I need some advice: I've been approached by a local museum to do a sort of installation for an upcoming toy/puppetry exhibition. They're keen on having two copies of my teddy bear marionette (pictured below). My initial design used a vertical crossbar. The puppet doesn't necessarily have to move, which helps a little, I just have to worry about weight and mounting. Thing is, she'd like 'lifesize' (or at least oversized) teddy bears. The build is easy enough, even if I have to make the teddies (teddys?) myself, what my biggest concern is how to mount it. I'd like to have it 'freestanding', that is, rigged from the roof. However the building in question has no rigging points or indeed anything to rig off (I'm 99.99% sure the building is also heritage, so it's even more precarious). I'd change the design to use a horizontal crossbar, and the bear is actually very light (polyfil stuffing and calico, plus strings and bar). But is it just better to put the whole thing on a stand and mount it so the base is taking the weight? ... On a side note, I've actually seen a gigantic (3 metres tall roughly) marionette mounted from the roof (and operable) in Sth Korea, so I know it's doable on some level. ... I'll have to dig up the photo of it.

Ah, found the photo...It's hard to tell, but the puppet is on strings which run through pulleys in a rig above the people's heads... Pity there's no rig in the museum!

Could the museum erect scaffolding for you to work off as a base?

I'm not sure. It's one thing I knew someone here would ask me :P
I didn't have the chance to ask the curator, but I will in my next contact with her. I did see the actual space itself today and it's very very small. I know they have plinthes that I can use as bases, but scaffolding or trussing might not be doable given the size. There's two small rooms, about 4 or 5 metres wide and 3 or 4 metres long each. It's definitely something I'll ask about, but I wanted to think about other concepts too just in case it can't be done.

(It's in the City Museum at the Old Treasury building if you've been there)

Oh hey, and they had a magic exhibition on while I was there, which was pretty neat. I had a look around and there was some great memorabilia type stuff. Even a video of what looked like a blacklight or light curtain magic show. And a really nice set design model with small lights and a pulley-operated set of curtains. :D

A friend and I went to the Magic exhibition and at the time I think they were still setting up so they let us in for free. We also got to go into places of the Old Treasury building that we shouldn't have. This was due to us being in work men clothes and there being a heap of contractors on sight fixing several areas up at the time. The building was amazing and in one of the old gold volts that was closed we both got a seance of someone else being in there with us. We both put it down to trams above us as magicans shouldn't believe in ghosts as such. But then to find out that there is a Ghost who loves to scare guys in the place I am no longer so certain.

http://www.haunted.com.au/news/age09.html

Haha - how funny, I went into the gold vault too, and got very creeped out by the video starting when you walk in. Then I had the smarts to look up and realised there's a motion sensor. Pretty neat actually.

"The word is, women have a friendlier experience." (from link provided). Well, that explains it: you got a creepy feeling but I didn't.

By the way: hope you and your family/friends are ok. All this news about the fires is quite nerve-wracking. Even saw a news clip on Newshour with Jim Lehrer today: you know it's bad when Australia appears in the American news!

Na,

Could you maybe build some scaffolding out of PVC pipe to hang your marionettes off of?

Great suggestion Shawn! I really hadn't thought of PVC piping. Having spent some time today thinking it over, it might work if I design the scaffolding correctly and allow it to take the weight. Having never used PVC piping before, how much weight do you think it would take?

Anyway, I sent through an email to the curator with a bunch of questions, so hopefully she'll get back to me in a day or so and I'll have more info.

Ok, I've finally got more info from the curator. She will be providing scaffolding. I'm going to get her to give me details of how/where it's going to be set up, what the scaffolding looks like, etc. In the meantime, I'd really love some advice on how to go about doing the pulleys and securing the ropes to the puppet. Kids will be playing with the marionettes, so I need to make sure the ropes are properly secure. I have a good idea of how to do the stringing itself so everything works, but if anyone can suggest some resources, please do let me know.

Not sure that there are any resources for this. A trip to the hardware store is a must.   Try to get one of the folks there involved in your project. 

Scaffolding normally is made of pipes that are fitted together and screwed.  There are then "plateforms" that lay across the pipes.  Unless you are going to have the puppet inside the scaffolding you need to figure out a way to get an overhang to the side of it that you can attach the pulleys to.  Perhaps some 2x4s layed on the top platform and then secured with "C" clamps.  The scaffolding is most likely rented so you may not be able to screw into or through it.  "C" clamps are a good way to attach things to it.

How long is this going to be displayed?  If it is only a month or two install then I bet you can get away without using pulleys. Get some "I" bolts to run your rope through.  You can drill a hole through the 2x4 slide the bolt in and then secure it with the nut.  There is no way that bolt can come out.  Ok I guess the nut could work loose over a long period of time but you understand.   You could use "I" bolts in your puppet as well to attach the rope to if you wanted.

Hope those ideas help.  I think the most important one is to find a clerk at the hardware store and pump them for ideas.