Geraldine gets some upgrades

First, Geraldine's earrings were from a little girls dress-up set and the plastic clasps did not grasp her ears tight enough and kept falling off while storing her or if she moved around too much. The clasps were removed and where they sat was ground off the back of the earring. I then glued on these great 1/4 inch ProMAG magnets that I found at Michael's [craft shop] and backed her ear with a 2nd magnet. The grip on these little magnets are super tight and I have every confidence they will hold with even the most spastic puppet performance.



Continuing in the spirit of passing along puppet building tips, I should mention I'm a little reserved when it comes to making certain features permanent [ie. glued on] so, when considering how to attach the ribbon in her hair, I found these mini hair clips perfect for gluing the ribbon to first and then clipping into her hair.



Geraldine was in need of a fresher look for her shirt. A friend suggested something in yellow and since I love the contrast of purple and yellow, Geraldine was outfitted with a new yellow shirt with a big, beautiful purple flower on the front.

Lone Wolf Tribe Workshop

I recently joined the online puppet community Puppet Hub and came across Lone Wolf Tribe whose website I had seen some time ago and was happy to be re-introduced to their fantastical form of puppetry. I noticed they were giving workshops on foam sculpting the puppet head and quickly signed up for their class this past Wednesday, January 14 at their Brooklyn, NY studio.

I had such a great time learning a new, creative process. Kevin Augustine, Lone Wolf Tribe's artistic director, is an encouraging and inspiring teacher. As someone who can get a little too precious about my own creative process, it was nice to let go a little more and still be impressed with the outcome. Starting with a simple sketch or idea, you draw the image to a large block of upholstery foam. The face front and profile were drawn to the appropriate sides and used as guides. Much slicing and carving later reveals a pretty cool puppet head. Although my figure looked to be more Native American or African, his name came to me as 'Boris'.



If you are looking to learn new technique or would just like to get your craft on for an evening or afternoon, I highly recommend this workshop. Lone Wolf Tribe stages fascinating, avant-garde puppet/ theatrical shows. Check out their website for upcoming shows in the New York area or see them at this year's National Puppetry Festival in Atlanta.

New Puppet Build ~ Geraldine

Over the last couple of weekends, I worked on my new puppet Geraldine. I had fun with the hair and found some great costume pieces to complete her look. She's a girly girl who loves the color purple. I'm thrilled with the way she turned out. She was made from the Project Puppet simple series pinhead pattern.