The hands are finally ready!!!!!

Last year I sculpted a set of hands for the marionettes. I made a silicone mold at that time but it was not until last week that I was able to get the hands poured. I used fiberglass as my medium because is super strong and cheap.
Below you see them already washed . I drilled a hole in each wrist and will insert a wood dial and I will do the same on the marionette arms.

I started painting yesterday and even with my shop warm up the painting was not settling well... I will be working on that today ... I hope the paint has dried.

If you look on my past posts you will see the one were I made this mold.

Husband and son as marionette dancers...

I couldn't resist when my children told me that they had a surprise show for us. ....I was not able to place the video as a post so I added above and later on I will move it to the side bar.... it is hilarious!!!!!!!!
These were just improvised movements...

The Prince

Oh my , I can hardly believe that we finally started our rehearsal this past week. I worked intensively with the dolls and they are *ALL* strung and with the exception of some of their hands and feet - we are almost all ready! We basically worked on the music and placing the characters on the scene.
You see , Kate and I wrote the play but because of our lack of experience it is difficult to envision the marionettes adapting to the play when we were writing. I was very surprised to find out that We did WAY better than our first play * Cinderella* .
Our voices and music were already recorded at the university with the students and faculties but I received all in 10 tracks and it is my job to do all the editing. The first time I did this , it was awful, I had to learn the software language that unable be to do all the mixing... it is called Wave Master. Well that was 3 years ago, when I first worked with this program , it took me almost 8 weeks to get it right the entire editing...... it took me 5 days this time.... and probably a total of 8 hours to get our entire play done.Phew!*grin*
Now that the recording is done , we are practicing. I am always amazed how well the children do with the dolls... they are so much better than me... I thing is the spontaneous and child like attitude that makes them such good puppeteers . ...grin.

Here is the Prince.... he is not handsome as I wish.... I am not good sculpting males... but he is dressed fine and good for me that children don't care!* big smiles*

Snow White

Hi~
I am hoping to finish stringing the marionettes by tomorrow. Here a close up of few of them and Snow white.... I will then start molding for the hands and feet!

Wicked Queen

*** If you click on the picture you will see a much bigger*** The wicked queen is almost ready.... I will be working on the hands and feet after all the marionettes are dressed and strung.For her costume , I choose to make a simple black dress -yet elegant.
Today we also rang up all the backdrops behind the theatre to see how they look. The one behind the queen is her own chamber . I still have to add some canvas and paint to make it larger but that will have to wait.
I am feeling a little overwhelmed right now because I need to get the children practicing soon and when I look at the unfinished marionettes it makes me feel rush and I don't like that. Although this is our family theatre, and I do this so my children can enjoy and learn art , I still like to do the best of me. I am working on the dwarfs right now... today , for the past 8 hours I have sew 7 pants and now my daughters are helping me with the details.Next week I will post the Prince... he is a gem!*grin*

The wicth is ready

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*grin*

Hi!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am back!!*smiles*

We had a wonderful Christmas and I am still enjoying the company of my sis and her children however , my hands can never stay still. I confess I have been working more than any other time.

I don't even know if *work* is the right word.... I love to make *things* so very much is hard to feel that what I do is called work.*grin*

I am in the midst of marionettes making, miniature work, and FINALLY I have a wood stove installed on my main shop so the final molds for Patitadolls can be made.( that will be coming up next)

I plan to weekly post my progress.Although I have few other characters ready , I choose the witch to do my first post because she is one of my favorites.*grin*

Costuming is a lot a fun but sometimes stressful because I not always have the right vision.

When I was thinking of the witch , I want to create something different than the black-dark-moody costume seen at most plays.

I figured , if the witch is approaching snow white she should have a combination of a poor woody lady and somehow a fear looking as well.

I think this is it. I am always afraid how the young children will react too but I think she will be fine.

I will finish all the costuming before I start the stringing each marionette. I already know that when i string the witch I will let her have a permanent curved back.I think that will give her a nice characteristic, don't you agree?

Rehearsal starts soon....

Today, we cleaned up our living room and made space to set half of the theatre . We set up only what is necessary because the theatre is quite large when we add all the curtains.

My children were eager to get the sitting in. I am working on the outfits and I can gladly tell you that I have completed 5 of 14. I plan to work as many hours as possible this week to get ALL the costumes done.

Jackie , our tea cup chiauchiau has no glue what is going on...grin...I am getting anxious to get started but I confess to you that I still have much to do before that.

*The marionettes that you see on the farm back are not Snow white*