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Once again, sorry to have gone quiet on you all but I have been very busy making 2 sock puppet crows for our Glastonbury Festival show: “Clueless & Wuffles – The Case of the Missing Jewels”.

As you can see above, they are now finished but I think I shall be adding one or two little tweaks to improve them.  Looking at the photo’s I think tongues would help with the visibility of the puppets’ features.  This is a bit of an issue for an essentially all black puppet.  I hope that the textures of the shiny beaks and legs and the fluffy feathery bits will help.

• I used black welly socks turned inside out (to show a fluffier texture).
• The eyes are gold beads (literally beady eyes).  The shapes of the beaks and parts of the wings and tail are made out of polythene damp-proofing membrane, (because we happened to have some spare).
• The beaks have black carpet or “gaffa” tape over the top.
• The legs are metal springs from the spiral binding of artist’s sketch pads, (covered with more carpet tape).  The fluffy/feathery bits on the tops of the legs and on the chest are from a chenille scarf of mine that had seen better days.
• The fabric parts of the wings and tails are made of black “ripstop” a material often used for kites because you can cut it into shapes and it does not fray.
• The feet are made of black cable ties, (zip-ties for my American readers).

The crows will look a lot better in action than in these photographs as, like most puppets, they are designed to look good in motion rather than sitting around like a dummy.  This is why it is so challenging for museums to display puppets in a dynamic way as they are designed to be seen in performance.

The picture of me making the puppets was taken at our local Celebratory Arts based Healthy Living Centre: “Looking Well Studios” in High Bentham.  They have been opening up their space on Saturdays for people to come in and do creative stuff.  It is nice to do this kind of thing in company with other people as the creative process can often feel a bit isolating.  A bit like Frankenstein going into his laboratory to make his creature for hours on end and only surfacing occasionally for cups of tea and a spot of mad cackling.  I did most of the making at Rough Magic Theatre headquarters though.

I have also been busy booking in various other work for the summer and I shall be putting the details up on the “Where You Can See Me” page as soon as they are confirmed.

If you have any comments, suggestions or questions about the crow puppets and how I made them please make a comment below 🙂