Marionettes

[staceyrebecca]

Have any of you ventured into this realm?

I'm incredibly intimidated by them...but really want to start.

 

[mrhogg]

I haven't yet, but I've long wanted to. I am also somewhat intimidated by them.

 

[ravagefrackle]

i work at a Marrionette theatre in Brooklyn(well im sort of an Artist in Residnce now, i dont perfomr ona regular bases any more,but have built marriontettes for some of our prodcutions, they are chalenging but are a wonderful style to play with, as with all puppets the limitaions only open up new doors for expresion.

 

[staceyrebecca]

Next week...

My son is back in school from Spring Break and I'm not teaching because my kids are on Spring Break... I will make a Marionette...at least the body!

Hold me to it, muppetcentral. That's your new job.

 

[muppetfan89]

I'm venturing into it right now, I'm almost done making a marionette and learning how to perform with them, it's exciting.

 

[staceyrebecca]

out of what are you making it?

I'm toying with the ideas of either paperclay or cloth. If I do it next week, it will likely be cloth.

 

[Melonpool]

If you have the Henson release of "Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas", there's a documentary on the challenges the builders faced in converting rod and glove style puppets to marionettes. One of the things I remember was that traditional Henson-style puppets are as light as possible and the marionettes have to have some weight to the bodies and the limbs to allow for better movement. There's also a book called "Marionettes" by Helen Fling that might be useful as far as stringing and construction.

I've never built a marionette, but I've thought a lot about it over the years.

 

[staceyrebecca]

Our puppet theater has an amazingly extensive library that has hundreds of books...probably about 1/3 are on marionettes, so I've been looking at those for awhile. Joints are the things I'm wondering how I'll do...

 

[muppetfan89]

out of what are you making it?

I'm toying with the ideas of either paperclay or cloth. If I do it next week, it will likely be cloth.

Well, I'm taking a marionette lesson in my town, so I'm learning how to build and operate them in the process. This is what I've been doing. I made mine out of paper mache. I made shapes for the head, body, legs and arms out of newspaper kept their shape with masking tapes. Then I covered each piece with strips of newspaper dipped in paper mache. Today, I painted each piece with guesso. Next, I have to paint and assemble it.

it's a very simple way of making marionettes, but it's effective. I also made a bigger head to try to make mechnisms for the eyes and mouth.