Welcome Back!

Hello, fellow readers! So sorry for the long time away, but hopefully with a new semester of classes and teaching starting, I’ll have some more wonderful posts for you!

Just wanted to share a few photos of the wonderful fur I’ve ordered from Mendel’s in California.  They are the only supplier I use to buy my puppet fur, because they are AMAZING! I have been beyond thrilled with their customer service, their quality of materials and shipping, and their vast inventory of fur textures, colors and patterns.  Plus they do so much more than just fur!! Go to their website and check it out. You won’t regret it. PLUS from now until September 5, 2012, everything in your order is 25% off!  WOOHOO!! 🙂

I ordered these furs for my advanced puppet class this fall.  They use them with the Mostro pattern from Project Puppet.com.  The results are wonderful! (and hopefully I’ll be able to upload photos of their creations this summer as well in the next few weeks!) Again, this is the only supplier I use for my patterns, as they are wonderfully designed, easy to follow, and practically foolproof!! (To date, I’ve used all their patterns in the monster and simple series, with students aged 7 to 17, and no one has failed to finish a puppet yet!)

Enjoy the photos below, and check back soon for more updates!

Monster Hair Plug fur – lime green base with teal “plugs”

Monster Hair Plug fur – teal base with green “plugs”

Monster Hair Plug fur — Orange base, pink “plugs”

Puppet Pandamonium Part 2 – The Video Links

I finally had the time to update my YouTube account with all the videos we have made in Puppet Class at the Tuscarawas County Center for the Arts.  And so, in an act of shameless self promotion, here they are, in all their glory — links to the lovely shenanigans and puppety fun we’ve had over the past year at TCCA:

 

Fall 2011 TCCA Puppet Class proudly presents….

Meet the Crew

For each session of my class, we start performing with our puppets by conducting interviews with them.  This allows the kids to learn how to match their voice to their puppet’s mouth movements (and vice versa) and really helps them develop their puppets’ character.

The Talk Show

The Fall 2011 class had a big idea when it came to what they wanted to do for their final video project – they decided on a Talk Show where I (playing Harry, the Big Brown Furry Guy Talk Host) led their puppets through a series of interviews to develop the story about a Mayor in New Puppetdelphia that was giving the citizens a hard time.

Where’s Derp?

The Fall 2011 class continued their videos with the Adventure of “Where’s Derp?” – a continuation of the story from the Talk Show where we find out what happened to Derp when the Mayor imprisoned him.  (I love children’s limitless imaginations!)

Gallery Talk with Coco 2

Gallery Talk is one of my favorite projects to do with the kids is to have their puppets go around the art gallery and pick out a piece of art they like.  They then give a brief critique of it – who created it, what it is made of, and why they like it.

Gallery Talk with Sherbet

**The Fall 2011 class videos were created using my iPad 2 and iMovie.

 

Spring 2012 TCCA Puppet Class proudly presents….

Welcome to Puppet Class

A behind-the-scenes look at our class, who our puppeteers are, and watch us making some of our puppets.

Puppets and Letters

This year’s class decided they wanted to do some videos using their puppets to help teach younger children letters, and I couldn’t be more thrilled with the results! All these videos were extemporaneously spoken from a brief outline we created during class.

Gallery Talk with the Puppets: the Ohio Governor’s Youth Art Exhibition 2012

Another session of Gallery Talk, this time with art created by school-aged artists all around the state of Ohio – the finalists for the Ohio Governor’s Youth Art Exhibition show for 2012.

Puppet Bloopers

Many of our bloopers aren’t captured on camera, unfortunately, but here were a few that we did manage to get! Enjoy! 🙂

**The Spring 2012 class videos were made using my iPhone 4 and iMovie.

 

We Go Together Like Puppets and Letters

So incredibly proud of my Spring 2012 Puppet class at the Tusc Co Art Center.

Here is one of the four videos they made during this semester’s 10 week class.

And a screenshot: