Supporting Statement

For my Final Major Project (FMP) i was looking at fairy tales, i wanted to create puppets and props for a fairy tale which i chose (The Two Brothers) which would work in a stage environment. I wanted to create puppets and props as i had previously been looking at puppets during some of our previous projects which were folk art and parade. One of my main aims for my FMP was that i wanted to increase my knowledge of puppet mechanics and using them so that i could create my own puppets that would work on stage. Some of my inspiration for this project were people like Basil Twist but i was mainly looking at puppet companies and stage productions to see how other people had created work in a similar way to what i wanted to create my work. I have looked at productions such as, "is dark materials" and a production of "the secret garden" which i used as inspiration for the bear and hare puppets which i created.

I feel that i have achieve my main aim of creating a puppet that would work for a stage production as i have considers how the puppets would work on stage, as i have considered that they would need to be relatively simple to use and quite light so that they are easy to use on stage. Even though i have considered how they would need to work on stage i still think that they could be improved as the mechanism are not perfect and could generally be improved. I could also further my project by continuing to create different puppets for the rest of the animals and looking at different mechanisms that i would need to use to make them work.

I have been able to use knowledge form previous project as i have previously looked into puppet mechanism and i have also been able to further this knowledge whilst doing my FMP as i have research in to more mechanics and puppets. I will also be able to use this knowledge later on after the corse and when i go on to university as i will be able to use the knowledge of mechanics that i have built up during this project if i ever create a puppet again.

Exhabition

For my exhibition I decided to hang the bear inside a tree, I decided to create a willow tree which I tried to create using twine and adding leaf which I cut out paper which I painted. I kind of changed the environment of the room using little material similar to how we did for the string exercise that we did at the beginning of the year. I think that the exhibition has turned out ok but there is not as much string as I intended there to be and the shape of it I think is a little to uniform and not that much of a natural shape. 

 

Bear - Final Peice

For my final piece I decided that I wanted to create the bear from the two brother story that would work well for a stage production. I started by doing some simple designs for the bear based on a similar design to the bear from the stage production of His Dark Materials. 

 

 

As the Bear needed to be light I decided to make it out of grey board and then coverer it in the camping mat foam so that would be relatively strong, keep the right shape but would still be light enough to hold. 



 

 

When I started making the bear I intended the mouth to move using a similar mechanism to the one that I made for the parade horse. I tried to use a similar mechanism but by using lighter materials to make the mechanism so that it would not make the head heavy as that would make the puppet harder to hold. The mechanism worked ok but not as well as the one that I made for the parade horse as the materials were not as strong which made the mouth harder to open and close. In the end I decided to keep the mouth closed permanently as once I had covered the head in the foam camping mad it stopped the mouth from closing properly and made it hard for the mouth to open.  

I made the head from a simple structure which was made out of grey board I used this materials as it is very light but relatively strong for its weight, the board worked ok at first as it can easily support itself and some added weight but once I started trying to add the foam it made the board weak and bend so I had to reinforce the board so that it didn't break. I then covered the structure with foam from a camping mat, I think that the foam was really useful as it was a really easy material to work with, the only problem being that it is a bit difficult to get curved shapes with it. The foam also left little gapes in the head where I had cut the different sections of the foam. So instead of just painting the foam as you would still be able to see the gaps I bought I throw to use as fur to use on the head and hands, which was more effective than I though it would be as it look quite like fur. 

 

I decided to make the body in a similar way to how the body was made for the production of his dark materials by not actually creating a full body but by creating a structure which implies that there is a body there. I did this by creating a simple wire which consists of two simply made arms which are attached to the head and to some paws that I created and then two long wires that go from the head and are attached to the wearers legs to imply that there is a body. I then glued foam triangle to the wire to give it more of a structure an to look a little like fur. I think that doing this was really effective as it imply that there is a body well and keeps the puppet really light.  

I think that the end piece has worked out really well as it is really effective as it looks like a bear and look interesting. The piece is also really light and easy to carry so that it would be easy enough to use on stage. I think that there are still a few problems with it as the wearer has to hold the head up with your hand so that it is hard to hold for a long time it think that it would work better if the head was worn on the head to make it easier to hold and use. I also don't think that the arms work that well as they bent to much when it is been worn I think that I should have only use one wire for the arms rather than four as it would have worked better.

Bear Body

I need to find some way to create the body for the bear, they way i wanted to do it was to create it like a costume that is worn by the puppeteer. I don't want to create a full costume but kind of imply that there is a body by creating a structure around the puppeteer. They only way that i could find that something similar had be done is for the polar bear in a production of His Dark Materials. 

