On Tour

Last week I had a bit of a whirlwind week... but it was great. I am working on a touring show at the moment. It is great to be performing in theatres again, I have spent lots of time more recently performing for video and building puppets so to be out and about on the road again it's great.

I am very fortunate to be working on a really well known show, partly because it's great experience... but also because the set and puppets are really fun to work with. I hope to post some pics next week. In the mean time below you will find a video blog I made whilst in my hotel room last weekend.

Take care - Dave

Unimog Wheelie and Car Crush

Some of you will know that in my spare time I like to DJ... this past weekend I was DJing at a great event called "Ultimate Car Ultimate Life?". It was organised by my local church and is not at all what you may expect a church car show to be like (if you even think a church would organise a car show).

The highlight of the day for me was definitely seeing the Unimog wheelie and then crush two cars from the vantage point of the scaffolding tower I had been DJing from.
Check it out, take care - Dave

Horse Puppet

You may remember the Horse Sock Puppets I made last year. They're not real "sock puppets" as you can see... but the idea for them came to me when I was thinking about sock puppets and what a large puppet in the style of a sock would look like. Basically if you were to turn the puppet upside down you see the colours are broken down into the shapes of a classic sock. It's a bit of fun.

I was asked to build a Horse puppet last week for someone who was interested in the Horse Sock Puppets but wanted to also see a more "realistic" horse as well. I enjoy making cartoon style characters so I didn't go very far down the realism route but I did make another character again using roughly the same pattern. You can see here that basic shape remains the same but all the playschool colours have gone and instead fur fabric takes its place. I kept the eyes much the same because I like the open cartoon eyes and I think they are a key part to making this character style so friendly. The new style horse wound up being called Smoulder because for some reason I burnt my fingers a lot on the glue gun finishing him off! Despite this I am pleased with the outcome... I hope you like him too.

Take care - Dave

The May Fayre

You may or may not be familiar with the good old English tradition of Punch and Judy. If you'd like to find out more about the history and tradition of Punch and Judy there's plenty of info out there - Google it! I don't think I have got what it takes to be a Punch and Judy professor... saying that i've never tried it (it's a safe bet though to say i'd be rubbish at it).

But there is more to the May Fayre than Punch and Judy shows, there was also a mini gathering of puppeteers from the Puppet Hub website. Some of the puppeteers I met yesterday included: Phil Fletcher and Carl Chadd (of the Gluvets), Ronnie Le Drew (of Zippy fame), Warrick Brownlow Pike (Oucho from CBBC), Darryl Worbey (the list is endless) Justin Tai, Tony Sinnet and Jan King - all great puppeteers please check out their sites!

It really was a good day out. For the most part I completely forgot I had my camera with me, but I did make a short video on my phone about the day... check it out below.

Take care - Dave