Lisa Lichtenfel is the queen of soft sculpture, and has been referenced on this site a few times...

Ron, thanks for sending me toward Lichtenfel's website. What fantastic stuff! Are we SURE some of those aren't real people? (ho-ho!)

Alas and alack, here in WV we lack. I checked the Mountain Library Network website and there are no Lichtenfel books to be found in any library in the network. The Library of Virginia does not seem to have her books either, however their website does have a disclaimer that the online system does not include all the materials available.

"Anatomy of a Doll" looks interesting, but I wish the feature to look inside the book included one or two of the illustrations. I did add it to my wish list to keep track of it as I cogitate how I want to go. I suspect that I'll end up with it, just to give myself greater flexibility in the future in making more unique puppets.

As far as the moose-antler eyebrows, well, my first memory of a puppet was Mr. Moose from Captain Kangaroo, and Bullwinkle is my hero!

The Lisa Lichtenfels stuff is amazing.  Has someone here purchased her books or videos before?  Where the instructions helpful?

Alas and alack, here in WV we lack. I checked the Mountain Library Network website and there are no Lichtenfel books to be found in any library in the network. The Library of Virginia does not seem to have her books either, however their website does have a disclaimer that the online system does not include all the materials available.

West Virginia? I don't why I didn't catch that before. When I lived in Maryland as a teenager I absolutely LOVED taking drives in West Virginia, and visiting State and National parks there, etc. I've had a few Internet friends from WV over the years, and my wife and I were even kicking around the idea of moving there at one point. Now it looks as though we'll be in Georgia for the next decade or two.

I don't know if the Mountain Library Network is the same as the regular interlibrary loan system. You might talk to someone at your local library to make sure. It is very convenient, and is all done on computer these days. I used the interlibrary loan system through my local branch to get rare puppetry books from other parts of my state and the rest of the US. There even appears to be a system of international loans available, but I'm not sure that all libraries participate in that.

They had me check the availability of books myself on the interlibrary loan web site. It might have been this one, I can't remember for sure:

http://www.oclc.org/default.htm

http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/default.htm


One problem MIGHT be that while I spelled her name correctly on Amazon and in my other searches, I dropped the "s" from Lisa Lichtenfels' last name in my original reply to you. That could make a BIG difference when you do an interlibrary loan search. D'oh! 

http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/search?q=%22lisa+lichtenfels%22

"Anatomy of a Doll" looks interesting, but I wish the feature to look inside the book included one or two of the illustrations. I did add it to my wish list to keep track of it as I cogitate how I want to go. I suspect that I'll end up with it, just to give myself greater flexibility in the future in making more unique puppets.

One of the branches here has a couple of Oroyan's books. I really like them, and while they ARE dolls much of the information and techniques would transfer readily to puppet making. Interlibrary loan would be more likely to have her books than Lichtenfels', because Oroyan's are still in print. It really is worth the trouble of asking the librarians how to use the system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlibrary_loan

http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=%22susanna+oroyan%22


Good luck!

As far as the moose-antler eyebrows, well, my first memory of a puppet was Mr. Moose from Captain Kangaroo, and Bullwinkle is my hero!

Some of my earliest TV watching memories from the early Sixties are of Bob Keeshan playing Captain Kangaroo, and Mr. Moose, with his pal Bunny Rabbit, dropping zillions of ping-pong balls on the Captain. Same goes for Rocky and Bullwinkle - I loved them, still do.

Good getting to know you, Chris.

 

Ron G.