Tag Archives: materials

“Gloria” Puppet in Progress Pictures

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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I’m delighted to announce that Tim Austin and I have secured permission to create a brand new show based on the Caldecott Medal winning book “Officer Buckle and Gloria” by Peggy Rathmann.

I have been chomping at the bit to get the permission from the publishers so that I could start work on the show, which will premier during Child Safety Week.  It’s a brand new commission from the Bradford Safeguarding Children Board and our very first show adapted from a contemporary book.

Now we have the permission, I have to get cracking at a rapid pace on the central puppet character of “Gloria” the Police dog.  The big challenge is to make Gloria convincing as a normal, realistic dog while allowing her to stand upright and perform very undog-like gestures.

With this in mind, I thought the flexibility of foam rubber was the way to go both for the head and the body.  She will also need to be very light as there is a lot of jumping about involved.

I have seen very good puppet dogs and wolves made by other people that are similar to what I’m aiming for.  However, these have been operated by more than one puppeteer and this one needs to be operated by one puppeteer only.

I have a good idea of where I’m going with it, but it is a developing process.  I am making decisions about how to do things and what materials to use as I’m going along.

I shall be posting more photos of the making process for the show as it develops.

Click HERE for details of the performances

OFFICER BUCKLE AND GLORIA ©1995 by Peggy Rathmann.

First published in the United States by G. P. Putnam’s Sons. All rights

reserved. Used with permission

Horses, Toy Theatres and Automobiles….

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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Curiously enough, while working on a project called “My Last Car” I have been without the use of my poor faithful old van.  It has been languishing at the garage while the cause of its lack of power was agonised over and attributed to various eroneous causes.

How have I been managing?  Surprisingly well, though only, (in some cases) due to the generousity of other people lending their vehicles to ferry materials and bits of bike and mechanical horse etc. backward and forward.

We decided to actually go whole hog for the local shopping on foot and as our local magazine the Bentham News suggested some while back, the lack of cost to drive out of town to a supermarket means that any slight price increase is compensated for.

I have been extremely healthy/exhausted tramping backwards and forwards on foot, but I have always tried to keep my van for journeys that are absolutely necessary anyway.

After discovering the true cause of my old van’s decrepitude I was advised that I’d be better off with a new one, (a new old one anyway).

I now have a shiny little red van with which I am very pleased, and very relieved that I will be able to use for my work.  So, though I can see it is possible to manage without a car, it also has made me extremely aware of how very useful it is to have one.

So what with sorting this out I have not made as much progress with the horse as I had to show in the last post, but it is still coming along.

Also, excitingly, we have finished editing both a full length and trailer length versions of our Hansel & Gretel Toy Theatre film and I hope to have the trailer online at some point next week, so watch this space!

Click here to see earlier posts about My Last Carnival Horse Automaton.

Remember you can see the completed project on June 2nd in High Bentham Town Centre