I should catch you up on what’s happening with the colon puppet. After I gave up on finding the part that the bandsaw flung across the room, I got a new tea-strainer spoon to dismantle. While I’d normally mill my own parts, this was already the perfect shape, so hey, why make work for myself? […]
Jay’s colon puppet update Read More »
First of all, you should know that I did not pick up the shotguns today. There’s some additional paperwork that I needed, so hopefully that will be taken care of tomorrow. Meanwhile, here’s some of the dog activity. I’m actually farther along than this but I forgot to take pictures. What you are looking at
More fun with spaniels Read More »
Since we have some new readers, let me catch you up a bit. When my bio says that I’m a professional puppeteer, it really means it. So after feeling like a rock star this weekend, I’ve come back to the grind of daily routine, which happens to include building a springer spaniel. To do that,
The dog skull arrives Read More »
For a new show at Rattlestick Theater, I’m building a wounded springer spaniel. To start, I drew out a scale drawing of the dog for a pattern, which I then traced onto ethafoam. The piece here is Lady’s spine from the base of her neck to the tip of her tail. I build the curvature
Springer Spaniel Build: Day One Read More »
Beaker, The Swedish Chef, Animal and Carmen. Need I say more?
It’s time to play the music… Read More »
I started working on the colon for Jay today by cutting out a simple rectangle of 1/4″ foam. Ironically, we call this type of foam “crap” foam which I was not thinking about until I started writing the blog post. It simply had the right pore density for what I wanted. I headed for the
Jay Lake Colon Build: Day 1 Read More »
At Readercon, someone asked me if I had ever made a puppet show from one of my stories. Two. Sort of. Beauty Will Come is something I did for Pixel-Stained Technopeasant day last year and is not really a puppet show, though it might look like one for a moment. I used toy theater technique
Adapting my fiction for puppetry Read More »
By this point, I think everyone probably heard about Jay Lake’s colon cancer news. The man is a cancer survivor the likes of which the world has never seen. When I heard the diagnosis, I emailed him asking if there was anything I could do for him from New York. Oh yes. Yes, there was.
Building Jay Lake’s colon Read More »
I’ve been a professional puppeteer for almost twenty years now and I’ve never seen anything quite as disconcerting as ventriloquist, Todd Oliver and his dog Irving. That’s right. A ventriloquist with a real dog.
Todd Oliver and Irving Read More »
Today was largely uneventful. I picked up a check so I could start building the springer spaniel I need to make for a show. I’ll tell you, standing around on the sidewalk with the artistic director and having a conversation about how much blood you want the dog to have on it and how it
Building a Springer Spaniel Read More »
I’m only home for fifteen days this month. Yesterday was the only full day that Rob and I will have together until August 11th. He’s leaving to go to Canaan for a film shoot today and returns the 17th, the day that I leave for Readercon. We might overlap that day, but likely not. I
Fifteen Days in July Read More »
Today I got a request to build a wounded dog for a show. A springer spaniel this time, and wounded, not dead. This will be more of a challenge in some ways because it has to move, but also easier. I’m waffling, because I only have 13 days free in July. Mom is encouraging me
Balancing freelance and family Read More »
I just logged on to update my blog and then saw that Kermit Love died last night. From the NY Times obituary: Although Mr. Love collaborated with luminaries of dance like George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, Robert Joffrey, Jerome Robbins and Twyla Tharp, it was the 8-foot-2, yellow-feathered Big Bird and his 7-foot, woolly mammoth-like
Kermit Love is dead. Read More »
I had a conversation the other night with a man who’d been a puppeteer for years. In the course of the conversation he said that he’d never picked up marionettes because he thought they were too hard to learn. I’ve heard this before. I hear it a lot, in fact, that marionettes are too hard
How hard is it to work marionettes Read More »