I’ve learned in workshops over the years and explore them in depth. This is so important to me because I rarely have time to work on building puppets without the pressure of a show. Usually, if I’m building a puppet, it has to work. It’s such a gift to work on some of the techniques I’ve learned and expand on them without that pressure. I’m focusing on mechanics, not aesthetics, so basically I’m building puppet skeletons. The puppet I’m working on right now, which is slowly evolving from a pile of wood, balls, elastic and dowels, is all about bendy joints. The original design that I learned at that AGO workshop from @clunkpuppetlab didn’t have as many ball joints and bendy parts as I’m planning for this one, but that’s the idea: to dive deeper and expand my knowledge. Tomorrow, I’m adding knees and I have a thought about vertebrae. It should be fun.

The other part of this is to experiment with tools.. I’m very lucky in that my husband builds and repairs harpsichords. Puppets & Shadows Theatre shares a workshop with him, and between us we have a TON of drills, saws, sanders, measuring devices, and other fun stuff. There’s no way I need all the tools in the workshop all the time to build puppets, but this week, I’ve been playing on all of them to see what they can do.

I don’t know if this puppet skeleton will work flawlessly when it’s finished, but I will know more about what I can do when I’m done the week. For that, I will make the puppet dance.