While she was recuperating Millie sat mostly on her rafter and observed what was going on below her in the classroom. There is still a little wound visible on her tummy. She is wearing her leash as a safety harness so she won’t fall off.
Archives for category: Life
Ah yes, the Dedes are on the back bench for a little while again. I so wish I could work on my book, but at the moment I am overloaded with work at my part-time place. The foundation course I am teaching on has just finished and all those poor teachers out there know what that means: Heaps of marking, following up slackers and other administrative tasks. Last Friday though we had a wonderful exhibition and it was a brilliant send-off for all the students who have been working together for 18 weeks. One of the last modules I taught was fibre arts and the picture shows the work of Sam Hall. I am confident he is one we will hear more of in the future. He is now off to art school in Oxford and I wish him all the very best for his career. The artwork is a felted brain doused in red wine. The helium balloon smiles at you for a while, but when you come back a few hours later it will lie limp and deflated next to the damaged brain.
Yesterday I had a workshop with kids at the Michael Park School in Auckland as part of their Art in Action event. The kids were absolutely fabulous. I am always amazed about the creativity and how they turn simple things into effective props.
My PledgeMe campaign isn’t going too well. Over 2800 views of the little movie, but only 7 pledges.Thank you so much Tony and Mike for your pledges!
No idea what else I could do. I do like the little film and Cash Cow really fainted.
Alien seems to be happy, but he is a happy chappy anyway, not a softy like Devil and Mouse. Anyway, he came into the kitchen today to give us the latest update on the campaign for the Artist’s Survival Cookbook. We have 4 people who pre-ordered the book so far and a whooping 870 people who watched the film.
“What’s there to celebrate?” asked Devil. “If only every eighth person would pre-order the book, we would have met our target by now. Nah, I don’t believe in this modern marketing stuff.”
“That is why you are no longer the spokesperson for the Dedes” replied Alien. “Let me have a go at it!”
“I only know I can’t do it anymore” said Mouse, and got herself a new handkerchief.
Now Devil started sobbing too. It seems they are all pretty exhausted. I have 64 of these puppets. I don’t even want to think about what happens when they all start! Can someone please pledge. Otherwise I might drown in puppet tears :).
Mouse and L’Artiste have been working hard over the last two weeks to get the crowdfunding campaign together. They made one film, which was far too long and they also realised it looked like they are promoting a cooking show. No, they really wanted to entice people to support their art and their cookbook – the book they’ve spent every free minute on and laboured over for the last six months. They decided to reshoot. They really wanted to get it right. Anyway, they finally got the campaign up. Last weekend Mouse was busy sending out emails telling every man and his dog that the campaign is finally up and running, and then…. nothing!
This morning I found Mouse sitting in a corner of the art cupboard, crying her little heart out. “Nobody wants the book” she said between sobs. “Absolutely nobody! It’s not that they have to give us money for nothing, they’ll get a full-colour book with over 100 pages for it!”
“Give it time” said L’Artiste with a brave face, though I thought I saw the glint of a tear in his eye as well.
Hurrah, I have done it. The crowdfunding campaign for the Artist’s survival cookbook is finally up and running. If you pledge, you basically pre-order the book but you also can pledge for a Lil’Dede, or the real thing, a Dede! They are not often for sale. Have a look, have a heart, and pledge. :) And if you know someone who might be interested in the book, share! Get the word out! The Dedes and I are grateful for all your support.
Last weekend I have been working on a film for my crowdfunding campaign. Now that it is finished, I have second thoughts and won’t be using it for it’s intended purpose. When I was riding the bus this morning, I had a more suitable idea. Guess I will be making another film next weekend.
But since I’ve made this one, I might as well show it :)
Wait, there is more! Last night Skeleton Edeltraut came into the kitchen. This is a very rare sight, as Edeltraut lives in the closet and doesn’t eat at all! Mouse wondered what brought her into the kitchen. It turns out Skeleton Edeltraut has a big problem. Bad Conscience has moved in with her. You may know that Bad Conscience latches on to other Dedes only to make them feel very, very uncomfortable. He will drag them down if they don’t manage to move him on quickly. Of course he never likes what the other Dedes do and currently he takes great pleasure in poking fun at the Artist’s Survival Cookbook. He informed Skeleton he was a celiac and couldn’t eat anything with gluten. This is why the book is total rubbish.
“The poor thing.” Mouse said empathetically. “I can understand why he thinks the book is no good. True, it is not for him. But it is very helpful for the 99 percent of the population that hasn’t got a problem with gluten.”
“What do you mean?” asked Skeleton. “I thought far more than just 1 in 100 people are affected.”
“Some have non-celiac gluten sensitivity” said Mouse, “and some just avoid gluten because it is fashionable at the moment.”
