Cool design. Even though on comes to expect that from you...

Hallo puppetfriends,

I need some help... as you know  I'm making a new production for kids with a dragon. I made the dragon but I want him to do some tricks... I want him to blow some smoke from his nose and fire from the mouth. Here in Belgium you may not produce fire on stage in many theaters. My question is: is there anyone who can give me a possibility to produce smoke and a alternitive for the fire from his mouth?
Thx for helping.
Sincerely Johan

For the smoke you could use talcum powder.  Run a small hose down to the dragon and embed it into his nostrils. Then at the top of the controller attach a small bulb syringe that you can fill with powder. To make him blow smoke you squish the bulb syringe. It won't be a lot and it would be a one time shot.

There is also a product called Lionel smoke fluid that is used by model train builders to generate smoke in toy trains.  I've never used it but if you have a model train store in your area you might look into that. I think it is generated with a small heating element. This might give you better smoke and more of it.  You would need to modify what ever mechanism that is used in the toy train.  I bet you could run it off of batter and run the power lines up to the controller.

Can you use flash paper in Belguim?  It is something sold to magicians. They make a small hand held mech that is run by battery and shoots out a ball of fire.  I re-worked one and ran the wires up to the controller and put a batter back and switch up on the controller. I used this on my dragon marionette for awhile. It is a one time shoot since you have to load the mech with the flash paper for each use.

Red and yellow silk in strips is often used to represent fire. Not sure how to use it inside the mouth though. Normally you attach the silk in front of a fan and then turn it on. Then you shine a light from behind the fan that is red or yellow also. See this Google Search: Google Search for examples of what I am talking about.

Thx Shawn,

the talcum powder was also one of our possibilities, but indeed it won't give a lot.
We have a large smoke machine, we could place it under a rock where the dragon sits on and then plug him on with a hose. I think the Lionel smoke fluid could be the sollution. I will let you know how we will work.
For the fire, we have tried the silk strips but there isn't enough place insite the mouth. I will look it up with the flash paper.

Johan

The mechanism to fire off flash paper is a small copper tube that has small heating element in the bottom. You pack the tube with flash paper and when the heating element gets hot it ignites the flash paper. It is much like a small cannon so the lite flash paper gets ejected from the tube. Like I said it is something you find in a magic shop. When I have seen these available they almost look like they are "homemade". I bet the heating element used in the bottom is the similar to what is used in a train to head up the liquid smoke fluid. I bet you could make something yourself if you could find the parts.

This weekend Victor Antonov was in our theater to give a workshop about how to manipulate marionettes. I could not follow this course due to my work at school but my wife Hilde did. She said that the controls were totaly  different than the ones we use. I'll put a picture of it online, for this moment I have some troubles to upload. Is there a book were different controls are shown?
Johan

I don't think there is a book that has good details on all the different types of controllers.  I've found that each book seems to focus on the style of controller the author likes.  I use a horizontal airplane design but a lot of builders like the vertical design.  Even within each type there seems to be quite a bit of variation. Here give this a try and see if it gives you the same results as it did me. Google Search: Google Search  View the images that are a result of this search. It gives a pretty good overview of what is out there I think.  I found this during the search and wanted to share it because it not only shows the control but a pretty amazing piece of art.

That is a horizontal airplane control. Pretty simple but very eloquent. This is an art piece made of crystal... can you believe it?!  Sorry I digress. You can see more of that artist work at http://www.flickr.com/photos/34510704@N06/

The control on this page half way down is a vertical fish control. http://www.dragonwings.net/CustomMarionette.htm  If you scroll to the bottom of the page you'll see a horizontal airplane control although in the image it is tilted vertically.

Hi,

here I post a video of a performence my whife and I did during a dancefestival. It was a pitty that the cameramen didn't see our play before... they missed some things of the show. Anyhow... enjoy.
Johan

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?2pxTBrGKs_0" target="youtube">YouTube Video</a>

Your marionettes are unbelievable! Unreal! How long have you been doing that? Are Marionettes "Wirepuppets" in dutch?

Thx, yes in Dutch it is 'draadpoppen' = wirepuppet. Our group is called 'DRAAD-poppentheater' and we want to give the marionettes a new life over here.

Wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing your art!

Nice work!  It is great to see your creations in movement finally.

Thx guys for these nice words!
I hope to get the DVD from our performence with the ballerina and the soccerplayer this weekend. I'l share it with you all.
Johan

Thx, yes in Dutch it is 'draadpoppen' = wirepuppet. Our group is called 'DRAAD-poppentheater' and we want to give the marionettes a new life over here.

I think that you say in Belgium draadpoppen -wirepuppets. Here in Holland we say always Marionetten almost the same as Marionettes.

Same in German! ;-)