Scuba Marionette - Part 2

Today I went back to help finish the scuba marionette. Since last

time the diver got a coat of

glossy black paint for his wet suit. Our job today was to finish

up the paint,

make the

diver's face, attach the scuba tank and face mask (with air hose) and to complete the controller and then string the marionette. We worked from 4pm to 9pm and it all got done! I think that Daniel is pretty happy with the way his project turned out.

Scuba Marionette - Part 1

My nephew, Daniel, has a puppet assignment from school. He wanted to make a full sized scuba diver puppet! I thought maybe a marionette would be easier both to make and to manipulate (not to mention transporting it to school).

I explained that fewer moving parts = faster to build and easier to manipulate. Daniel identified the most important movements, which were the kicking legs and forward arms. We started with

newspaper for the basic shapes. Then we

started covering them with paper machie. The scuba air tank is a water bottle and the face mask is the bottom of a plastic salad dressing bottle

and

the top of the water bottle. The joints are floral wire inserted under the paper machie.

Daniel did a great job (and Mom and brother Andrew too)

and we got as far as covering the marionette with a coat of primer. Next we'll figure out the stringing and add the paint

(mostly black wet suit) and add the final touches like painting

on his face, attaching the swim mask and making the air hoses.

We had a great afternoon working together! We don't know what his teacher will think, but as far as we are concerned this is A+ work.

To be continued...

Halloween

I was asked to do a Halloween show for the Weston Library this year. With the help of staff and volunteers we put together a Reader's Halloween with stories, jokes and a costume contest.

With a donation of cardboard boxes from Home Depot I created a cardboard set.

After the show I put the set up in my driveway for Halloween.

The set had a built in Shadow Screen.

Shot in my driveway under a flash to show the details. On the right side of the set, the door opens and has two panels that also open. Next to that is a shadow screen. Then a hand puppet stage has a slight thrust and a playboard. The skull under the playboard opens too. The last panel on the left has 2 openings, the top and the rat panel.

The other side of the driveway had the usual group of inflatable and electric monsters.