Sunday, January 29, 2012

Recreating an 18th century Punch show, carving pt 3

After a bit of carving, sanding, and painting, Punch has his head on his body. But for how long . . . ?

Monday, January 23, 2012

Ollie at Heart of the Beast in Minneapolis



So it may not seem like summer just yet . . . But Ollie and his friends are going to heat things up with a beach party this Saturday, January 28th at In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater in Minneapolis with shows at 10 am and noon. There's a make and take program in between sponsored by HOTB.

Surf's up while Ollie explores the beach. With hungry crabs, singing clams, pesky fish, and a bit of pirate booty--and a bit of "gnarly" surfin! Join us. Come on in, the water's fine!!
' msic, too! Don't get wet!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Recreating an 18th century Punch show, carving pt 2

After a few days of learning to handle the carving tools (thank you, Cecilia Schiller), Punch's head is coming along nicely. I'm going to leave the head without much in the way of carving features, preferring to keep the "look" simple and clean. I liked the look of the former head and think it read well. I want to continue this in the wooden one.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Recreating an 18th century Punch show

One of the projects crowding my "to-do" list is creating new heads for the characters in my Punch show.

Currently, made of non-period materials, I want wooden heads to match the period puppets for my show. The heads are patterned after Cruikshank drawings and I want to reproduce the same look in wood.





This is the start of the process and I'll update progress on this project from time to time here as well as on the "Clerk of the Fur Trade" blog. I hope the heads will be done sometime this summer so that all future shows will be totally period correct to the 18th century.

I will also post about the process of building the show, stage, and other aspects, too. I am writing a longer article for publication in the Journal of Early America and possibly the Puppeteers of America's Journal.