“But what shall I do? I have to feed Bad Conscience. I have some guests coming on the weekend and I don’t want him to be a party pooper. You know how he can be.”
“You’re right,” said Mouse. “No matter what the reason for his gluten-abstinence, he has to eat.” She didn’t have to think long and suggested that Skeleton Edeltraut try corn chips. They are easy to make, truly delicious and go well with any dip. Mouse explained they are made from finely ground corn meal (the one you can use to make polenta) and water, then baked in the oven with no fat. She poured some of the corn meal on a plate for Edeltraut to show to Bad Conscience. He wasn’t too interested in what it was as long as it is gluten free.
“As there is no gluten in corn meal the dough doesn’t stick together well. It is more like making a dough from fine sand.” Mouse explained. “To make life easier, use baking paper. The dough falls apart when moved.”
Ingredients
1 cup of corn meal, 1/2 cup of water, 1 teaspoon of salt (chilli pepper and other spices to flavour)
Baking paper
Method
Preheat the oven to 2000C
Pour corn meal in a bowl and add the spices you want to use. Mix well. Then add the water and knead for a few minutes. The dough should be wet and not too crumbly (it’s similar to the mixture you use to build sand castles at the beach). When formed into a ball, it should hold its shape. If it crumbles add more water.
Use two sheets of baking paper the size of the baking tray. Put the dough on one, cover with the other piece of paper and roll out with a rolling pin until it’s 1 millimeter thick. Remove the top baking paper. Cut the dough into triangles and place in the oven for 8 minutes. The thinner the dough, the easier they brown, so watch!
Remove the tray from the oven, flip the baking paper over (so that all the shapes are turned over) and remove the paper. At this stage the chips are quite soft, a little like leather, as they have only dried on one side. Put them back in the oven for another 8 minutes or until crisp. They are better overdone, than under.
The recipes are all done. The Artist’s Survival cookbook is at the layout stage. Hang on, a dear Dede-follower might think, wasn’t the book at the layout stage a month ago? How can it take so long? Yeah, well, I’ve got my tax bill! It is not much, but it depends on the reference point. If you have nothing, not much is too much. Pretty sure plenty of readers can empathise with me here :) It is the equivalent to going to jail in Monopoly: don’t pass GO on your way. Well, not quite. Looking back on last year I have moved substantially, but I am not where I want to be. I moved a little sideways. I have a part-time teaching job that takes up more time than it is supposed to. I am teaching young creatives, and I thoroughly enjoy the contact with the students and their development. Sadly, a clash in teaching philosophies with a colleague results in a lot of friction and ultimately the job takes up more head space than it should. The Dedes suffer.
The tax bill made me do a reality check! No more fluffing around. I have to finish the book and get it out. It will happen, but to speed up the process I will I need a little cash. This will go towards roping in some professionals that can do jobs I can’t do. I would also like to have a small print run of hard cover books.
Therefore I have finally decided to go ahead with a crowd funding campaign. This is not much more than pre-selling the books and it gives me an indication whether people are prepared to buy it. Of course, like any artist I have my doubts at times. And of course I know some of you really enjoy the puppets and the idea. A particularly big THANK YOU goes to Tony and Jürgen for their invaluable support throughout the entire process.
Yesterday I started to make a new flash drama film to support the upcoming campaign. As part of the campaign I will also offer four real Dedes as an incentive for a donation. As you may know, the Dedes are usually not for sale. Sometimes the lil’ Dedes are available. The real Dedes are bigger (between 12 and 15cm) and have a label on their neck to identify them as Dedes. They are the ones that go on exhibitions and star in stop motion films. The lil’Dedes are just puppets that try to be Dedes. They are smaller. You can see the difference in the photo. And while they are still handcrafted I don’t record where they go. The little elephant will go on sale at the Art in Action event at the Michael Park School (Steiner School) in Auckland on the 13 June, where I hold a puppet making and film making workshop.
So far I have sold four of the Dedes (my heart ached each time). I really don’t want to let them go. Two of the buyers allowed their puppets to stay with me. Push Push the elephant is one of them, Harvey the rabbit is the other. Ultimately the puppets become more valuable the more often they show up in films. One, Lap Dog has gone to a collector I don’t know personally and Punch too aka Han de Vere has gone to a person I didn’t know, but know now. (Message for Han, Top Dog is still waiting to join you! He is still muzzled, sitting in the corner.)
Still, the campaign might not work, as I am not very well connected. I work with puppets and reflect, I am not out there selling myself. Another (not uncommon) trait a lot of people can empathise with :). However, the book will go ahead, one way or another. It is just a question of how and when. I have finally set a deadline. I will have it done and dusted in July! (this year). And as I always say to my students. A deadline is a deadline, no expemptions!
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