Dancing Mouse Marionette

Approx 20 inches (50 cms) tall 

Kung Fu Master Wooden Marionette

Here's a marionette i've been working on recently - the kung fu master. He's gone out on hire for a week(more on that soon) but when he's back I'll do some more work on him to finish him properly.

The Giant Puppet in Iceland

Ok so word is out.

It was me who made the marionette for the viral ads featured on YouTube.

I couldn't post anything on this before as the idea was to make people believe it actually happened, or at least get people talking about it.
Now, however, Andrew over at Puppetvision has found out and posted about this, as too has smallmassive theatre (Fiona Mannion) commenting on the giant puppets myspace so i figure it's ok to say something about the stunt.

The puppet was solid lime wood and had an opening/closing mouth but this wasn't used in the filming. He was about 24 inches tall.

Ronnie Le Drew was the chief puppeteer. I was on set for adjustments of the puppet and as an assistant puppeteer, however Ronnie (pictured) did such a superb job of the puppeteering I was only needed to help out for a few takes.

Below are a couple of pictures of Ronnie with the marionnette.

It was good to work with Ronnie as I learnt a lot from him, he had used my marionettes before but this was the first time we had met face to face. He has been a puppeteer for many years and has worked a lot with the Little Angel Theatre.

The filming was a long and exhausting day, more so for me as I had been working all of the previous night getting the marionette ready for the shoot.

Thankfully for you readers you shall not be seeing the picture of me in the skintight green suit.

Making a carved wooden marionette

UPDATE **

Please visit my dedicated site on making wooden puppets:
www.carvingpuppets.com

A video tutorial is available to watch (or download) here:
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/makingmarionettesproj1


Introduction.

There are many different ways to make a marionette, no right or wrong ways, just variations in materials used, joint techniques and controller designs.

The type I will be making will be an all wood carved marionette. I will be making a human character however do not limit yourself, animals or abstract shapes can be marionettes too as we can see from the following picture of a simple lion marionette.

The detail of the carving can be varied depending on your ability, you may want to paint in details such as the face if you haven't got the skill to carve it. The marionette I will be making will be quite detailed but hopefully you can follow the principals and simplify where necessary

So lets look at some more examples of wooden marionettes.

Simple wooden shapes threaded with cord are used to create a character.(click on image to enlarge)

Below are some marionettes made in Prague, notice the angular shapes and in some of the puppets even the pelvis/leg joints are visible. (click on image to enlarge)

Here's a marionette from one of my favourite makers Antonin Muller:>

So there's some ideas for you in preparation for the next stage which will concentrate on the design of the character.

Halloween Marionette (2)

"zoinks!!! - run Scoob"

Story Teller Marionette

Here's a marionette I've nearly finished for a client. The character is an old storyteller. He has moving eyes, mouth and one moving eyebrow. The head is made from paperclay and is hollow to allow for all the mechanism for the moving parts.