Erik from HolyMonkey3 on Etsy recently visited us at GlassEyesOnLine. Erik used his fabulous Improvisation and Puppetry skills to share his puppet design tips and tricks. We had so much fun creating this short video where Peter Rabbit explains how his Body Parts were created. Erik used plastic spoons and drilled a hole to put the Safety Eyes through the spoon before attatching to the puppet material and installing the washer. He then used a piece of Pink Felt and rubber material to create eye brows. Erik used Black Oval Safety Noses and covered with Pink fleece before installing in the Puppet Material. You can see more photos of Erik's creations at Puppets & Marionettes. Erik suggests following Adam Kreutinger's Youtube Channel to learn more about How To Make Puppets.
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When our daughter graduated from college recently; I received a lovely congratulatory e-note from Marina Tsaplina, the founder, CEO, and creative director of The Betes Organization.
Marina uses our plastic safety eyes in puppet making workshops at camps for children with diabetes.
I reached out to Marina, recently to invite her to talk with me on the phone about puppetry and The Betes Organization. She suggested for an alternative that we record our conversation in Google Hangouts .
I was excited to try it and asked Marina to guide me through the process. We both learned a few things about using this free technology through some trial and error.
Listen in Below and find out:
I realize that many of us wear multiple hats in our life. We may be reading this blog because we are artists, crafters, and possibly small business entrepreneurs, or couples working together in business.
However, Do you also work in the health care industry? Do you know someone that has been diagnosed with diabetes? Are you a caregiver for someone with a chronic health condition? I learned through my conversation with Marina that The Betes Organization offers programs designed for children, teens, adults, caregivers, and health care providers using the creative arts to give a voice to the patient experience. Perhaps you know of a person or organization that could benefit from some of these programs? If so, Please share this blog post with them! There is also a monthly newsletter with information about upcoming programs.
I've learned a great deal about using YouTube to record a Google Hangout. I realized through the process that I have another tool I can use for conversations with artists and crafters as well as brief visual show and tell.
If you write articles for your website or newsletter, check out my next blog post. I'll be sharing my behind the scenes experience recording a Youtube video in Google Hangouts and some tips you might find helpful.
There is no brick and mortar store for walk in customers at GlassEyesOnLine; but occasionally a customer will call or e-mail and ask to stop by when they are in the Beaufort area of South Carolina.
Last fall, Erik called and arranged to come out to see us along with his family. He works full time in the package shipping industry and his hobby is puppetry. Needless to say, Erik was speechless when he saw our inventory. He spent about an hour going through our rows of stock and left with a wide variety of safety eyes and noses for future projects.
In January, Erik shared photos of a black light puppet he made with our eyes and we posted the photos on the Customer Creations Puppets Page and Pinterest Board about Puppets, Marionettes, and Ventriloquist Dolls.
I was talking with another puppet expert recently for a future blog article and I thought of Erik. I wanted to know how things were going with him and his puppet making hobby. I reached out to Erik and not only is he busy making puppets; but he shared his fascination with puppetry and some great resources for puppet designers, creators, and performers.
Carolyn: I understand that you work in a full time job and make puppets as a hobby. Can you tell me what sparked your interest in puppetry and making puppets?
Erik: I've always been interested in puppets since I was a kid. It was Puppet Shows that got me interested in making puppets. I went to a Creative Ministry Arts Festival in Anderson, South Carolina a few years ago. It was a weekend conference with seminars, classes, and creative arts competitions. One night was devoted to puppetry skits. There were classes on set building, character development, using arm rods, mouth movement and such for puppetry. The next Creative Ministry Arts Festival is in the Fall in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm also a member of The Sanctuary, in Evans, Georgia. Our church has a Puppet Team called "Black Out" We do mostly black light shows. There are 5 adults and about 26 kids ranging from age 8 to 17 years old participating on the puppet team. We use puppets to tell stories with a moral theme or a bible story. The puppets are also used to perform songs mostly by famous christian music artists.
Carolyn: How many puppets have you made in the last year?
Erik: I've made about 12 puppets. That is about one a month mostly for our puppet team.
Carolyn: Do you use patterns or templates ?
Erik: I have bought patterns from a couple of sources. I have also made my own patterns. I've made two patterns that I can go back to and use to create more puppets. Making a pattern is very difficult and time consuming for me. It's all by trial and error.
Carolyn: Can you tell us about the supplies you work with to make your puppets?
Erik: I taught myself how to sew and use anti pill fleece fabric, any material that stretches works well, fake fur, batting for the arms. I use your plastic joints, safety eyes and noses, and some household items.
Carolyn: Have you performed for an audience with your puppets?
Erik: Yes, I have performed with puppets I created. I envisioned and created this one character; but I felt like the materials I used at the time made my character too animal like so I decided to make some improvements to the first one. I gave the original puppet to one of the kids on the team to practice with and I recreated my character.
I'm now performing with my third generation of this character that I had originally envisioned. His name is Marley and he interacts with Gyalia, our puppet team leader, when we are leading a service in church. I love performing with puppets, interacting with the kids and developing the characters.
Carolyn: Do you have any future plans with your puppet hobby?
