Here some impressions from the puppet making event at the Storylines Familyday in Auckland yesterday. It was absolutely amazing. I think the faces of the kids speak for themselves. They simply loved it. We had a steady stream at the table. In the end we had to pinch a few paper coffee cups from the cafeteria, because we had run out of items to use for bodies. :)
Archives for category: craft
There is no inspiration without Groucho…. Today Liar showed us his favourite quote, which was sent to the Dedes by @renfieldwantsmore “Who is that Groucho Marx guy” called Top Dog from behind the curtains “he copied that one straight out of my book! I will sue him.”
Then Top Dog came out of his hiding place and walked straight up to Liar. “You and I are definitely cut from the same cloth,” he said, “do you want to be my campaign manager?”
This didn’t go down well with a few instagram readers. Sorry guys, it is out of my hands. The two seem to be the dream team.
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I am not sure if I get round to updating you tomorrow as I have a full-day gig making puppets from trash at the Auckland Storylines Family day. The puppet making is themed healthy eating. Munch and Kin will be the baddies that need to be fought off.
I was busy all week sifting through surplus and left-over material and whittled it down to two boxes full of rubbish to take. This is a job that takes ages, as I easily get sidetracked with making things myself. I also had to remove oodles of rusty pins, so the kids don’t injure themselves when they comb through the treasures. I love these workshops. I find it amazing to see the kids being totally engrossed for an hour or so and come up with their gorgeous creations. I hope I will get some good pics, but I might be too busy running around with my glue gun, helping to stick everything together.
Here is one puppet I prepared earlier, to give the kids an idea what to do. Not that they need it, but had fun making it.
We know now, Magician feels he is incapable of doing a magic trick for the Dedes. But wait, there are a few puppets that should be able to help. Esta Blished, the fairy godmother for example, should have magical powers too. Unfortunately it is a well-known fact that she has Alzheimers so she is away with the fairies most of the time. Every so often though she is totally lucid and such a moment just happened. She went to L’Artiste and said, “you know I have misplaced my book of spells, but artists can create magic too, can’t they?”
True, L’Artiste creates magic, but mainly for himself, when he is in the zone of making things. However, it is not the kind of magic, the Dedes are looking for. Remember, they need magic to make Top Dog disappear.
So, L’Artiste went to see Cash Cow. (These two are indeed very difficult to picture together).
“I try so hard” said L’Artiste frustratedly, “but my magic can’t solve the problems of the world.” Then he hugged the old cow to lessen the impact of what he was about to say next. “Personally, I think the only hope for the world is to slaughter you.”
Cash Cow, who always looks like she is hard done by, wasn’t the least surprised. Obviously it wasn’t the first time that she heard this suggestion and she replied firmly “why do artists always have to be so melodramatic! Just concentrate on your work and leave me alone. If you are good you might make an impact one day!”
Monkey, who doesn’t particularly like the cool-headed, long-haul approach of Court Jester, thought he would ask Magician if he could do a bit of magic. That would be a quick fix, wouldn’t it? In the good old days, when everything ran smoothly, Magician was always boasting about his achievements. He could do this, that and the other thing, and much better than everyone else. But today he was in a hurry.
“No time at the moment” called Magician out to Monkey and ran the other way. “I have to hunt the Pokemons.”
“No, no, you can’t do this to us,” said Monkey and quickly stepped into Magician’s path. “You have to help us stop Top Dog,” he begged. But Magician broke down and cried. “I simply can’t face the truth,” he sobbed, covering his face to hide his embarrassment. “I can’t do it! There is no magic! It’s all an illusion.”
Monkey was bitterly disappointed “and what about the Pokemons?”
Devil had to burn the midnight oil yesterday. When he first saw the list of applicants he picked the five, maybe six Dedes, he thought would make it through the preliminaries. As MC for the competition he has to do some background research on all the contestants. Never in a million years would he have thought that the old man Granddad Max would make it into the competition. But this guy is still holding on to the lead. So now Devil has to catch up on research. Unfortunately, because Granddad Max is so old he has the longest history and this means much more work for Devil.
There are still two contestants yet to be introduced to the Instagram readers tomorrow. As already mentioned, Granddad Max is leading the table at the moment with a total of 65 votes, followed by Lapdog, who has no votes on the blog, but 60 on Instagram. Snippedy the clown and Chambermaid also have 60. Looking at it from a different angle, so far it looks like we will have experience, fun and beauty in the competition. I must say it bodes for a very good contest.
