Reefer Madness

Wow.

We are up in DC this weekend with performances at the Smithsonian Discovery Theater. We’ve been here the past four years for the week of Thanksgiving. It’s fun — except the whole traffic thing. This year we are doing something a little bit different by staying in DC for Thanksgiving.

In the past, we’ve commuted to Jersey or Richmond for family gatherings, but this year we wanted to just stay. My mom will be commuting instead and coming up here for our fabulous hotel Thanksgiving. We have an oven. I even packed my Dutch Oven. (Not kidding.)

After my two performances today I played tourist. I wandered around, sort of aimlessly, and found myself in front of the Natural History Museum. I was once a docent there and gave tours to Kindergartners in the dinosaur hall. (That was fun — such small children with such big dinosaurs! We even did a puppet show!)  But the wow? The “wow” comes from the surprise of the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef.

Backstory: I have been having a love affair with fibers — specifically wool roving and raw silk — of late. Don’t worry, Sam knows all about and puts up with it.  Now I’ve known about this Crochet Reef for years. I stumbled on this knitted and crocheted coral reef on a you-tube clip and just loved the idea. It’s a giant, behometh of a coral reef that has been knitted and crocheted by people all over the world. It was started by two sisters who had a concern for the oceans and nimble fingers.  I can’t explain it, but I was so excited to just stumble upon it today. To see it all in person. I even called some friends. Nobody was home! My family was off at the zoo for the day — it was just me!

My family, for some reason, did not seem to share in my ecstatic joy. Oh well.

I could hardly contain myself.

This just confirms my fiber addiction problem. I need help…or shopping fiber therapy, perhaps. I think that would work. I could just live in my studio in December…maybe my family wouldn’t notice? Hmmmmm……….

The Name Game

What’s in a name?

Perhaps you do not know the agony I experience when “naming” a character in a show that I am writing. All the meanings of names…and children (my audience) always remember the names of characters. The name is so important to them! They actually become upset when I do not name a character: the hippo that I call “Hippo” is, I’ve sensed, a bit of a disappointment.

So I made a few changes to my script this week — most notably, I’ve done some gender bending (it’s a painless process with puppets). I am always careful when selecting the gender of puppets. (You can do it with almost 100% accuracy when you’re a puppeteer!) I feel it’s important to have gender balance in a show for many reasons. Young people watching the show need to have characters they can relate to, and gender is one way of doing this.

In my new show, “Little by Little,” I have lots of animal characters. Two of the main characters are a young squirrel and a hummingbird. They are friends. I’ve always had the hummingbird as female and the squirrel as male. Now I’ve switched them…for a number of reasons.

I can go into the reasons later (if anyone is interested), but I need to rename the hummingbird. It’s a ruby-throated hummingbird. I’m looking at names with meanings that relate. The show is set in Appalachia — in a forest.

Here is my list so far: Rufus, Russell, Rusty, Gilroy, Roy, Flynn, Flannery, Rupert, Gilbert, Jasper, and Rudy… Thoughts? Opinions? Suggestions?

Inquiring minds (well, mine, anyway) want to know!

A Saturday in Richmond

I don’t know how it got to be June. It’s highly mysterious. People tell me that happens when you have children — that time just moves more quickly. I think it might be a bit of that combined with the building of the new puppet show.

It was an amazing day in the fair land of Richmond. Truly amazing and so full of fun! I’m not sure where to begin…farmer’s market? Breakfast? Wool? Wedding? I guess chronological makes the most sense.

I love the Forest Hill Farmer’s Market in Richmond. It’s busy and bustling and today I was flying solo. No children. Just me (with my husband at home with the children, cleaning the house — it doesn’t get better than that!). I was able to look at the booths and talk to people, not just chase my children and make sure they didn’t grab/break/damage something as I frantically gathered veggies from our CSA. (OK, I still frantically gathered vegetables, but only because the supply of Tuscan kale was dangerously low!)

