Jo Attempts Puppets

Long time no see!  Thanks to the help of around 25 people on tumblr i’ve made my first draft of ‘Are You?’. So far the performance involves a puppet made from my clothes and things found around my desk. it’s an essence of me but it’s not me, deliberately genderless and raceless. However people tend to look at it and go ‘awww’ and thats the point. For this piece i’m exploring the concern of being taken seriously in the societies we live. Although the puppet has the vulnerability of being small and voiceless there is a defiance. It inhibits its own space and controls its own existence, from turning on the light to using the speakers. It asks to be watched and listened too.  Within the performance I play a soundscape of recordings of actors and friends reading the stories and responses people sent me. They form the audio world of the piece, a sea of worries, interpretations and disagreements with the whole concept. While during this my own puppet pulls my own personal response to ‘are you taken seriously?’ from its mouth.

This was only a scratch performance and I am currently developing it further, at the beginning of next month I shall hopefully be performing it to the public in the Battersea Arts Centre and will aim to get a recording then to share with you all. 

As i’m in a development stage i’m still open to more responses, feel free to see my previous post on my main account and send me an ask of message. It can be anon if you wish

Thanks again to all those who helped me so far! 

7th-11th December 3D Pattern Cutting

A brilliant week long workshop learning to 3D pattern cut. It was a tricky and precise technique but the results were very satisfying. It was a cheaper way of replicating a sculpt than casting and was also cleaner and produced 2D pattern templates that could be enlarged or reduced. 

1. On a plinth I formed a rough shape of newspaper and tape to act as a base to apply clay too. Then covered it in foil to waterproof the surface.  2. Next I added clay, about 3cm. The sculpt was tricky, I wanted it to be detailed but it also needed to have clean areas for making the pattern 3. Covered the sculpt in cling film and then masking tape before mapping out each section for the pattern (and numbering the seams to connect them later) 4. Removed the sections from the sculpt and draw in out on foam, I then cut out the foam and spent a whole day glueing them together with contact adhesive. Finally at this stage I sculpted down, smoothed and head gunned the foam. 5. Covered in scrim (fabric and PVA) to make a paintable surface. 6. Painted! And glued on individual strands of hair with a glue gun. 7. Inserted a handle and finished!

A great technique which i’d love to explore again (maybe with a less detailed design)  

28th-30th October Shadow puppetry in a suitcase

Three days working with Rough Magic Theatre. Creating shadow puppets designed to be shown in a mini puppet theatre in a suitcase.

I made simple black card cut outs however we laminated them which gave a brilliant strength to the card and made each puppet last potentially much longer. I picked a poem about a ghost highwayman, involved some torches in for interesting lighting effects. Rods were attached with twisted masking tape to allow for easier and flexible movement of the puppets. 

I also played with the overhead projector, blowing my puppet shadows far bigger and I was very pleased with the effect. Definitely something i’d like to revisit.  

26th-27th October Traditional Chinese Puppets

Had the great honour of working with Annie Rollins for two days. We had a great class on the brief history of puppetry in China before having a workshop in making them. The biggest difference in my puppet and a traditional Chinese one was the base material, I used a thick plastic instead of the translucent thin leather (A lot cheaper!).

It was a great introduction to a variety of techniques such as a simple but effective way to do translucent but bright colours which was just sharpie on plastic and carefully twisted wire for joints.

However the technique for manipulation was very tricky, it involved quite a precise way of holding each of the three rods as well as curling to create certain movements. It’s not hard to see why it takes masters decades.

23rd October PM - Finished puppet!

Once all the elements were touched up and finished (and the hands were re-painted for the 5th time) I hot glued the glove to the sculpts and spray varnished. 

This puppet took 3 days to make and i’m happy with the results, could have hollowed the head better for better balance though. Also could have upped the painting detail and neatened my sewing. Overall though i’m happy with the shape and feel, i’m especially impressed with how well that foam works as a material and the use of filler mix.  

23rd October AM - Finishing head, making glove

Tips picked up - Filler, water and PVA makes a brilliant final layer. When sanded it’s very smooth  - Keep ironing clothing for glove!

Added eyes and eyelids then covered in a layer of filler mix, it dried quick, gave a good white backing for paint and sanded down to a much smoother level than the paper mache so is definitely an extra stage to do again. While my base paint layer dried I sewed my puppets clothing (the glove for my hand), quite hard to pin the shape but only needed a simple running stitch. Could have aligned my pattern better, might have helped to iron it more to keep the fabric flat. Ended the morning painting the face, suddenly looked actually human with the addition of eyebrows!

22nd October Glove puppet sculpt, sand and paper mache 

Tips picked up - Scrunch up and dampen paper before use, breaks down the fibres  - Be more brave with carving, helps see the shape quicker

Finished carving the puppet head, took a while to build up the courage to really cut away and properly round the head. I wasn’t happy with the mouth as I placed it lower than my design so I filled it with filler and the great thing about using paper mache as the next step is I could cover it over (and i’ll paint it on instead tomorrow). I lost the finger definition during this stage but i’ll re-carve and sand them once the paper is fully dry. 

This material is great to carve into, really holds its shape but also is easy to carve. Definitely going to reuse. 

21st October PM - Glove puppet design and beginning foam sculpt

Using influences from my own face to design a simple character, transferring it to tracing paper to then map out the design on foam for cutting on the band saw. It was a process i’d never tried before and it was a great way to start a sculpt, the foam itself was quite tricky to control but brilliantly easy to quickly see results with. Looking forward to continuing the sculpt tomorrow.

21st October AM - Exploring drawing own face without looking and while feeling face. 

A surprisingly rewarding experiment. Each drawing came out completely differently, with different qualities. So many elements of character jumped out, elements that I wouldn’t have found without drawing this way. It was an almost therapeutic workshop, i’m so used to exploring faces by just looking and not feeling and it’s defiantly something i’d love to do again.