Puppality: Mind your Head, watch your arms.

At An Arms Length

 I have been struggling with my morning workout. The hardest thing for me is the upper body things; Push ups, pull ups, hand stands and weights.  I'm old...er than I use to be and my joints are popping, shaking and wobbling about while I struggle to keep from falling. Joints take a beating. Your body is constantly in motion throughout the day. Bending, sitting, stretching, squatting, walking, jogging, lifting etc.. When a dancer performs, she flows, her movements tell a story, effortlessly. We want to give that same idea to your marionette. The body needs to flow with the legs, and arms. The head follows direction and gestures with nods, and tilts. This blog will go over the arm joints and the head part. I'm not going to fully walk you through the arms because they are super similar to the legs that I wrote about in my last post. However I will briefly sum it up for you.

The Right to Bare Arms

You will need the one inch dowel left from your legs. Your going to cut 2 3 inches for the lower part of the arm and 2 4 or 4 1/2 inches for the upper part of the arms. You can lay it all out and see if your proportions look good in reference to the body. The longer limbs you are going to drill one whole on the top of your dowel through the core. Use the small bit for this. Place your eye screw in there. Turn the arm over, take your hack saw and hack away at the other end. Same direction. Down the core to make a slit. Some of you might use this slit for when you are attaching the arm to the body. I would do it just in case you have a better way of putting this together. It can't hurt. From there take your drill and drill the hole through the slit. Now place the eye screw that you placed on the thigh and stick that baby right into the slit. Grab your wire and pull it through the holes and eye screw. Bend the edge of your wire and there yah go! Arms aflaying and we are moving on!

Getting A Head

This is where I went really really really really wrong. I was cautious at first using the foam until... Well I will get to that. Make sure you have gloves, vaseline, a hair tie, old shirt, outside or some where that you won't mind it getting this stuff on anything, You can buy "The Great Stuff" at any home depot or hardware store. This is usually for sealing windows or cracks. It is liquid foam that expands... A LOT. It is extremely sticky. I suggest putting vaseline on any exposed skin in case it gets on you. If it does, nail polish remover or acetone will get it off. Make sure your hair is tied back. You will need a mold to squirt this stuff in. I used a plastic Christmas ornament and split it at the seam. Because it expands it tends to bubble up fairly quickly. Assemble the can per the directions on the label. Squeeze SLOWLY and evenly around your mold. Leave it to sit for 5-6 hours or until it is completely dry. It depends on how much you put into the mold. It will probably bubble up nicely like a muffin top. This is good.

Getting your foam out of the mold is an issue. Make sure you do not break the mold. It is water proof (obviously) so don't worry about getting your hands wet. Its extremely solid once it is finished doing its thing.

I was going to try an experiment by lining the mold with vaseline however, the new can I bought had a major malfunction. I placed the nozzle on it and it immediately started to foam. Some how it got clogged and I thought taking off the nozzle would help with the pressure, it just exploded, ALL over me, my kitchen and my hair.


I panicked and immediately started to grab the nail polish remover to get it off my skin, as I was doing this I realized it was in my hair. The only way to get this stuff out is to wash your hair immediately. Be generous with shampoo and let the conditioner sit for about an hour. Then try and comb it out. It didn't fully come out until the next day but it did and I am so happy it did. That stuff is The Greatest and the worst.  So I will try the vaseline experiment at a later date and let you know how it goes... OR if you would like to try it yourself, I would love to hear about it.

So it took a third comb to get out the two stuck brushes. Lesson learned.

Now that your head is molding I'm calling it a night. Next blog will be about the body, assembling the limbs to your core and figuring out where your head will be sitting. Then after that it gets technical. I will be sure to tell you all the details once I figure the precise place to rig the strings. Like I said before in my last post: Any comments, questions, or criticism is welcomed. Also please don't be afraid to explore or build on this. This is all about learning, being creative and most importantly having fun. Hope this was helpful.

