puppets part I

As mentioned last week I started a puppet course on Wednesday night which runs for eight weeks. The first night was a lot of fun. Being a little nervous not knowing what to expect, I was also very excited to be learning something new. The course is called, Puppetry for TV and Web and is run by Gary Friedman who has been a puppeteer all his life! Gary has even been fortunate enough to participate in a Jim Henson workshop, with Henson himself, back in 1987. I found some footage here if you'd like to take a look. Gary is the one with the orange muppet!

In our first lesson we practiced lip syncing into a slanted mirror (all we could see where our puppet hands) with the ping pong eyes you see above. Not too unlike this. We watch short puppet clips and some behind-the-scenes footage which was really interesting. We also started creating our own muppet style puppets. I am so excited  by this. They are made from a special reticulated foam, like that in air conditioners so they are more porous and breathable. Nobody wants a stinking puppet. Right?! I can not wait for mine to come alive!