Ok, so this was quite a poignant moment for me and Twig. We've been at this for a number of years and I must say I got a bit emotional as I attached the 'TWIG THEATRE' sign/lettering to the theatre/cart...

The inspiration for the lettering/font started with an event I was invited to last weekend, a "wellness" open house....they wanted something fun!  So,  I offered to set up a little demo table to share my puppets and  talk about the creation process of Twig Theatre. Me in my little corner of the room!  It was a great experience! 

Getting ready for the event I painted  the little sign  you see with the white lettering .......

I looove this lettering. I found it on a deck of Tarot cards. I really like the white lettering with all the darkness of the theatre (dark wood , dark lanterns, leather etc)......it adds a snowy, lightness to it. It just goes together. So,  it appears, Twig is ready for her lettering!

drew the letters out the right size...on wood of course. (scrap cherry wood John had available in the shop) Each letter will be cut out

This one will all be one piece....

cut out on the bandsaw

big TWIG letters sanded on an old school "bandsander"

Tricky here ....using a drill press to bore out all the wood in between the letters. Of course, originally I wanted to chisel everything out...I imagined it looking like an old handmade wood sign but alas I was told that would take a very long time(as I would soon see!). so, I took all the amazing shortsteps I had available and still was able to eventually achieve the old look I wanted.

moving down to a smaller bit to get in between spaces

ok, starting to do some chiseling. I like the circus feel of this picture with the red and yellow and the little circles at the top of the wood

then I got smart as I saw just how long that was taking- I got out the router and routed around each letter....yay!

A dremel with a nice round bit created a nice chiseled relief look....you can see on the left side of the sign . that was amazing....the transformation was a lot of fun. THis was day 3 I think.  Hilarious, originally I thought it would only take me a coupla days to draw it all out and chisel it all away! Chiseling would have taken me weeks!

Here they are....a preliminary look on the theatre....a very exciting moment.

I put them close together to see how they are looking but imagine them farther apart like the last photo.

Then I went to work carving all the little 'dots' to go under the appropriate letters. I love it!

next step is to paint the letters white.....ok, I felt a little hesitant to paint the wood but did remind myself I could take it off if I didn't like it. I like the white so that it pops out amidst all the dark of the cart... want folks to be able to see it right away.

Here are the letters in white...I will probably do a wash over the letters so they are not SOO white. they will look a bit like old bone...with some dark in the cracks.

I also have to do the dots for the big TWIG letters- I AM having the sense that I like the wood lettering naked better....but am trusting that when it wll comes together the white will really work.

 I will include some better photos next update....seeing the letting on the cart now inspires me to work on the border framing the letters....yes it will be a wood border....again, something Art Nouveau...a bit more curving and undulating than the brown paper you see here. Maybe I will chisel it.....:)

thanks for tuning in guys! Oh yeah found this coolio item at the local antique store....something from the 70's...looked to me like an old school clamshell light that you would see on an old theatre stage ....the audience sees the shell side and a light emanates from behind/under it- illuminating the stage! It was $3!!

must    m...a..k..e        m...o..r..e

Hello Twig family! I have some quiet time right now so I can finish the post from Sunday.

I have made a most wonderful discovery....cardboard and its amazing versatility and strength. I wish I had discovered the value of models and mock-ups 4 months ago. I would have constructed the whole earth Shaman from Cardboard...antlers, head , face, arms and hands. This would have given me something physical to see -the entire concept. It would allow me to assess his feel and appearance, scale, joints, movement, how to puppeteer him and many other things. Alas, I now know and begin where I am at!

some things seem so obvious in hindsight :)

So, I have known all along that I wanted the Earth Shaman to have long arms and large hands but exactly what those look like...I am not sure...so, rather than wait till I figure all that business out I decided I would try the cardboard thing. I challenged myself to use mostly cardboard and hot glue. And rather than going with long articulating fingers for the Shaman which might feel a little too 'witchy' I am going with bear paw type hands...Its a place to start anyways!

Hand

claws. look! the Earth Shaman has already been chipped with a barcode...should he ever get lost in the spirit world we will be able to find him.

hinge

foam paw pads and a little fur

cardboard corner protector...for arm

hand loop

hand attached to arm. The white elastic is for resistance

taking shape

minimal movement, the 'mechanism' needs more working over...this was a first attempt.

this is my favorite photo because it feels like his large hands hanging at his side...and actually I could even go bigger with his hands. See the Inuit Medicine Man below....

ooooh those hands!

found this at the local thrift store.  took off the outer shoulder pads

May use this as a type of inner framework to build the Shaman Puppet onto. It is rigid and padded...this is good.