Agenda

So things picked up a little to blog about the arms. I think its safe to say that I'll be blogging once a week on puppet building. The search right now is on finding an agent and getting the acting thing up. I'm also helping to wrap up Arias with a Twist on Sunday. If you haven't seen the show and your in the NY area, its a must see. Other then that I have a new puppet project in the works and its moving a long pretty fast so yeah... I'm pretty booked up. I'm thinking some random night next week. Check back soon!

Master Manipulation/Puppality

The Marionette Mistake

A couple of weeks ago I had the bright idea to build a marionette out of plastic bottles. Although this didn't pan out too well with the hot glue gun, I learned that you can easily use the simple format of building a Marionette without adhesives. Tonight I'm not going to write about the plastic bottle puppet. That will be a completely dedicated post after I've gone over basics.Now the basics. If you have that sketchy dude looking mini person that has all the joints available use that as your example. Puppets have a mannerisms of their own once they are built. I found that even with the thought of how I want them to look, they usually take on a personality half way through. I'm the type of person who lets it happen. I like to see things form, I think it gives it personality. If you can have it come out exactly the way you planned it, then that is awesome too. I personally have thoughts in my head but they never come out right. I'm always surprised afterwards. Its very rewarding. 

Puppets are similar to a living creature. They move a certain way, have a personality, and be able to move about freely. This is true in any form of puppetry. If you've ever owned or played with a marionette you will find that the head will move a certain way, or the feet have strides longer then expected. I call this their puppality. You might be the one manipulating them but they are the ones with the capability to move a certain way. 

Materials

I have decided to make a marionette out of wooden dowels, eye screws, upholstery foam (found in most fabric stores), razor, scissor, wire, and The Great Stuff (liquid foam found in any hardware store. Its main purpose is for sealing windows). You will need, a hack saw IF you don't own a band saw, a drill or drill press, a hot glue gun, gloves, sand paper, goggles and a hair tie if you have long hair (very important). Also later you will need thread and a sewing needle for your fabric.

Day 1:

Tweaking Torso's

I started off with drawing out the body on the upholstery foam. Use your sketchy guy thing as a reference. I shaped mine in a diamond or an upside down triangle with rounded edges. It depends on how you want your marionette to look. From there I used a really awesome razor. Its like a pizza cutter. EXTREMELY SHARP so make sure your fingers and limbs are stable and accounted for. Foam is pretty sweet to use because you can stick things in it... like wire. I cut grooves out for where the legs will go, and dipped the neck area in. Sculpting the foam is less messy than sculpting paper mache or wood. Use a sharp razor for that part. You can also sculpt out the armpits but I chose not to on mine. Once you get the "core" sculpted out your ready for the legs.

Day 2

Loose Legs

Part one of legs

LEGS! These are fun although can be tough. When I first started this experiment I had lack of materials. I didn't have any eye hooks.Instead of the joints looking internally mine looked like a prosthetic leg. The joints were externally built instead of interior. I believe that this puppet could have been great if I kept it in its original form but I really wanted it to be free flowing and secure so I changed it to internal joints. Eye hooks are the best way to do this. Take your dowel, I'm guessing you bought one thats about an inch thick or more. See how long you want your legs. One of those inch dowels was more than enough for me to build all 4 of its limbs. It really depends on how big you want this marionette to be. 

Cutting:

Measure each piece evenly. Remember your upper thighs are usually longer than your shin area. The thighs I cut about 7 inches long and the shins about 5. Most people do not own band saws, or a dremell but it helps tremendously for cutting. If you are super low budget broke ass like me, you can buy a hack saw for $5-$7 at your local hardware store. 

BE CAREFUL sawing, band sawing, dremelling, whatever your using to cut it. I hacked myself with that hack saw more than once because it failed to cut smoothly. Now that you have all your lower body parts in place, take the thigh parts and pick your favorite end. Sand it down if you have to. You want to saw directly into the core vertically. Make a slit big enough so you can fit an eye screw in. I know it sucks and its hard to saw into a tiny spot but its so satisfying to see it work when its all done. Then I want you to take that drill or drill press... I recommend the old fashion drill because the pressure could break the slit. Also be sure to use a small bit for this. You don't want to split the wood while using too much pressure. 

