Archives for posts with tag: dede puppets

At the greengrocer’s I bumped into Detail and her daughter Minor. These two never fail to amaze me. Detail is such a petite thing, always neatly dressed and every strand of hair in the right place. She looks like she just stepped out of a fashion magazine, even if she only pops down the driveway to the letterbox. Minor on the other hand is a little cloddish, with her worn out sneakers and baggy jumpers. I thought she is only fourteen, but Detail corrected me, Minor is three month short of seventeen. She is much larger and taller than her mother and even though she stoops, her mother still has to look up to her.

Of course Detail wanted to know what Devil said to me the other day. It felt like I was at the inquisition. The three of us were standing in the middle of the aisle at the busiest time at the grocery shop. Don’t you hate these people? I felt very awkward, but she insisted on hearing the entire story and just wouldn’t let me go. I would have liked to side with Minor on that one: “Wha’ ever”

No need to ask Detail for her opinion on anything, she always wants to have more info before she can make up her mind.

I’ve heard the weather is going to pack in. Therefore I’ve spent the morning recording puppet shows. We take them outside on the deck. I like the light there in the morning. First we had to wait for the fog to lift, by the time it was gone, the entire neighbourhood was out and about and hammering away or mowing the lawns.  I always deemed our neighbourhood extremely quiet, but gee, Saturday morning every man and his dog has some business outside. The birds were chirping away as well (I love the song of the tuis) and then Mr Whippy must have done a roaring trade in ice cream, his “Greensleeves” jingle went on like forever.  I thought summer is well and truly over,  obviously not for Mr Whippyyyyyyy.

Anyway, I think I have some snippets I can work with and it will give me something to do, should it rain tomorrow. We recorded Devil and Mouse, when Devil tells Mouse that Hermit has written a book. In the timeline it sits before the other film, where Mouse tells Pirate. But I thought Pirate’s response was a lovely snappy one, so I recorded it first. The conversation between  Devil and Mouse is a little bit longer. But finally, Devil got his wish, he is now going to be in a film as well…

On my way home last night I tried to figure out who I could talk to regarding Devil’s complaint from the day before. Believe me, I know my puppets well and I know what they are going to say. Chance would say: “Go for it”. Pirate would say “Whatever brings in the most dosh”. Mouse is ruled out as everybody would know I have a problem straight away…. I don’t particularly like that.

Anyway when I arrived home, Bad Conscience was already sitting on my couch. He must have let himself in with the key hidden under the planter box. Of all the puppets, Mouse aside, he is the worst to try and discuss issues with. You go round and round in little circles and never get anywhere. Maybe his blurry eyes prevent him from seeing things clearly. Ah well, we spent an evening in silence regurgitating old issues.

Last night Devil paid me a visit. He wanted to talk to me as the spokesperson of the dede puppets. They are all very concerned. I didn’t know the dede puppets had a spokesperson. Honestly I don’t think he was voted in. But he obviously thinks he is the Patron Saint of the dede puppets, as he is the oldest. (Patron Saint… it’s a bit rich isn’t it?)

Anyway, he said they are all concerned about where the dede puppet blog is going. He reminded me I had promised to set it up for the dedes as a forum. He, Devil,  now accuses me of hijacking it for my other artwork. He actually said, “What’s so beautiful about a Giant Weta, all  the dede puppets have nicer eyes…” He quoted the one post where I said it is all about eyes at the moment.

Okay, point taken. Devil himself has gorgeous eyes… I still think (and I am not being defensive here) there should be a place for other photographs on the blog.

So, we had this long and heated discussion about whether I should be allowed to put other artwork up. In the end I had this feeling he was mainly miffed with me because the film features Pirate and Mouse. He insisted it was him who broke the news of the book to Mouse, so he should have been in the film. I promised him he will be in the next one. (We are moving towards winter and I will have more time to do this kind of stuff). I basically made this promise to get him off my back. It was past midnight when he finally disappeared.

It took more than an hour to get the smell of sulpher out of the house. This is the reason, why I normally like to catch up with Devil at the pub.

I think I will canvas the other dede puppets about what they think on the subject. I am still not sure whether he made a mountain out of a mole hill.

Ah yes, I have to admit it… whether I want it or not… with the dede puppet project I have entered the Brave New World!

I have finally uploaded the dede puppet film onto Youtube. I thought you could just upload the film by creating an email account. For some reason it didn’t work and I ended up getting a Google+ account. I am happy with my blog, but I still don’t want to have a social network thingummy and keep track of online friends. I have enough to do with following blogs :). Call me old-fashioned, but this was the reason for me writing the Hermit’s Web book. Ah well, I think I have switched everything off that I could possibly switch off… to keep a little bit of privacy.

If you want to see the puppets in action, here is the link to dede puppets – the film.

I have also  finally updated our website zeitgeist-design.co.nz, to include Hermit’s Web.

At the moment I feel like my Nosy Neighbour puppet. In this image by Sonya Roussina he looks pretty depressed. Everything seems to have come to a halt, even though I have so many things nearly finished… My dede puppet film is done, but I can’t put it up on Youtube before I have one more thing sorted on our Web page. I was so sure I will publish both this weekend, but now this weekend is gone and it still isn’t up. Ah well… Such is life. I still haven’t started on my Procrastinator puppet either.

 

 

Last weekend I finished my first puppet show clip. It’s only like a minute or so long. I am going to put it on Youtube this weekend. This is another first for me. The book publishing part was easy, as I dealt with the related issues all my working life. I am a paper person… But, boy, had I fun making this clip. And I have plenty of ideas for more!

 

Here is Minor, the sloppy teenage daughter of Detail. Okay, sloppy according to her mother Detail. I think Minor is fourteen or fifteen, going on sixty. Her mother can’t do anything right by her either. OMG, you should hear how these two talk to each other, or… better not…

If you bump into Minor on her own, she is a very introverted little thing, a bit rough and careless about her appearance maybe. I personally think she has a great future, forget the messy bedroom and all.

The puppy is finally finished. It has been sitting in my studio from before the launch and I only needed to put the skin on. It was good that it took me a while, as in the meantime I came up with the story and chose the skin accordingly. Puppy is eternally in love with Skeleton Edeltraut. But the love is not returned. This will be a big part in the sequel to Hermit’s Web. Edeltraut is still going out with Monster and  cute little Puppy turns into a stalker.

I told some people the story already and was surprised how few got it that Edeltraut is the logical choice for Puppy’s desire.

A very nice side effect of this book project is: my skeletons seem to have moved on. I always thought I am good friends with my skeletons, but now that they are gone, I don’t miss them much.