Archives for posts with tag: Characters
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Good to be a Dede

June 30, 2014 //
2

chicken and nosy neighbour

Last weekend the Dedes were a bit upset with me for favouring the chickens. The birds showed up and I went all gooey. The Dedes have made such an effort over the last few months waiting patiently and quietly in the art cupboard for me to find my feet again. I do appreciate this but I don’t know how to express it. Nosy Neighbour, who always wants to know what’s going on, had a little peek today from the upstairs window to check out the new competition. I am pleased that he decided he wouldn’t swap places with them for anything in the world. And I hope he will tell all the others there is a clear benefit to being a Dede. You are allowed to stay inside when rain is pouring down outside.  On this rainy day I too found a new appreciation for the Dede folk. They don’t make a mess! I am not really looking forward to braving the elements and cleaning out the chicken mansion today. The girls are pretty messy!

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Sense of Normality

June 28, 2014 //
0

chicken

Today the chickens arrived. Their job is to dig over and fertilise our backyard. I am sure they will have a good life here. As you can see in the pic, our garden is rather overgrown. I am in love with them already. They are gorgeous animals and I am looking forward to keeping a chick diary. I might even start a new blog with chick pics only. Of course, the Dedes would be very unhappy if I started something new and neglected them in favour of some chickens. I can’t do that and I won’t do that. Over the last few months I have been working hard to get some gigs lined up for the Dedes. The week after next I am running two stop motion holiday workshops and I am currently consulting with the Dedes about who will be joining me for those. One of the workshops will be just one afternoon in the Orewa Library with kids between 10 and 12. The other one is at the Toi Ora Space and runs for four mornings. Toi Ora is an organisation that provides art workshops for people in support of their mental health and wellbeing. I am really looking forward to this one and I will write more about it in due course.

I also started my new job this week. I was mainly busy with preparations for the classes that will commence next week. Naughty Boy, one of the Lil’Dedes was keen to check out my new workplace and pestered me all week to take him with me. I assume he is sick of sitting in the art cupboard of my studio, which is  – needless to say – a very messy place. I was a bit worried that all the others might want to come as well, should I give in to his request. But he was so persistent that I finally caved in on Friday. He was whistling all the way to work, but then when we arrived, he took just one look at the desk and decided immediatly it wasn’t worth it. At home he told the others my new place was terribly sterile, not even a single leaf of paper on the desk. Certainly not a place where the Dedes would flourish. Phew!

naughty boy

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Categories Absurd, Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, workshop

Travel

June 20, 2014 //
4

mr vague

I have started a new teaching job this week and had to fly to Christchurch for induction. The Dedes and I have a deal that when ever I go places I pick one of them to accompany me should there be space in my backpack. I believe they view this as an assurance I will return to them. This time I chose Mr Vague, a placid old fellow who goes with the flow. I certainly couldn’t have coped with one who wanted to paint the town red at night. I knew there would be a lot of information to take in during the day.

Right! He was so placid that he stayed in my backpack pretty much all the time. I was traveling with my new colleague Bonnie, who I met for the first time when I took my seat in the airplane. Mr Vague is very shy. That is why I took him. I thought he might come out of his shell when he is away from the other Dedes. But no, he stayed where he was because he heard us chatting away and did not want to impose. I wanted to show him the town centre that was struck by a horrific earthquake in 2011 and still looks like a battle field. As it is winter, it was dark by the time we left the art school. The town is also closer to the south pole than Auckland and therefore colder. I thought he might be interested in the Cardboard Cathedral, designed by disaster architect Shigeru Ban to temporarily replace the original cathedral that was damanged in the quake. After all, Mr Vague is made from the same material. He took a quick glance and said it is too cold to come out of the warm backpack.

We were there for two days and like all the Dedes he loves breakfast. So a cup of coffee finally lured him out for a quick chat in the morning. The warm ambience of the art noveau cafe suited him well and the coffee was excellent. That is all he needed to be content for another day and have a snooze while I was off to more induction.