Part two of Legs

Flip the dowel over. Drill a small hole vertically into the dowels core. This will make the eye screw go in easier. Screw in the eye screw in and whalla! You have your thighs. Next up the shins.

Part one of Shins

You are essentially doing the same thing for the shins. Pick your favorite side. Sand off any roughage and make a slit into the core vertically. When I say vertically make sure its standing upright and not flat. like this | not --- So from there you are going to drill a hole through the side of the dowel. Do the same to the other leg. The only thing we are not doing on these is placing an eye screw on the other end.

Part Two of Shins

Grab some wire, clip a small piece off. Take your thigh, the end with the eye screw and insert it into the slit. From there you should be able to stick that wire through the hole that you drilled, through the eye screw and then through the other hole. Now you can bend each side of the wire and there you have it. You are the proud owner of a joint! Do the same to the other leg and you got yourself a free swinging set of pretty legs. 

Next entry I'll be explaining how to do the arms. Its basically the same gist but the measurements for the arms will be shorter than your legs. If you know a better way to do this feel free to comment, criticize or ask questions.

The Newest

Well, I'm starting a new blog obviously. New quiet time, new situations, new friends and most importantly new projects. So here it is, me in the raw, writing without critique. I guess this blog shows I have a lot of time on my hands, and honestly, its been pretty quiet in my life at this time. My daily schedule is something like this:

Wake up (usually earlier than I wanted to or too late than I wanted to)
Eat something eggy or grainy
Look at myself in the mirror  (Dana your getting old)
With that thought I do p90x with massive grunting and sweating
Jump in the shower, get out and write post cards to send to agents...
In my recent attempt to find an agent that is compatible with me I've probably met with only about a handful all expecting to see someone average height (I thought you'd be a taller 4'10) if not they only read my resume and send me on my way. My last encounter was with an agent who is pushing 100... I'm not kidding. To communicate with him I had to yell practically in his ear. I sense he is on his way out to retirement but hey if your still kicking you die in this business. I don't blame him for doing something he loves to do. Anyway, I'm sure I was forgotten by the time I left the office although not on purpose.  A friend of mine said I just had a "typical ny agent experience" which made me feel a tad bit better after hearing her hysterical story. Honestly, I just love to create things. And now that I've gone off on a tangent that is my purpose of this blog. Creation. After all the morning events I usually have a lot of time on my hands.

My life has been nothing but normal and I believe people take for granted the time we have on this planet. I want to do it all... and if I can't, I want to die knowing that I've tried. The only reason why I can't do something is because I just haven't found a way to get there yet. It will happen when I have gotten the things I need to get there.

I struggle with lack of patience. I always have. Immediate response or kinda like "mile signs" like "hey kid your going in the right direction" if I can't get a conclusion right away. Being an actor is far from getting instant gratification and I understand that in order for me to have the patience in this business I need an outlet. There it is... an outlet... before it was writing, singing, dancing, cooking, and even though those things are fun for me and I do them sporadically I wanted to learn something that would help me grow. Some where that I can be creative, without rules just exploration. A place where I can entertain my mind at anytime, any where. That world was puppetry. So I started on a little experiment to see if I was any good at it. I never went to school for it, and the only experience I had was puppets in my mothers toy store. I realized that they just made me happy no matter what mood I was in. I knew I didn't have the experience like some of the people I know. The only way I was going to understand it was to actually learned how they worked and just play with them. So thats exactly what I did.

I feel that being hands on as always been important in how I learn things. In this world I am constantly learning. I love to act and that is and always has been a major therapy outlet for me.  OK sooo this blog will be about what i've learned, the do's and don'ts and the disasters I've come across while building different types of puppets. I realized that there aren't many blogs about HOW to build things. I found a lot of sites that show how to build them but nothing about materials, where to find them or what is best to use for certain things. So I will try to save you money, time and the big no no's. Now that I've vented a little time to start the first lesson of mistakes.