When I met the senior citizens last week, an elderly gentleman asked me whether I make the puppets first and then invent their character traits, or whether I conceive their story first and then make up the faces.

It goes both ways. With Chance for example, I accidentally pushed her face in when she hadn’t dried properly. I looked at her, and not wanting to throw work out, decided she must become Chance, the weird ol’ bird. I strongly believe in every mishap lies something good.

At the moment I am working on a new character and in this case I have the complete story and will make the puppet (hopefully this weekend). The puppet is called Mrs Blished, the Fairy Godmother. In lieu of  a photograph, here is a very rough draft. And, yes, her eyes look suspiciously like the ones of my blind cat.

Okay, Mrs Blished  is the only one who insists on being addressed as Mrs, but we all know her first name is Esta. Hard to believe she was young once and rebellious (it’s amazing what you find out when you visit a rest home).  Now she lives by a very rigid set of rules and keeps herself busy protecting her assets, while her wand collects dust in the attic.

Her rule thing would be okay if she needed it for her comfort. Unfortunately she expects everybody else to adhere to the same rule set. I might be a bit naive, but our opinions differ a lot lately.