Support worthy causes with your creative impulses.
Any political, environmental and/or social action is enhanced
by puppetry, pageantry and color!
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Mother Earth has been around!
She has marched, danced, spoken, acted and paraded all over California. She stands about 10 feet tall depending on who is carrying her. She is beloved by all. except she does sometimes inadvertently scare small children.
She is puppeteered by three people. One person is hidden under her cloak with a tool belt used something like a flag pole holder. PVC pipes fitted together make her stable and tall. She has a wire armature head covered with paper mache. Her hands are separate entities on bamboo poles that are carried and manipulated by two people on either side of her..... outside her cloak. They are a bit heavy, and it is nice for the hand people to trade sides every once in a while on a long walk. The hands were made by crumpling up newspaper and using masking tape to shape by using my own hands as prototypes. Convenient. Then I paper mache'-ed over the newspaper, painted with tempera paint whihc means that Mother Earth is not rain proof!
She comes completely apart for transportation and storage. Her head stays pretty much as is, but she can be untied from her cloak which folds easily, her hands unscrew from the arm poles, and she takes up much less space than her in-person presence!
The day of the first picture picture above, we had actually rigged up a rolling contraption that her inner pole attached to which included ropes, poles and a few concrete blocks tied to a wheelchair so we could take turns moving her along a very long slow march at the state capitol. She could also stand for long hours with that chair, much longer than a mere mortal could with her supported in a tool belt.
There were a few times that day, at the many hours of speeches, that I snuck inside her cloak and sat in the wheelchair peacefully hidden in the shade eating a snack and peering out at the masses of activists.
She has marched, danced, spoken, acted and paraded all over California. She stands about 10 feet tall depending on who is carrying her. She is beloved by all. except she does sometimes inadvertently scare small children.
She is puppeteered by three people. One person is hidden under her cloak with a tool belt used something like a flag pole holder. PVC pipes fitted together make her stable and tall. She has a wire armature head covered with paper mache. Her hands are separate entities on bamboo poles that are carried and manipulated by two people on either side of her..... outside her cloak. They are a bit heavy, and it is nice for the hand people to trade sides every once in a while on a long walk. The hands were made by crumpling up newspaper and using masking tape to shape by using my own hands as prototypes. Convenient. Then I paper mache'-ed over the newspaper, painted with tempera paint whihc means that Mother Earth is not rain proof!
She comes completely apart for transportation and storage. Her head stays pretty much as is, but she can be untied from her cloak which folds easily, her hands unscrew from the arm poles, and she takes up much less space than her in-person presence!
The day of the first picture picture above, we had actually rigged up a rolling contraption that her inner pole attached to which included ropes, poles and a few concrete blocks tied to a wheelchair so we could take turns moving her along a very long slow march at the state capitol. She could also stand for long hours with that chair, much longer than a mere mortal could with her supported in a tool belt.
There were a few times that day, at the many hours of speeches, that I snuck inside her cloak and sat in the wheelchair peacefully hidden in the shade eating a snack and peering out at the masses of activists.
Some of my favorite environmentalists!
Mother Earth is sittiing down. |
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The Sun-flower above is carried on a 10 foot bamboo pole, but like Mother Earth for this photo, they are scrunching down. The original circle base is an old hula hoop. The paper sun petals are cut, pasted and wired together to be able to dismantle in order to fold up easily to store and transport. The butterflies are made of scraps of whatever is around that can be cut, glued, stuffed, stapled and taped. They are then hung with fishing line on long tree trimmed poles so they fly both above and among participants. The fishing line is tied to paper clips so it can be unclipped..... again, for transport and storage. Some poles are decorated only with colorful flying cloth strips cut with pinking shears. Great and a little unruly in the wind!
The big beautiful Sea Turtle above and below is a hit with everyone. A very fun long term project to make her. She is made of cardboard (saved from sliding door deliveries and refrigerator boxes), paper mache and paint put on by brush and sponge. I had many pictures of sea turtles to look at as I went along. How big is the head compared to the body? How many shapes and planes on the back of the shell?
First her body began by cutting the cardboard into the basic turtle shape. I then scored the cardboard on the top side to be able to bend it and create the contours needed for the shell shape. Scoring means taking a utility knife and making a cut that does not go through all the layers of the cardboard. When you score just part way through you can bend the cardboard but the back side is still in tact. Her body also has a bottom that is bolted on to the top shell (bolts, washers and wing nuts). They got painted along with the shell, so they kind of don't show too much.
Her head was made by crumpling up newspaper (Lots of newspaper!) into small wads and then all together into one big wad that was taped together to make the basic head shape. Again, I was always looking at lots of turtle head pictures from different angles to get the correct shape and look of the eyes, snout, neck, etc. When the shape looked right, I paper mached over it, accentuating the look I wanted. Then the paint and details of the facial markings. Eyes are important. A small white dot of paint can give the shine needed to make the eyes look alive.
There is a long pvc pipe 3/4 " wide that extends from inside her body, that the head fits on. The head has a piece of cloth attached to it to create a neck that can hide all sorts of construction details inside the shell. The head is not officially attached to the pvc pipe, so it wobbles a little and looks more lifelike. On rough terrain she can sometimes be caught looking to one side, so I run over and straighten her direction out occasionally. The picture below demonstrates that as she seems to be looking to the side at the camera!
Her front and back flippers are curved and stuffed a little with newspaper, with a cardboard back side to give them depth. They are attached with bolts and wingnuts which allow them to be moveable like they are swimming. Strings attached allow 4 kids to walk with her and make her look like she is swimming.
The flippers and her head dismantle from the body, but she is still big to transport and store. Her body is about 6 feet long. She rides on an ocean-blue wheelbarrow disguised with cloth for seaweed, is pushed by a teen or an adult, with 4 children working her flippers.
Here she is at our local Endangered Species Fair.
Here my co-hort in puppetry models the position needed for tightening or removing the nuts and bolts that hold her flippers on and make them able to "swim". The bolts, washers and nuts often drop annoyingly into her shell and must be blindly fished out.
I am removing her back flipper to demonstrate how she works to show my brother (a maker of things) who lives far away from me. Our dad made models of things... smaller than life. I seem to do that sometimes, but I also make things life size or bigger.
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Even Climate Deniers are Part of the Web! At the Chico March for Science 2017 |
The sea turtle preparing for the Chico Science March
with a PussyHat knitted by my mom,
who just turned 94.
At the 2018 March for Science. My mom, Pat Jones (who is 93 here) and me peeking out of the Data Bird... with a festive pertinent sign attached to the wheelchair. The bird also carried a sign on its back:
"Ask me about my new migration plans. When I figure it out I MIGHT get back to you."
It seems in this envormentel section referring to climagte change, is a good place to let you know that in the raging Campfire of 2018 that destroyed the town of Paradise and much of the surrounding foothills, all these puppets were lost to the fire, but not us.
"Ask me about my new migration plans. When I figure it out I MIGHT get back to you."
It seems in this envormentel section referring to climagte change, is a good place to let you know that in the raging Campfire of 2018 that destroyed the town of Paradise and much of the surrounding foothills, all these puppets were lost to the fire, but not us.