The next time I saw him was when I arrived at the airport and heard that our plane would be delayed by 4 hours, which meant we wouldn’t be home before 2am. He shrugged the news off.  “Nothing you can do about it” he said and shouted me a beer. Neither of us got flustered – Mr Vague because he had slept for two days, and I because I was too tired.

Mr Vague at airport

 

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Hand Puppets, Life

Performance

May 30, 2014 //
2

I had to think long and hard about sharing the film of last Monday’s show with you or not. The quality is pretty shoddy. In the end I decided to share the film with you mainly for the audio. The show is pretty simple, but you can definitely hear how the audience gets more and more into it. I had amazing feedback afterwards.

The show was performed at the launch of garden and nutrition guru Dee Pigneguy’s book “Grow me well” at the Takapuna Library. That same evening two other books were launched and Dee was allocated 15 minutes for her speech. She thought a puppet show would be a lovely introduction. She left it entirely up to me what I did with the puppets and I came up with this three minute sketch for Munch, Kin and the Wooden Spoon. The puppets were specifically designed for this event and I wanted them to be able to open their mouths and stuff themselves. My puppets are usually not big on words, so here we go, another surprise. On the evening we had the puppets set up in one corner of the room. Then, when I was sitting in the audience listening to the first speakers, I realised nobody would be able to see the puppets perform where they were. On the spur of the moment I decided  to take the cast to the lectern. It definitely had its benefits and I had the microphone as well, but I had to push the puppets uphill, which caused me a little bit of trouble to begin with. And the person who was holding the camera didn’t have a tripod, so there is a lot of camera shake.

But still, if you are a hardy Dede-fan, you might enjoy it.

 

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Categories Absurd, Art, Book Launch, Comedy, film, Fun, Hand Puppets, Promotion

Marionettes

May 17, 2014 //
2

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.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, craft, Fun

White Elephants

April 17, 2014 //
2

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.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, film, Fun, Hand Puppets, Promotion, Social Network, Stop Motion

Munch & Kin

April 10, 2014 //
2

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.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, film, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life

Newspaper clipping

April 9, 2014 //
3

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.

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Categories Art, film, Life, Lipoedema, Medical, Promotion

New puppets

April 7, 2014 //
3

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.

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Categories Art, craft, Fun, Hand Puppets

I was a shadow puppet

April 4, 2014 //
2

Here is a little treat for my blog followers. Only when you have the link can you watch this film, as it is unlisted on Youtube. It is a test of my shadow puppets for the film “Fat Legs & all“. Unfortunately, these original shadow puppets didn’t find the approval of the other parties involved and I had to modify them a little. I wanted to show the sponge puppets in a savage world. But I was told that for the sponges it is not so much a feeling of living in a hostile world, but rather one of seeking approval and understanding, as they are just ignored or made fun of.

I have to admit, I was a shadow puppet! Many people are surprised that neither of us who made the film suffer from Lipoedema ourselves. For me it was a “mea culpa” project. When Avril described to me what a Lipoedema sufferer might look like, I immediately remembered my best friend at Uni. For me personally body shape is of little importance. I side with my “No body” Dedes. What counts is what is in the head. However, my mate at Uni managed to aggravate me when we were out eating. She ate so little and pushed her food around her plate for ages.  Basically she ate very conscientiously and next to her I appeared like a caveman’s wife. I just gulped down what there was to eat. I always wondered what this was all about, as I ate far more, but was in much better shape. No, that’s not quite right… when sitting down, my friend looked like a real lady, but under the table it was a different story (the dress code at a baroque court would have suited her very well). And I admit it now, that I occasionally thought “If I were that unshapely, I would do something about it”.

After we finished our studies, our ways parted and I have long lost contact, but Avril’s description of the lipoedema figure brought back memories of all the good times I had with my friend.

 

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Categories Art, film, Life, Lipoedema, Medical, Social Network, Stop Motion
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