Crafty Tuesday: National Day of Puppetry is Saturday

I can’t currently find my old portfolio that had all the photos I wanted to scan. But when I do, I’ll post them here. Anyway, Saturday is a National Day of Puppetry. I plan to take that day and build some sort of random puppet. Also Caroline and I are going to pull out our What-nots and improve with each other. Puppets are an art form and a very varied art form indeed. All cultures seem to have some form of puppetry within them. Puppets can be as simple or complex as one would like to make it. And they are only limited by your imagination (and physics but even then you can cheat a little). So to get ready celebrate National Day of Puppetry, I suggest building a puppet. Here are some links for some puppets that are easy to make and can be a spring board to so much more. Crayola has a page dedicated to NDoP with a number of links to some pretty cool puppets that are print, color, and go. Crayola NDoP page The Disney Family Fun site has a lot of puppet ideas and patterns. I like this one because it is really a jumping off point for the imagination. Paper Finger Puppets Instructables has a number of people who have put up tutorials on how to make all kinds of puppets. Instructables search There is a lot to poke through there. Legends and Lore have a pretty good site for both parents and teachers with a couple of puppet ideas and links Legends and Lore site As to Puppets as Art, here are a couple of places to go look at puppets and puppetry. Center for Puppetry Arts Museum page with its virtual museum Puppeteers of America have a site with lots of information and lots of links to all kinds of puppets and puppeteers. Puppeteers of America> The Jim Henson Foundation is a great way to keep up on all things puppets. They have all kinds of information on their site and the photos are quite lovely. The Jim Henson Foundation website And one of the best link sites for Puppetry is maintained by the Barones. SageCraft Puppetry Page So there are some places to start. I encourage all of you to do something on NDoP. Let’s keep this art form alive. I am grateful that I have puppets in my life.

Crafty Tuesday: It Sure Looked Strange to me

Ariel needed a puppet for her Chorus Concert to be used in a song. She knew I had built one before but I honestly couldn’t remember where it was or what condition it was in when she was home for break. I think I may have sold it since this was about 5 to 6 years ago. So I agreed that I would build her another one for the concert. I had a bit of a brain slip and found myself looking at a 48 hour window to complete the critter. (For the VI: This is a photo of a one eyed, one horn flying purple people eater puppet. The purple puppet is sitting on a black stool. There is green foam behind it. The puppet has one eye in the middle of it’s face. The horn is yellowish and on top of the head surrounded by a purple feather boa. There are pieces of the feather boa on both wrists. There are wings that attach under the arms and to the body.) The basic puppet itself is pretty much like the Phluzzies that I make for conventions. The basic puppet body with the one big eye. (For the VI: This is the purple puppet on the black stool with the eye in the middle of the face. The eyelid is made of purple felt. The mouth is open and the interior is made of red material) The horn is made of Crayola Model Magic and is probably the most delicate part of the puppet since I didn’t have a ton of time to let it dry. I painted it yellow and then stippled it with burnt umber and sponged the excess off to give it more of an organic look. (For the VI: Same puppet only there is now a twisted yellow horn on top of the critter head) I added part of a feather boa to give it a little more movement. There are pieces of the same boa around the wrists of the puppet (For the VI: The same puppet but on a wooden floor. The horn is surrounded by purple feathers now) The puppet spread out so you can see the wings. (For the VI: same puppet laid out on the floor with its arms out to show off the wings that are bat like and under the arms. The wings are purple too but a darker purple than the body) It went off to Ariel this morning. I am grateful that I could pull this off in time reminding me that I do know what I am doing.

Crafty Tuesday: 142 Days til Dragoncon 2012

I believe the paperwork has been turned in or will be turned in today that will declare that we are coming to DragonCon.

DragonCon is really my end point of the year for making my kind of art. All things (conventions) lead to DragonCon for me. I am crossing my fingers that I will have room in the Art Show this year. I think I have everything sorted out on that front but not positive yet.

I have one and half projects to do before diving in. I am making a One-eyed, One Horned Flying Purple People Eater for Ariel and I have to remake a piece that got destroyed in the mail.

I have a number of things I am thinking of building for DragonCon. I think a plush calot is a must probably with maybe a baby Thark puppet since John Carter of Mars came out this year.

So here is my question gentle reader, out of all the stuff you have seen me make, what do you think I should make for DragonCon this year?

I will give you a couple that are being contemplated.

Beast and Mystique are the next Xs to be thought about as in First Class outfits.

The Calot

The Thark Baby

A couple of Fluzzies

Another type of stuffed animal that is an experiment that will either go in or drop out.

The Steam-punk Anthro-animals

And may be that set of Firefly hand puppets I keep thinking about doing but never doing.

I have also been thinking of mask making and a couple of fleece hat ideas that are totally worked out yet.

This will be on top of a couple of costumes that are still solidifying and whatever I am doing for the puppet slam this year.

However, I do want your thoughts on the matter.

Pictures of the Purple People Eater will probably be posted next week.

I am grateful for feedback and ideas that others give me. It really does help the thought process.

Crafty Tuesday: Some Ideas on How to Defeat the Blank

There are times when, in the creative process, you just draw a blank. (Actually I’d love to see what some of my artist friends would do with the prompt draw a blank). The creative muse sometimes just wanders off for a pee and a smoke before the next act (obscure Monty Python reference kind of sort of). Or your motivation decided to get up and leave for a play date with another motivation that is a friend of theirs.

My suggestion is step away for a little while but only a little while. Don’t give up on what you are doing but take a breath and let it out. Go do some dishes or some other task that needs doing to give your brain a break.

Put down the thing that is frustrating you and pick up something else you are working on. Or start something else. I have a number of pieces that are in various stages of done and there are one or two that are my go to when I get frustrated or feel I have nothing left in the tank. These are my anything goes pieces that will probably never be shown but allow me to practice various techniques. Call them my Franken-pieces.

I find that if sculpting is driving me crazy then try pattern drafting or sewing something else or even knitting. Sometimes if pattern drafting is driving me daft, I sculpt whatever to shake my brain loose.

And then there are the times when there are deadlines and one don’t have the leisure of a blank. Those are the times where one just buckles down and keeps going until the project is done. Might not be perfect but it does what it needs to do. And some times just muscling through is the perfect way to get rid of the blank.

So what do you do to get rid of the blank?

I am grateful for the ability to just do when it needs to be done.