Little Dragon Shadow Puppet Video

I was watching Daryl Stiqman's PuppetLive blog, over a BlogTV, and he showed us a exerpt from the video, "The Little Dragon" performed by the Puppet Art Theater Co. This performance is a perfect example of the power of shadow puppetry and truly wonderful story telling.

I found it inspiring and am really thinking about how I would like to use shadow puppetry in the productions I'm working on. Because shadow puppets have different limitations when compared to hand puppets I think they would add to the power of a puppet show. I think they would also work well for dream sequences since they are two dimensional and monochromatic.

Regarding the boy puppet. I waiting for a chance to get to the foam store to pick up some reticulated foam so that I can get on with the building.

NEW POST - Boy Puppet

Well after a crazy busy summer and early autumn I am back and beginning a new puppet build. For this puppet I am leaving the world of insects and moving to people. A boy puppet to be specific. I haven't lost interest in my cast of insect characters I just think that as a builder and sometimes a performer I need to have a person puppet in my line up. The boy puppet is based on a character in a Max Lucado children's story, "A Hat for Ivan," that I think would make a great boy puppet.



I am using a modified pattern I purchased from Dr. Puppet as the foundation for the head and some building techniques I learned from his puppet building videos.

I should also say that while I am making the time to build puppets I still have many other projects that re demanding my attention so I may not be able to update as often as I would like. Have to keep my priorities in line. That being said I am looking forward to this build. I plan for it to be the best construction to date.

I'm Back and Hard At Work

Honestly I am hard at work,though admitedly most of the work has nothing to do with puppets. My house needs some work and thats taking up quite a bit of time. And then there's my work...that goes without saying. Fortunately for the puppets one part of my work is to prepare a program for 100 kindergarteners at a regional campmeeting.

The theme that I have chosen requires that I write several dialogs between one or two of my puppets and a leader. This means that I will be posting some puppet scripts in hte next few months so stay in touch.

Sorry no puppet builds at present. I would love to build but they take a lot of time and distract me from other things that I ought to be doing (like writing scripts and working on my house).

It's been a while since I last posted. I've been busy working on holiday related projects. Just to update regarding my puppet type activities I'm currently working on some scripts for a Joshua Junebug and Friends VBS program. Well, to be honest I'm having a hard time getting into the writing thing. Ever since high school I've found that I most motivated to write when the deadline is close at hand. ... Yes, I know, I need to be more disiplined. That's my pledge, I will stop procrastinating and get to work.

I'll post more when I have something more completed.

Juan Pancho and His Friends

This is a update report on the Peruvian puppet I made a few months ago. He has been named Juan Pancho and is now happily settled in his new home and is enjoying helping as an assistant in a children's spanish class. The children and their parents love Juan Pancho as well and one of the little girls goes to him and gives him a kiss first thing when she gets to class.

I've included pictures of Juan Pancho with his new owner and his classmates

Police Woman Hat for Rhino Beetle

The first challenge in building the Rhino Beetle was making her look like a woman. I think I was successful in accomplishing this. The next step is to outfit her to look like a Police officer. The first idea I had was to make her a police woman hat.

First I made a hat out of interfacing. This was a challenge but patience and perseverance paid out and I was satisfied with the shape. Next came covering the hat with fleece. The crown I covered with black and the brim I cover with white. I chose the white to make the hat stand out from the Rhino Beetle itself. Then I added a badge to the hat and it was done.



I'm not settled on the badge but it was the only one that I could find in the house so it will do until I can find one I like better. I need to find one so that I will have one for her hat and a matching one for her chest.

Solomon Gets Wise Video

If you've been wanting to see the Lilac Hollow gang in action your wait is over. Last week I produced a short video that feature 5 of the 6 characters I've built so far. Admittedly the video is a little rough but but none of have much experience in puppetry for video or video editting. We're just kind of learning as we go. That being said I think the story comes through and every thing went pretty well.

So without further ado here is Solomon Gets Wise ...