Native Medicine Man ... Earth Shaman may look a lot like this general design. When I first appear (in performance) I appear to be moving in a Medicine Man type costume......until, that is, the Shamans head/face comes down off the top of my head and begins to move independent of me..... Arms reaching upward and outward.

I was initially going to hide all of MY body under the costume but am thinking this is not necessary to pull off the illusion of The Earth Shaman coming alive and being independent of me.

ok signing off for now. Am excited to play with more cardboard mock-up!

stay tuned, love to all, Heidi

Hello Twig family!

The three Redbud trees outside my bedroom window! YAy! The warmth and the sun is very inspiring and exciting.

Remember this pic from my birthday in December?! 

Antlers continued....

After doing the paper mache "sculptamold" and letting it harden up I added the Creative Paperclay which is more like working with clay than paper. Here it is ...really ez to work with to get just the detail i needed...It took about a day to harden

Then I sanded it down to smooth out the whole antler

Sanding in my lap!

some of the under mesh coming through...

It turned out amazing - Albeit not as light as I had anticipated. I am enjoying the exploration of materials...learning their parameters. Will see if these indeed become the Shamans antlers

Covering theatre hinges....

I used pounded leather to cover the piano hinges on the doors....trying to keep things looking old and distresses. I will use really thick saddle leather on the front of the doors and make large faux hinges that look like pounded copper or brass.  Stay tuned for that development....currently looking for the leather.

tacks and things .....

Pounding leather on the anvil

pounded- distressing it- kinda looks like metal. And actually I decided to go with the backside of the leather.

Ball pein hammer for pounding

Feels good to cover the hinges...

Also covering the hinges on the Lantern brackets

looks nice and the bracket still folds against the cart.

Alas, my friends I have been interrupted mid-update.  I will continue this post as soon as I can get back to it. I have more to cover about the Shaman puppet. I have been working on a cardboard mock-up of his hands. This has been an exciting discovery for me....mock-ups in cardboard. Will share more !

ok love and love, Heidi

Hello Twig family, I had originally projected the end of Twig Theatre Project to occur by the end of this month. However we are quickly approaching this end-mark and I do not anticipate being finished. There is so much more I want to do!  So, at this point, I am opening up the finish date and will keep working steadily to my final goal. I hope this sits well with everyone. I continue to be invested not only in the completion of this project but also in the process for it is in this process that I am given the opportunity to meet and move through some of the fears that have stopped me in the past.

Thank you everyone for your continued support of my efforts to realize Twig Theatre Project. Look for another project update by the end of the week.. Love and love, Heidi

Hello Twig family, inching along! more stuff to share.

Last week I showed you the beginnings of this little guy

This week I added some things....exploring and finding who he is. 

Antlers...I seem to be super into antlers right now. So, here are some antlers I made for him...and some neckgrass. (everyone needs some neckgrass to wear)

I am liking his creatury-ness. and yet...there is some kind of transformation I feel gonna happen with this little guy.

I am understanding better now just one of the reasons why it is difficult for me to "just build a puppet" and get out there and do it... (fer God's sake!)  Because each one of the puppets is mirroring my own growth and transformation. and this process takes time as well as a deep listening. part of me has a hard time compromising this process. it feels sacred. Bypassing this process feels like tellin' a toddler to get off his ass and just start walking. Before he's even learned to crawl. (Yes, even if its taken years for him to crawl)

I like this little creature and he could be complete the way he is but there appears to be something else happening here. The more I go creature-like with his face the less it seems to "go" with his rather "human-like" hands. So then I made a more creature looking hand with 2 fingers and a thumb and it didn't look right on the body. It is strange...it is as if two different entities are trying to appear in one puppet...so, I may go with it...I am considering a head that is somewhat more human. ...a bit abstract and yet more easily recognizable as human. Then, at some point in the performance, I put a mask on him. This mask is more like the face you see....... made of moss and bark, with antlers , a flat broad front with peep-hole eyes...we shall see in the coming weeks.

Here is how I made his antlers.....

