Puppetry tutorials

Episode #4: Interview with Brian Hogg (Hoggworks)

School of Puppetry — Wed, 22 May 2013 00:30:51 +0000

http://www.schoolofpuppetry.com.au/media/podcast/school_of_puppetry_podcast_4.mp3

Listen to the podcast above, or download it here. Subscribe on iTunes! Or subscribe to another podcast service. Transcipt is below… Submit yourself or someone else!

Hello, and welcome to the School of Puppetry podcast. Each month I talk to a puppeteer about their work, their insights and their techniques.

I know a lot of you out there are keen to learn more about how to make caricature puppets - that is, puppets that look like real people. Not knowing how to do this myself, I thought it best to talk to someone who has some experience doing it. So this month’s interview is with Brian Hogg of Hoggworks.

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Puppetry Trivia Quiz #5

School of Puppetry — Thu, 16 May 2013 22:45:18 +0000

Each fortnight I post a question related to puppetry. It’s up to you to figure out the answer, and the first person to guess correctly gets a shout-out on the site. There’s only one rule: you have to post a citation for your answer, and it can’t be Wikipedia (yes, you can use this website instead ). Let’s face it, Wiki just makes it too easy for people… The answer and winner will be revealed on each following Friday (ie. at the end of this week).

This week’s question was:

What does the ‘three piece head’ method refer to?

Surprisingly there were no answers sent in to me this week, which is a pity because last week’s kind of leads into this one. If the ‘nip and tuck’ method mentioned last week referred to cutting and folding foam, the ‘three piece head’ method refers to carefully patterning and constructing foam heads using three pieces: each one forms a quarter of a sphere, with the fourth quarter being the hole where you fit your hand. A good diagram for this is Billy D Fuller’s on PuppetsandStuff.com. Note that the gap between quarters 1 and 3 is where you would put your hand; the gaps between quarters 2 and 3 is the mouth. See this diagram as well. (Billy has many other diagrams and patterns available to view in his gallery so do spend some time there!)

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Types of puppets now with images

School of Puppetry — Thu, 09 May 2013 10:29:43 +0000

One of the many small improvements I’m making to the layout of School of Puppetry includes updating the images. With that in mind, I’ve now added pictures to the list of different types of puppets. So it looks like: image, title of puppet, short description; image, title, description, etc. I know this improvement is very minor, but I think it makes things easier for those looking to learn more about the types of puppets in a visual way. Especially in light of the fact that quite often a description in text format doesn’t help distinguish between some styles of puppetry in a quick and easy-to-understand manner.

And just in case you were wondering: I am indeed working on a new pattern for the site. It won’t be ready for another couple of months though, so in the meantime, just enjoy the golden oldies for a bit longer; and of course the new podcasts/quizzes as they are posted.

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Ronnie Burkett update

School of Puppetry — Wed, 08 May 2013 06:25:10 +0000

I know I said I’d steer clear of doing local puppetry news updates from now on, but because I recently posted my interview with Ronnie Burkett I thought I would update my subscribers with the discovery that Ronnie will indeed be making his way down to Australia this year!

He’s bringing Penny Plain, his most recent - not including the cabaret mentioned in the podcast - show. It’s on in August at the Vic Arts Centre.

Normally I’m aware of his movements, but his own agent’s website does not list this performance. I’ll be booking some tickets, so if anyone is in Melbourne and wants to go together let me know asap and we can get a group booking.

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Puppetry Trivia Quiz #4

School of Puppetry — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:23:23 +0000

This week’s question was:

What does the ‘nip and tuck’ method refer to?

And the winner with the sole, and correct, answer is… Whole Ideas!

They tweeted:

It is a method of foam puppet building featured in The Foam Book. You bunch the foam and then snip away what you don’t need.

This is almost exactly what I was going to write. The ‘nip and tuck’ method can also be considered the ‘cut and fold’ method. That is, you cut away foam where you don’t need it (like making darts in dressmaking), or folding the foam over on itself to create facial features. This is a way of making a puppet without using a pattern, as well as giving more detailed features than you might not otherwise get. Good visual examples of this technique are shown at A Puppet A Week, Sonny Vegas, and Jakarta Puppets.

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Podcast #3: Interview with Ronnie Burkett (Theatre of Marionettes)

School of Puppetry — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:02:40 +0000

http://www.schoolofpuppetry.com.au/media/podcast/school_of_puppetry_podcast_3.mp3

Listen to the podcast above, or download it here. Subscribe on iTunes! Or subscribe to another podcast service. Transcipt is below… Submit yourself or someone else!

Hello, and welcome to the School of Puppetry podcast. Each month I talk to a puppeteer about their work, their insights and their techniques.

This month’s interview is pulled from the archives. Way back in 2009, I had the opportunity to interview Ronnie Burkett, a Canadian puppeteer, and since I have an interview with him and since he was mentioned in previous podcasts, I thought it would be a good idea to re-post the interview with him.

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Puppetry Trivia Quiz #3

School of Puppetry — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 02:58:37 +0000

Each fortnight I post a question related to puppetry. It’s up to you to figure out the answer, and the first person to guess correctly gets a shout-out on the site. There’s only one rule: you have to post a citation for your answer, and it can’t be Wikipedia (yes, you can use this website instead ). Let’s face it, Wiki just makes it too easy for people… The answer and winner will be revealed on each following Friday (ie. at the end of this week).

This week’s question is:

What is the name used to refer to the handle on a marionette?

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Update to the intro to Karagozis

School of Puppetry — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:25:18 +0000

A short note to say that my two-year old post on the European shadow puppetry was utterly wrong… and it has now been updated. I wrote that Karagozis is Greek, but it’s not: it’s Turkish. I have been informed about it by a reader, and a brief check reveals that I was indeed wrong!

The updated post is here.

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