captured the essence of my art extremely well. Being a puppet artist suits me to a T. I love being in the background and happy for the puppets to have the limelight. They are such amazing creative tools. To be honest, the only difference between an object and a puppet is imagination. For me personally, having a sound imagination is extremly helpful in navigating modern life.

Term2programme

It is Easter again. It is around this time of the year it’s most noticeable to me that I have moved from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern. The weather is pretty much the same in both countries, but Germany is now moving towards the warm summer months and Easter marks the end of the cold, while here in New Zealand we start to batten down the hatches for winter. Last year at Easter I made my first stop motion film with the Dedes. It was a spur of the moment piece about the life of an artist. I have been wondering for a while if it is time for a remake. Nothing much has changed. A year, though, is not long enough really to justify a remake, or is it? Maybe I’ll make a sequel!

Here is the original.

 

Looking back even further, two years ago I created this sequence of images for the blog. Not a film yet, but it is clearly pointing towards film making :)

bunny1

bunny2

bunny3

bunny4

bunny5

bunny6

What the heck. I am currently trying new things. Nothing really for public viewing yet…. but I uploaded my first Munch & Kin trial as an unlisted clip to youtube. Just to show the people I am working with what the puppets can do. There are lots of things I haven’t sussed yet. For example the backdrop of the theatre. I used a triple folded net curtain. I hoped it would hide the puppeteer completely while the puppeteer on the other hand would see the puppets while working. Unfortunately you still can make out a shadow, while I couldn’t see a thing and therefore the puppets move pretty awkwardly. I had no idea which way they were facing. Also they don’t have their final dresses yet and I had to finger my way through copious amounts of material that I had fixed in a make-shift way to their handles. So to sum it up, it was a disaster really, nevertheless I do like the expression on their faces. And this is the most important bit, everything else I can learn or solve.

fat legs clipping

The local rag did an article on the film. I guess this is another milestone. Note, Lizzie has the wrong head, she looks really scared here. She will have a bit of a break for now, while I work with the new munchkins.

2 badi_cup

I was so itching to get back to puppet making and spend all weekend to create puppets for a project that will advocate good nutrition. Here it was important to me, that the puppets could open their mouths, but they also should show their relationship with the Dedes.  In this photograph I photoshopped two images of the same puppet together, to show it with the mouth open and closed. However, here the mouth is propped open with a aluminium tube, which I originally wanted to use. It runs inside the handle. But when the puppet was finished, I discovered, when I shake it in a certain way, the mouth opens and closes without the help of the tube and I only need one hand. So I can work two puppets at once. It is amazing how plans always change.