Oh, Shawn, I'm using braided nylon ice-fishing line.  I think it's 27lb. test.

Beautiful work as usual! I wish I had the talent - or patience - for marionettes, you make them look so darn good

Hey Johan, did that give you any ideas for your dragon?  I'm still curious with a lot of other people about what you're going to do with your spider control.  Looks like fun!

Due to a lot of performances the last few weeks and still one to go  on the 28th of this month I dind't had much time to think about that control. Instaid I started to carve a witch. Soon I will post some pictures of her.
When I've found the control - have already some ideas - I will share it with you all.
Johan

Oh, Shawn, I'm using braided nylon ice-fishing line.  I think it's 27lb. test.

Pretty good choice but even at that weight you'll still get wear over time.  What you might want to do is keep access to say the end of the line.  Then as regular maintenance you could replace the string by knotting new string to the end and pulling it through and up to the controller. Before you get things covered you'll be able to maybe tell where the line is wearing and how fast.

Thanks, Na!  Are you really the webmaster for UNIMA Australia?  That's cool.  Canada has UNIMA problems, I think.
Hey Johan!  I think it was W.A. Dwiggins who said that the controller is easily half of the puppet construction.  I don't know if I'd go that far, but it's a lot, that's for sure.  As soon as you have some ideas for your spider controller let me know.  I might have a few of my own!
And Shawn.  I'll keep your ideas in mind.  I don't know how much I'll cover up, though.  Maintaining string access is important.  I know that it will look a little sloppy in the end, but I'd rather show the joints than have a puppet that doesn't work.

Yep, got the job about 8 months ago. I'm in the middle of rebuilding it, and we'll have a new and improved site in the coming months.

I haven't seen the UNIMA Canada site for a bit, but as I recall they were also in the midst of redesign?

Unima Canada is a bit of an overstatement.  There's not much going on west of Ontario.  The Canadian section is more devoted to traditional French puppetry than Canadian puppetry.

Much the same here: lots of stuff on the Eastern side of the country, with a little in Perth (on the west). A pity, you'd think there would be more going on in Canada!

Small update.  I've been experimenting with my single wing to get the feathery part to work right.  Here's the mock-up wing with supports made from little plastic tubes:

And here it is attached to the rest of the gryphon:

I think I'm ready to make the other wing skeleton now...  And something for the tail...  Onwards!

The tail!

The bones of the tail are made with pieces of dowel.  Each has a hole drilled through the center, and then they're all strung like a necklace.  The end piece is a fishing weight.  I hope the extra weight will help the tail move against the resistance of the fabric skin that will cover it.