Hello,

My name is Daan. I'm 22 years old. I'm from Belgium. I'm a teacher.

Last year I made a talking sandwich for a competition. In fact it was a talking croque monsieur.
The result was wonderful for my first puppet!

Once upon a time, (last month  ) I saw a marionette artist on the street. He had a puppet-dog. It was so realistic. I really was in love with the art of puppetry, so I decided to start playing marionette.
I'm young and motivated and I'll practice verry much!

For so far I was a magician and clown (www.clownpardoes.webs.com, but I want to do something new.

I want to become a good marionette street artist.

A dutch marionette theatre will start building my custom puppet next week.
It will be a typical, cool street dog. When my puppet is ready, I'll send some pics.

A have a lot of questions:

- do you have some tips to practice playing the puppets? (videos, websites, ...)
- The marionette theatre doesn't know how to make blinking eyes for my puppet. does anywhone else know? Do you have a drawing or something?
- If the theatre can't make the blinking eyes, I would like the have a mountable sunglasses for my dog that he can move up and down. (kind of flirting move).


The best regards,

Daan

Welcome to Puppets and Stuff Daan. You have a great website! Belgium, you speak Dutch right. We have quite a few members who speak Dutch.

Blinking eyes can be difficult to get right. Here is a picture of how moving eyes from side to side are done on ventriloquist dummies. http://www.puppetsandprops.com/onefinger.htm  The difference with blinking eyes, is that you make the axis for the eyes horizontal instead of vertical. You can also create shells that come down over the eyes. http://www.puppetsandprops.com/shellblinkers.htm

I like your idea of putting sun glasses on the dog better really. Would be easy to do. Drill a small hole at the back of the ear piece where it goes over the ears normally then stitch them or attach them through that hole to the head of the puppet. Then drill a small hole on the nose bridge of the puppet so you can tie a string to it up to the control. Now when you pull on the string the glasses raise up!

To get better at your puppet get a mirror and stand in front so you can see  your puppets movement or video tape yourself. Put some music on and start manipulating (playing) with your puppet. Watch to see what looks good. Small movements can often be the best. The puppet does not have to always be moving. For example with your dog. He could be jumping and running about then stop still and look at the audience. Then pull the glasses up. Then run off. Even a person puppet can get a great response by simply standing there and "looking" at a person. This a simple movement of tilting the control from side to side.

Dear mister Shawn Sorrel,

Yes, I speak dutch. I hope i'll meet the other dutch-mens als on the forum.
I'll try to do my best for my English

I also think the sunglasses would be the best option. And it would give my puppet that special item/move, that makes a puppet special.
I'll ask the theatre to put the sunglasses on the puppet, but if they can't make/do it, I'll try to.

My puppet will be ready at the end of september. Then I'll post pics.

regards

Daan

Daan,

Please call me Shawn.

You are welcome to post questions in Dutch along with English. Often concepts are easier to explain in your native language. I have to say your English is really quite good.

Daan, Welcome to Puppets and Stuff. I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of your puppet when it is ready. Please don't worry about your English, it is certainly better than my Dutch!

Welcome! I believe that David Currell writes about blinking eyes in marionettes in his book (the one on marionettes, he has a few books published). I don't have my copy accessible write now but I recommend trying to find one for yourself or asking the theatre people if they have one.

Did you make all those great ballon shapes on the website? Those are great!  I like how excited dogs wiggle in the middle, will your dog have a joint in the middle of his stomach too?

Hi,

I realy prefer a joint. It should be the best, isn't it?
Do these dogs have a joint?



--> this puppet is great!



When my dog can move like these (with or without joint), It's ok for me.

It does not look like these two have joints in their bodies. Only at the top of the legs and then the "knee" and "ankle". It is nice to have a joint in the body or for it to be soft so it moves but is not an absolute necessity. The joint in the body makes it easier to make them wiggle their hind end but as you can see in at least the first video you can still get some of that movement even with out it.

Did you make all those great ballon shapes on the website? Those are great!  I like how excited dogs wiggle in the middle, will your dog have a joint in the middle of his stomach too?

Hi, Snail,

I do can make all these balloon figures.
But I didn't invent all of them.
Their are some great balloon teachers on youtube

My Tintin is my creation (Belgian commic figure !)
Steven Spielberg made a beautiful animation movie from him.