queen of pain

The giant puppet I've been working on all week was set loose on Torrington, CT last Thursday. She was so troublesome! I thought I had the construction well planned in my mind, but the execution was mistake, correction, mistake, correction, with every step. (I'll post a how-to of the process, including the how-not-to parts.)

I wore her for a painful 2 hours at the street fair, while Jen McClure, my co-puppet builder, wore the Angler fish she made for Luna's Sea, which breathed bubbles. This was a whole new experience, trying to connect with people while being completely hidden in a puppet with limited articulation. These giant puppets are really meant to be quick-big-splash parade puppets, not one-on-one interaction puppets. But I was determined, and sacrificed my back to kneel down and bend forward so kids could high-five me. That was successful for the most part, other then for my back!

But she more satisfied my desire to make ornate tents, and my inclination continues to be that some smaller puppet happening goes on within her, as if her skirt is a proscenium. There's lots more to be worked out with that.

One amusing coincidence: I spotted my book, Magic Hoofbeats, in a rack through my skirts. It was the stall of two lovely Barefoot Books ambassadors, Melanie Cote and Marsha Miles, who took these first two pictures.