Ever since I can remember, I have delighted to make puppets come alive to interact with an audience. Back in college, when I was trying to decide what I wanted to be, one idea that passed into my vision was to step into Jim Henson’s shoes (if not just his workshop). Even as I have gone other directions of teaching art & directing a residency, the pull to make & enliven puppets remains a childlike passion.
Once the eye mechanism was built, the next step was to make a place for it inside the puppet’s head. Here, I am fitting the mechanism into the cavity I have carved. Lots of adjusting and pinching out of bits of foam to make it just right!
I imagined 3 puppeteers bringing to life a giant Moroccan character out on the main ‘walking street’ of Tetouan.
This is the mechanical eye system that fits into the puppet’s head and is operated by cables which allow me to move the eyes left and right, and close the eyelids. It is made from styrofoam balls, wire, fasteners, wooden dowels and string or cable pulls.
Backpack frame for the Giant Puppet project, made from locally sourced bamboo, lashed together with nylon string. The PVC connectors will allow me to disconnect from the upper skeletal structure.
Scale drawing of the puppet for planning his infrastructure or skeleton, and my place within that system.
Here, I am using a quickly built maquette, about 9” tall, to help me solve some of the build questions around the infrastructure. In particular, this model is testing the idea of a shoulder board that hangs from above, supported by the dual “spine” poles that will connect to the backpack.
I am using lightweight bamboo from the local market, corrugated plastic and plywood for the skeletal elements. Here I am working on a solution for “hanging” the shoulders through which the ‘neck pole’ will pass.
Here’s a 360 view of the backpack, made from bamboo, suitcase straps, elastic, wire, string, “flip flop” foam and poyleurethane foam.
After months of not finding an external backpack frame in the old city markets here in Tetouan, I turned to the drawing table, and this is the result. I am pleased with its strength and lightweightness, as well as the simplicity of the build.