Erik: Yes, I really want to make a monster puppet. When I went to the creative arts show; I had saved $180 to buy a good puppet. I did not see any puppets that I liked; but I saw one puppet that was not for sale. I learned where to buy the puppet. It costed well over $300. I decided that I could make that puppet for less money so I did not buy it. It's funny looking back because I have spent way over that amount of money learning how to make puppets through trial and error! I am working on getting better at making puppets before I make that monster puppet. That is my goal right now.
Carolyn: Do you have any favorite puppeteers? books, websites, shows relating to puppetry that you'd like to share for someone that might be interested in puppetry or making puppets?
Erik: An inspiration for me is Frank Oz. He is famous in the puppet world. He collaborated with Jim Hensen on the Muppets characters. He performed Bert, Miss Piggy, Grover, and Cookie Monster. Frank Oz was also very important in the character development of Yoda in Star Wars. I also recommend ProjectPuppet.com for affordable puppet patterns to anyone interested in making puppets and Creative Ministry Solutions website.
Thanks to Erik for sharing information and resources about his hobby!
Next week, I will be talking with a Marina Tsaplina, founder of THE BETES Organization. She is a puppeteer and performing artist that uses these skills working with people with chronic health conditions like Diabetes and Health Care Providers. If you are interested in Arts, Crafts, Tips and Tutorials working with various art and craft mediums, Behind the Scenes, Small Business Topics, new and highlighted products at GlassEyesOnLine, Sign Up for our Monthly Newsletter. Our meeting with Conrad Hartz with photos, podcast links, and 2 mini-videos.
One of the things I enjoy so much about our business is the opportunity to meet artists and crafters and learn how they create their art work. In this article, I'm sharing with you a recent meeting Jerry and I had with Conrad Hartz.
Conrad hand carves ventriloquist puppets (also called dolls or dummies) out of wood and uses the 14mm doll lens in the moving wooden eyes. He is well known for his high quality hand crafted puppets in the world of ventriloquism. Conrad met with us at GlassEyesOnLine and then we followed up with a visit to his wood working shop. We saw the intricate work that goes into his wood carved puppets. Conrad uses multiple skills including wood carving, sculpting, painting, sewing, and working with mechanical principles. I've never seen anything quite like it! I'm so excited to share what we learned along with some photos, podcasts, and two mini-video clips.
I was curious about the history of ventriloquism so I did a little research and discovered that written records of ventriloquism go as far back as 1500 years BC. By the eighteenth century; ventriloquists performed in traveling fairs and festivals in Europe.
This form of entertainment came to America and became popular on Vaudeville in the United States. One famous American artist, Edgar Bergen with his ventriloquist dummy, Charlie McCarthy, performed on a popular radio show from 1937 to 1957. Ventriloquists still entertain today in all venues including stage, screen, and online.
The ventriloquist puppets that are used have changed. In the past, the puppets were made with papier-mache or wood. Many are now made from fiberglass, neoprene, resins, urethanes, and latex molds.
Conrad hand carves his puppets from wood with simple hand tools the way it was done in the past. He was interested in puppets as a child; but did not pick up wood carving until he was 31 years old. He wanted to make a certain type of ventriloquist puppet that he could not find so he decided he would make it himself. To this day, he uses the same German hand tools - a mallet, scoop, exacto tool, and chisel to make each puppet out of Basswood. He estimates that it takes about 100 hours to make a ventriloquist puppet.
Jerry and I watched him at work and recorded him demonstrating how he carves the head as you can view in the videos. We are convinced that this is a unique, rare, and historically significant folk art that will become more difficult to find in the future.
Conrad not only carves these works of art. He also occasionally performs with his ventriloquist dolls and marionettes at street fairs. He has been performing for many years at the Irish Festival in Savannah, Georgia. He is also quite proud of his past experience as a clown with the Barnum and Bailey Circus.
Tom Crowl recorded eight podcast interviews with Conrad in 2013 that make for fascinating listening. Each podcast is between 3 and 4 minutes long with information about how Conrad makes these intricate wood puppets that are reminiscent of the classic Charlie McCarthy dummy used by Edgar Bergen. You can listen to each part at the links below:
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8
Conrad also started Worldvents, in 1999. This yahoo group currently has over 1200 members. Worldvents has an Archive full of information and advice about puppetry and ventriloquism collected through e-mails since the group was formed.
Conrad shared some of his favorite websites with us. Cybervent website for ventriloquists http://www.ventriloquist.org/ puppet makers workshop https://www.facebook.com/groups/50583854212/ Ventriloquist Central http://ventriloquistcentral.com/ Puppet hub http://www.puppethub.com/ Recently Conrad was awarded a plaque in Recognition of Years of Faithful Service to the Ventriloquism Community. You can follow Conrad's work on his facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Conrad.Hartz We are so grateful to Conrad for sharing his knowledge and expertise about hand carving wood ventriloquist puppets. Jerry and I both think that wood carved ventriloquist puppets (dolls or dummies) are a significant historical folk art that will become more rare in the future. We are curious. What do you think about it? Do you consider this folk art? Are you familiar with other artists that work with this medium? We'd like to read about what you think ! |
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