I tried to create something similar by creating creating a circular structure around the body but didn't work very well as it didn't keep it shape very well. So i then tried to create it in pretty much the same way as in his dark materials which worked a lot better as still doesn't keep its shape but doesn't move that far either. I created it simply by using wire and then gluing on foam triangles to represent a fur on the bear.     

Bear Head Second Attempt

As i had tried to create the bear's head previously with the same method but using cardboard i think that is was a good way of creating the basic structure of the head as it make it light weight but the problem with using cardboard is that when it is cut quite thinly it bends easily so would not have worked well for the structure. To solve this problem i used gray board instead which is still really light but is more solid than card board as it doesn't have the gaps in the middle of it which makes it a lot stronger and stopped the pieces from bending. 

As it was only a test of if it would work i only constructed the nose of the bear, once i had created the basic structure of it i then began to cover it with bits of foam that i cut of a camping mat. The foam material from the mat works quite well as is is soft enough that it can easily be worked with and used to construct around the structure but not to soft that it doesn't keep its shape. The material also works well for creating the puppet as it is really light so that when the puppet is fully constructed it won't be very heavy at all so it will be easy to hold and use one on stage. I think that the only problem with the material is that its not that good at getting curved shapes with out cut up smaller pieces of the foam to get the right shape so you end up with lots of little gaps once its finished. This isn't a huge problem as they are not that visible from a distance but i probably would need to fill the gaps with some thing either put a thin piece of something over the gaps or cover the whole thing with something.

Bear anatomy

Black bear skulls are typically massive; much bigger than those of most North American wildlife. It is quite long and wide across the forehead, but narrower in the muzzle area. The eyebrow ridge is well-defined and the nostrils are quite broad. The jawbone hinge is large to accommodate the heavy jaw muscles. A female skull may be narrower and more pointed than that of a mature male. An average measurement is 11.5 inches in length and 6.5 to 7 inches in width. Black bears are not efficient predators, primarily because their skeletons are designed for strength rather than speed. They have thick limbs, massive shoulders, and a short back.

Bear Head Idea

I needed to think of a way to be able to create the head for the bear so i sketched out a few designs of how it wanted to do it then tried it out.

I then tried it with cardboard but it didn't work at all as the card was to weak and kept bending and doesn't keep its shape.

Position Changing Mechanism

I decided that the best way to create the mechanism was to have something attached to the bird which was on a pivot attached to a stick that is used to hold the bird and then have two pieces of string that would be used to move the bird back and fourth. My first attempt didn't turn out very well as the piece of wood that i used that would be the base for the bird was too small and only had a small point that could be used to put the wood through this is used to pivot it. This and the weak board that i used for the sides of the mechanism made it to weak and and odd shape as that the mechanism would be to unpractical to be used for the puppet.

The second mechanism i did work a lot better as i changed the design quite a bit to make it more efficient and make it simpler.I used balsa wood this time which worked better as it is really light and still quite strong, the design is also a lot better as there is a larger area which would work better for the bird to be attached too and the mechanism also moves more freely and is easy to use.

Bird Puppet Mechanism

As i want the bird to be on the end of a stick i need to design a mechanism so that the bird could move from a sitting/perched position to on where it is flying. I also did a few quick sketches of the rest of the bird and how i want it to work. I couldn't really find any mechanisms for making the bird moving positions that i thought would work how i wanted it to so i just used designs that i thought i could adapt and tried to figure out how to make a mechanism of my own.

Foot Mechanism Attempts

As i had done some designs for the foot of the hare i then had a go at making them out of grey board to see if it work. The idea behind it was that the elastic bands would keep the foot in the middle and then when the puppet is move it would move the foot upward and then it would spring back into position. This didn't work as i had hoped as there was too much tension in the in the elastic so it didn't move as i intended and kept getting stuck as the space that was holding it in place was to thin. I think the design would be ok to use if i sorted out those issues, this design also works ok if you remove the elastic bands as gravity moves the foot ok and i have put stops in the space that the foot moves in so that it can't move to far.

Hare Ideas

As I had already created a prototype for the rabbit and done some more prototypes for the different mechanisms that I would need to make if i was going to create a final puppet. I then decided to do a few designs for the hare as I didn't want it to be just a hare I wanted it to be more of a character to make it more interesting.

Hare Foot Mechanism

Because that on the prototype of the hare puppet that i made the feet didn't work that well as it kept getting stuck i did some designs for a different way the legs could work on the hare.