Ah well, it could all change by tomorrow. So if you haven’t voted yet, choose Super Dede 16 from the menu, look at the contestants and vote in the poll at the bottom. And don’t worry, I cannot trace who voted and you won’t get any unsolicited emails if you vote. It is all plain Dede dada fun.
I am often asked how the Dede puppets came about and I think now is an appropriate time to tell the story as it was Mother’s Day last Sunday.
Here is the short version of the story:
When I was little, my mother used to tell us kids about a devil hand puppet she once made but left behind when moving house. I never saw the puppet but she talked about it with such passion that in my mind it must have been the most beautiful hand puppet ever. Some decades later I tried to get rid of a rather large pile of newspaper and I was quite surprised when I suddenly had a very strong desire to make a devil hand puppet. My mother and I didn’t have a particularly good relationship and when I started making the puppets I realised I was about the same age my mother was when she told me about her puppet. Anyway, the devil turned out beautifully – even if I do say so myself – and I continued making more. Within a week I had a cast of fifteen and they were received very favourably by my friends. At this stage my mother was still alive and could see pictures of the first puppets and hear how well they were received. Sadly she passed away shortly after. I can but view the puppets as my mother’s legacy to me. There isn’t a day when I don’t think about her and develop a better understanding of her life and her motivations.
In the picture above Cash Cow, who has my eyes, holds a picture of my mother. Can you see the similarity?
Below is my very first Dede puppet, Devil. He will always have a special place in my heart, even though I am sure he has nothing in common with my mother’s devil.
This is more stuff I made over the weekend. I came across an interesting tutorial on the internet about burning glue to create a textured surface. In the video the result looked amazing, so I had to have a go. I used some air dry clay I found in my art cupboard as the foundation to apply the glue to. I wasn’t too sure about burning PVA glue but it didn’t smell bad. Actually, it didn’t smell at all though this doesn’t mean it isn’t toxic. (Okay, I found a site on the internet that said it wasn’t). While I like the look of the beads, I don’t like touching them. It irritates me that they feel warm, not cold like stone. It’s a fail in my book :) It made me realise, I don’t think much about the temperature of objects, but I certainly have a subconscious expectation.
My interest is in the process of painting, rather than the end result. Therefore I am by no means a fast painter. I am not a prolific painter either, partly because I have no idea what to do with all the finished canvasses. They collect dust under the bed. Every so often I create an image I am very happy with and this might get hung on the wall. Others may be overpainted at a later stage. I scratch and scrape away paint as much as I add it and with time the canvas gets covered with a thick layer of acrylic paint. A unique texture evolves. For the viewer it might look as if the paint is just slapped on but I think about each step. I am also led by the emerging features .
Today’s image is from 2010 when I explored the meaning of x. X is a very ambigious symbol. In English, signing a letter with two or three x’s means kisses. X also means the ‘unknown’ as in Mr X or ‘forbidden’ (don’t go there). Ambiguity is my other big subject. If you follow the Dedes you might have realised nothing is what it seems to be. One puppet says one thing and the other says the opposite. We all have our own realities. Once again, our own brain fills in the gaps and often tricks us into believing things that are non-existent. But I am digressing.
I can’t remember how long it took me to finish this very simple painting and a photograph certainly doesn’t do it justice. This one does hang on the wall and even after six years I still enjoy looking at the paint that is breaking open like a wound and the fraying edges of the x. So this painting is definitely safe from being worked on again.
The other day I installed a clothes rail in my art cupboard. I couldn’t resist taking a picture of the two bits that hold the rail. Aren’t they happy?
I have to tell you more about the launch of the Artist’s Survival Cookbook. I couldn’t have done it without the help of my amazing friend Carly. We had exactly one hour to set everything up. She just came in with boxes of lovely stoneware and props, I had done the baking, and in no time flat she magically threw together the most fantastic display. On the day, nobody, absolutely nobody, noticed the chairs in the back and how run down the old church hall was. Everybody was stunned by the food display and in the beginning no one dared to help themselves. Everything on the table was there to nibble on. Except for the eggs, they were raw. :)
I will dedicate a post to Carly, who is a photographer and stylist soon, when I have more images.
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