Archives for posts with tag: craft

author photo I just looked through the launch images my friend Renee had sent me.

I think this is a beautiful one of Hermit. It was taken right after the puppet show and the actors are pretty tired. Ducky, (the one in the foreground) wasn’t part of the actual show, but he has always something to say and wants to be centre stage. Pig (lying on the table) drank the entire bottle of snaps by itself and is now out of it.  Pirate (at the top) casts his good eye around for the next opportunity to make money. And Mouse (on the left) is just exhausted from running around all evening (tongue hanging out). Witch, Devil (very obscured) and Deutsch Fraulein are protecting Hermit from being recognised (:

Of course everybody knows by now Hermit is actually a Hermitess. It is the age of equal opportunity after all…

what's next

When I was tidying up in the Gallery yesterday, I overheard a conversation between Devil’s Advocate and Sunny Boy. Sunny was very excited how well everything went on Thursday night and said confidently we all could go on holiday now – The Gold Coast would be nice, thank you! He even suggested, I should pay for the entire troupe, as I must have made loads of money by selling the book. But Devil’s advocate has a good head on his shoulders and put Sunny right… He said: “This was only the beginning. The majority of work is still to come”. Ah, Sunny is such a dreamer…

So, it is all set up for the big night at the Gallery. Here L’artiste, Detail and Skeleton are having a chat about what to expect. They don’t seem to be particularly happy campers. I will report tomorrow how they liked it.

I still have to do some name plates for the puppets, but most importantly, the wine is in the fridge… I even rehearsed my puppet show this morning at breakfast with two spectators. They had some really good input. My biggest problem will be to make sure, I am not laughing the loudest about my own jokes.

Nosy neighbour This one is the Nosy Neighbour. He pretends to be not interested. But be careful, he might look shy, but he eavesdrop  (therefore the big ears). And he is envious too, so envious in fact, he turned green.

This character was originally called Vanity, but I have renamed her Socialite.

In conversation, she is the one constantly looking around to see whether there is a more important person in sight. If somebody shows up on the horizon, she drops you like a hot potato.  On the other hand, she is very worried about what other people might think of her. As an indication of this trait the back of her head shows other people’s faces.

Working on this puppet, and of course thinking of the upcoming book launch, I had an epiphany about what irks me with “social networks”. It is the terminology… For me social networks it is a contradiction in terms.

Network has a very strong business connotation. This might be my second language interpretation here, but any marketing 101 book tells you, you must network to be successful. I went to a business network meeting once, to see what it is all about. In my opinion it was the saddest affair I have ever been to. The people had their intentions plastered all over their foreheads and yes, fair enough, that was the purpose of the meeting. But I found it tremendously off-putting.

Therefore I resist using the word “network” in relation to my friends. In my opinion it excludes altruism, which I consider necessary for relaxed interaction between people.

I had a character in mind, when I created this dede. But when I discussed the puppet with a friend, we couldn’t even agree whether it is a male or a female character, so I thought it might be a nice idea to ask the readers who this should become and what traits the character should have.

There is no hint as to who it might be. The skin is quite colourful and maybe it has a bearing that the head is a fraction bigger than all the other puppets.

Any suggestions?

 

Devil and Detail

Devil is into Detail

Got a bit side tracked lately – back to the Dedes.

There are a couple of puppets missing on the Cast page. Detail is one of them. I want to make good for this ommission now.

Hermit’s other friends pretend to love Detail, but be aware…. she is a difficult one. If you don’t pay her enough attention, it will be very obvious to the entire world. You of course, my friend, will be the last one to find out.

The other trait I dislike about Detail is her hunger for more and more information before she can make up her mind. Can she ever decide? She never seems to get all her facts together. Maybe Procrastinator would be her dream partner (but I haven’t started working on him yet).

She is of course a fantastic worker. Give her a job, and she will finish it brilliantly.

sorbische Ostereier These are my mother’s ornamented Easter eggs. They have tradition in the part of Germany where she grew up. An area close to the Polish border in the Eastern part of the country… therefore very inaccessible before the Wall came down, and now very inaccessible for me, as I live on the other side of the world.

I have never seen Easter eggs as beautiful as these. Last year I finally had the chance to photograph them. For me they are laden with stories and emotions about a quiescent, but scary country.

Some people are still keeping up the tradition. I found this page about the craft of the Easter Eggs.

 

I just bumped into Amanda, who I only met recently, when I picked up my book launch invites from the printers. Turns out she is a fellow blogger. Her blog is about things made from paper called  Love Notes. She told me she has written about the puppets and the Hermit’s Web book. Of course I had to check it out immediately and gosh it sounds really exciting!

This morning I’ve got round to photographing Devil’s Advocate. He looks very mellow and relaxed.

Like all my other work, the puppets are multi-layered, but what I particularly like about them is their interactivity. I love to watch people engage with the puppets. Let somebody get their hands on a puppet and they start acting with them. The least they do is wave… and this is a very friendly gesture, isn’t it? You don’t really need many words, but I can observe their reaction to my artwork, rather than just assuming their perception of it. I love that.

energyI just realised, I am now blogging for one month. One can tell that I am still a newbie, as I am posting every day. I guess, when you are doing it for a while you will slow down. I have learned a thing or two in this first month, but I know I am still at the beginning of my learning curve.

Though, I am surprised how much I am enjoying this process. So far, I have never had the urge to show what I am producing to the world. There are gazillions of really good and gifted people out there… (A fact you become even more aware of, when you engage in the blogging community). The reason why I am really enjoying it, is that I am now sort of cataloguing my own work in my head. It is a retrospective of a non-exhibiting artist. What always seemed to me like a mixed bag, does actually have a common thread.

The puppets for whom I have set up the blog, appear to be the odd ones out. But only visually, only superficially.

The launch of my book is still three weeks away and I am going through all the expected emotions every day. I have finished the Devil’s Advocate puppet. The Procrastinator is still nowhere to be seen. But I have the feeling I moved forward tremendously.

One sentence I have read recently in the paper has lodged itself into my memory: “there is no art without an art market.” I stumbled when I read it, but continued on. Unfortunately I have forgotten the rest of the article and where and when I read it, so I can’t reference it. But this one sentence stuck. I disagree.