I started with some armature wire and sculpted over it with this amazing stuff called Creative Paperclay. It has the characteristic of clay, being very easily mold-able, and yet because it is paper pulp it dries super lightweight. I am very excited about this stuff.

I have basically copied a real antler (too heavy) and even made it a smidge smaller.

This Paperclay stuff is soooo easy to work with.

Here is the finished antler

and here are both his antlers. I like a little asymmetry happenin' so they do not match....as if one has been broken off. I will paint them later. When I know what the final puppet will look like. These antlers dried in a day or so and are very light weight. I will tell you why this material is so amazing to have discovered. It is going to allow me to build two puppets I have been wanting to build for a long time now. In order to build the following puppets with as much detail as I would like I have thought I could only do it one of two ways....either make a mold of each head or sculpt it out of clay....ok clays' out...too heavy. And mold-making, well,  I have never done any mold making and it has always felt like a long process to take on.

So, now with the Paperclay I can sculpt them out-right, let them dry, and Bam! they are ready to go. This is very exciting. It seems to be difficult for me to move ahead if there is too much technical process to muddle through. So, for me I am learning the more simple I can make it work the better.  After I complete the Earth Shaman puppet I would like to move ahead with these two...

This is Corvus, the Aboriginal Shapeshifter. His detail will sculpt really nicely in the Paperclay.

watch closely...things are not what they appear to be.

Shamanic Shazam!
His arms magically become the crows feet and his "robe" becomes the wings! very excited to bring him alive.

This next puppet is my love.....to date the only female puppet that has come through me. She is youthful looking but don't let this fool you....as she carries in her primordial womb  an ancient wisdom of the way of things.

This is Mer. She was born on a great wave and washed ashore to visit with us for a while

She is gentle and fierce at the same time.

Below is a small model sculpt of her 'body' .

Yes, she is pregnant! She comes bearing a message of our true unconditional nature.

Hail Paperclay!

Earth Shaman

Here is the 8 layers of paper mache I did last week of the Earth Shamans mask! It dried very nicely and has a good stiffness to work with. I will use this when I build the armature that will assist me puppeteering this puppet. - I will  play with this in the next several weeks.

Antlers for Shaman

several antler ideas have been happening...both of the below experiments transpired Before I discovered the Paperclay...so I will play them out and see if they will give me the sculpt-ability with the weightlessness I need...

Here is the foam I began last week

Got somewhat farther in the process then this- then I had a hit that it was just going to be too brittle ( I may finish it anyways- just so I can feel the process and this material out)

Had what I thought a better idea....armature wire with sculpt-a-mold (paper mache' pulp)

used some tape to cover the wire, for some reason :)

Then I realized I needed to add bulk without weight...hence the plastic mesh. Remember I don't know what the hell I'm doing!!....just experimenting with materials!!

The added the paper pulp

coat one. Then dried for two days.

coat two

currently drying. Next week...this will be sanded down and smooth. Will see what it looks like and how much it weighs.

Lanterns Are Done!!

Oh so delighted with them!

Here they are with the second coat of shellac on them and even a layer of clear nail polish to give them that extra glassiness.

oops. I caught an edge with the glue and it pulled the layer of shellac off like a fruit roll-up. So, yes, the shellac is a fairly fragile application. I'm not too worried as it is on the inside of the lantern.... away from poking, scratching fingers.

Although I may get a surprise down the road should the shellac decide to flake/peel off.

love me glue gun!

As I reshellac-d the one that peeled off it started to craize and bubble. It was amazing ...it looked like ice crystals forming on a winter window. It looked so  magical I left it.

ahhh, mistakes!

Before I put the panes in I painted the inside a lighter color to get more reflectance. It worked really well.

looks like amber leaded glass, perfect...just as I planned

ooooh

aaaah

Big lovelies and miniature lovelies

I came out to the workshop Easter morning and this had magically appeared on my workbench! Caramel to boot...just what I wished for...a giant Rolo.

While admiring my choco treat I noticed something a bit odd...I kept noticing it. In fact, I couldn't stop noticing it....is me hed in the gutter?

ok, look at it here....squint your eyes and blur them just a tad and tell me what you see....

A bunny with buttocks! nice try guys. think you can subliminalize me!!

X marks the spot too!   a rather bold move i say.

Notice anything strange about THIS picture??

YES!!! TEDDY P ate the ears off my butt bunny!

Happy late bunny day everyone and I will see you next week! if not sooner!!

heidi ho