Backdrops

Welcome to my *studio*

I love my barn ....grin... it serves us well as milking parlor but the loft also has a perfect space for painting.

The 4 backdrops are ready but I am now extending the sizes to fit the theatre properly. Here you have a good idea how big our theatre is in comparison with my size.

First scene- forest

second scene - 7 dwarfs room

Third scene - Wicked queen chamber

Fourth Scene - palace garden

New faces , hands and body progress

I managed to finished 2 new dwarfs. they look so much younger and different from the others and I like this look so much more ...sigh...but I will have to happy with what I got now,grin!

When I work with the costumes , I will then add hats on them.

Sorry for the bad picture.... I just want to show you the fiber glass hand , already painted with a first coat. I haven't made any others , not even the other hand 's mold because I need to finish one first to see if I like it. I *really* like fiberglass as medium, it is hard like a rock.

Kate started to carve.... she will be making all the legs and arms.... she needs to *hand- carve* 112 pieces..... yep, she will be busy for while. when ever she is not playing or composing , you can see kate with her carving knife sculpting these darling legs!

It is always a celebration!

*** I had some problems uploading so if you kindly would click on picture, you will see the right photo***

Today we received the program for the George Batte Jr. Fine Arts Center. Needless to say that this makes my children jump up and down. It all becomes very real to them ( and to me too,grin) when we see the program.

The Fine Arts Center offers incredible entertaining and the shows are first class. I am so proud to be part of this and a little nervous now.... I always get like that.

The program is beautiful but if you never been at the theater you don't know what you are missing. The Wingate University theatre is gorgeous and reminds me when I was in Italy and visit the cathedrals .....

Yes ! It is time to celebrate. the children and I will have punch and dress up tonight while our victrola plays some oldies..... life is good , no?*grin*

I invite you to see what else is presented at the theatre, click on link below please:

http://www.wingate.edu/Culture/series.aspx

Prince and the others....

It has been harder and harder to post . I am so sorry about that. I love to work with the theatre and to talk about it. I am working on the marionettes but very slow, because my time is 90% devoted to the patitadolls and I honestly wish that I could have more hours in my day.*grin*
No, there is time for many things, if I don't sleep much of course, smiles, but I am trying to manage well.
I am closing my 7kidsfarm and I will no longer make soaps. I just don't have the time. And I will probably not sculpt , only for my dolls and the marionettes. I am no longer taking commission work and computer time is limited too because I have many projects right now.
I am a mom of 7 children and with a husband that delights in my company ,grin, and visiting my friends and their blogs has been more difficult just because I don't get to come to the computer until late at night but I always manage to take a peek at your blogs, so please , if you are not hearing from me lately don't think I am not visiting you , I am , just for a shorter time.


My daughters will be working with the wood carving for the bodies. I am so excited about this because I have done most things alone but now I will have considerable help.yes!

Almost forgot... here is the prince. I didn't think to make him handsome but rather gentle looking . I think he is nice looking thought. *grin*

The Captain is here!

Yes! I am finally done with the captain dwarf. He has been sculpted for while and now that he is ready , I regret not have taking a picture of him prior the glasses and the hair were added.

He is much a character I must say. I truly love how he turned up.

His glasses were made from welding rod. I love to weld ( my new passion) and thanks to my dolls I had to learn about it. The lenses have 3 coats of clear resin.

It still a little wet and today the humidity was high so i got foggy pictures, sigh, sorry about that*grin*

I did not forget about the hands. They are setting now. I have been working many hours daily while we are off school. I have been working with many things at the same time so it tales me more time to get one thing done but when I do, I get several done at the same time.

All my marionette will look very different when I start the costume. They will have hats or head pieces. I can't wait!

Marionette hands...molding process.

Okay, this is not a tutorial but an idea of how to make hands for marionettes. If you have questions I will be happy to answer it for you. Here I have my set of hands that I sculpted out of polymer clay and fired. These hands have a wire armature and I fired on the oven for one hour and at temp. 225. The tools you see are all handmade. I hardly buy tools because I am particular about my process and many times I spend MORE time preparing than the actually process. The mold is just an empty milk just that I cut on half and adjusted to the size I needed.I taped to seal it.

It is necessary to build a *body* around your prototype and find the *line* where it will meet the other part. Because I am using silicone as a mold making, I am much flexible about my lines because silicone will move for me . My shop is busy at this moment with tons of plaster molding as I have been working on my new dolls. I am making these mold inside my house so forgive me my poor lighting.

Here the clay body is almost ready. Now I need to trim a bit and fit properly inside the mold.

I also had to make a *pour hole* . that was easy... I just added clay around the wrist.

Silicone was poured. It takes about 10 hours for the setting.

Remove the mold. It looks great. No bubbles at all. I am happy about it. *grin*

Here I have the mold back inside the milk jug . I had to do some trimming. Then I placed the same hand inside . I did the pouring and now I must wait until tomorrow to see the complete mold.I will try my first resin hand tomorrow. I can't wait. This is my first time making hands this way.

Making marionettes hands and molds

I know it has been a while since I posted about the marionettes. I am sorry about that and thank you all of you that are interested in this art and to follow me. I know you have busy lives and to take your time to visit me and leave me comments is so precious to me. *Thank you*

Here is a picture of a hand ,that was at the time I took this picture, unbaked.

I have now a set of baked hands. This will serve me as a prototype, a test in fact.

I have, over the years, tried to improve in how the marionettes not only looks but performs. I will always admire and enjoy the *old time* wooden/plaster marionettes but now days we have a huge variety of options for mediums that dramatically improves the final results.

My idea is to make a silicone mold and use resin as medium to reproduce the hands. Why? Because it will be faster but will not compromise the looks plus it will be strong too.

Remember my puppeteers are children and believe me , back stage they *play* their own *plays* with one another and I am always telling them "be careful with the hands".*grin*

It will be more economical too. I like that. If this works, I will make a set of hands for the witch, one female, and probably one more male just to have the variety.

I don't like to use my camera when I am doing things because my hands are always so messy , but I do plan to take you to this process all the way.Perhaps you too one day will try to make a marionette for your own?grin. You will love that forever- I promise!