Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Marionette for the Show & Video

I have been trying to get some things ready for my upcoming show. One of the bears I have been working on is a marionette. There’s a bit of a story behind my interest in puppets and marionettes. It stems from when I was much, much younger. Growing up we had a book in our house that had been used so much the covers had fallen off of it. It didn’t matter though because it was a make-it book and what was inside was what was important. Between the non-existent covers were all kinds of projects for kids. Some were easy and some were more difficult. On rainy days when there was no one to play with, I would dig out that book and flip through the pages looking for something to make. I grew up with that book and years and years later as an adult, I found my very own copy at a yard sale. It did have its covers, but you could tell that it had been used a lot.

One of the pages gave instructions for making a “Wooden Marionette”. When I was in high school, I relied on them to guide me as I worked on a couple of puppet projects – one even ended up as part of an assignment for my History class. It was much more enjoyable making marionettes than writing a paper which was the other option.

Here’s a scan of that page from the Make-It book.


Fast forward to the other day when I was in the process of completing my second small teddy bear marionette. I was goofing around with it as my husband watched who then insisted I show our daughter who is 17 years old. I called her in to show her how my bear could dance. She laughed so hard she cried. That, in turn, made me laugh. In fact, hearing and seeing her laugh were the best things that have happened to me recently. We could hardly stop laughing; she because of the puppet and me because of her.

(This is where I must stop and give my Mom-in-law credit – she raised a guy with seemingly endless patience. You’ll see why in a minute if you are still reading. So Thank you, MIL!)

After we got over our laughing, I had an idea that we could put together a little music video. The only thing is I don’t know anything about video editing and my husband learns as he goes – patience and forbearance. Yes, forbearance! Between the two of us, we managed to put together a very short, amateur video of the marionette. We wanted to share it with you. I don’t expect that you will laugh as hard as we did, but we do hope this snippet of entertainment will make you smile – for at least for 2½ minutes.

Oh - before you watch, you need to turn your sound up or else it just won’t make any sense. It’s important that it makes sense – yeah, right.

Remember, turn up the volume on your computer. The sound begins after a second or two.


5 comments:

  1. That is soooo cute Ginger ! Much better than what's on tv any day !
    I used to love those 101 Things To Make type of books .... ahhhh nostalgia :0)

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  2. I love it. It reminds me of "Muffin the Mule", a kids marionette that was on British television in the early 1950's. :~)

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  3. Well, that just made my day! How cute, Ginger! (And hubby too!)

    A darling little bear.
    Have a great day!
    Hugs, Nancy

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  4. Made my day! With so much hard news and worry recently, your words and art and play are really refreshing Ginger! (And yesterday your husband made my day with his good news!) Joe

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  5. oh Ginger, i call to my daughter, and she fall in love of the litle bear,her favourite part is when he sing : "watch me baby!"and move his head, lovely!

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