As I wandered into the market, I notice some wool yarn and someone spinning in a booth…and roving! OK. I know not everyone is a wool fanatic and that most people do not understand my current fascination (or obsession?) with felting and working with wool fibers. But, there it was: wool from a breed of sheep that I don’t know yet. Ahhhhh…..

More wool!

Cotswold. And Cotswold/Suffolk Cross. I’ll let you know how it felts up after I take it down to the studio. (Note to self: make sure you have the business checkbook with you next time you go to market.) I’m very excited to have another local source for wool.

So the wool, the wonderful produce from Victory Farms, fabulous bread from Norwood Cottage, and raspberries from Agriberry! Wow. It was a bit of a splurge going all out so early in the morning on Saturday, but we had company coming for brunch! We had some puppet friends coming through town. This is always a treat — and we were able to provide them with a fabulous breakfast of mostly local goodies.

On the menu: French toast with maple syrup, red and black raspberries, vanilla yogurt, sausage patties, and walnuts. Yes, Sam had the coffee flowing — let’s not forget that.

Coming through town we had Bob Nathanson and Elise Handleman of Puppets-to-Go. Joining them was the illustrious Terry Snyder. We sadly missed his wife Lynda who wasn’t feeling well as well as the Hudert clan (aka Applause Unlimited), who were off at King’s Dominion for the day.

Terry, Elise, and Bob

We had a great time hanging out, eating, and chatting. We truly love it when we can visit with other puppeteers…somehow it makes us feel, well, normal. (So, puppeteers out there, if you are coming through Richmond, give us a holler!)

After breakfast we got all gussied up for a wedding celebration at Richmond Friends’ Meeting for Brooke and Nick. It was lovely and reminded us of our own wedding day in 1997. (Why does 1997 seem like a really, really long time ago?) But it was wonderful and our girls enjoyed getting dressed up in twirly dresses and feeling fancy schmancy. (They also enjoyed the chocolate covered strawberries at the reception.)

All in all, today was a fabulous Saturday. You almost didn’t even notice that it was excruciatingly humid and hot outside! Now our only dilemna for the evening is that the night is young…and the drive-in has Shrek. To go or not to go? That is the question…

Feeling a bit Sheepish: Navajo-Churro Sheep

Everyone needs to do a “sunny-day” dance or something to hold the rain off for just a bit longer…tomorrow must be sunny and dry!

I’ve been trying to go out to Black Twig Farm to see about helping with the shearing of the sheep and processing of the wool for a few weeks. The weather combined with family commitments has been thwarting my plans!

Navajo-Churro from Black Twig Farm

I first picked up some Navajo-Churro fleece at the Fiber Festival in Montpelier, Vermont last Fall. At Black Twig’s booth, as I looked through the bins, I chanced to glance up to notice a felted wall hanging of a tree. I was hooked! The fibers are more coarse than, say, a Merino or Cormo, but the staple is long (but not curly like a Lincoln, which is also love!!). When I played around with the wool, it felted quickly and had a lot of structure to it. I don’t know if “lots of structure” is a technical term used to describe wool, but it’s a characteristic I am looking for! This is one of the wools I see has having great potential for scenery for puppet shows. Lincoln has a similar quality, but it’s curlier (and makes neat whorls when felted!).

Black Twig Farm is in Crozet, Virginia; just a few hours west of Richmond. Rachel is a weaver (and fabulous gourmet wedding cake maker!) I love the idea that I’ll be able to have some local, Virginia wool as part of the puppet show. I’d like to find a local flock of Lincoln, too!

I’ve been working on lots of samples for different breeds. I have done Navajo-Churro, Lincoln, Leicester, Merino, Mohair (goat), and Cormo to date. I think I have a bit of Coopworth to do today! It’s really fascinating for me to see how the wool felts up with different textures. I’ll post up some samples soon!

Meanwhile, pray for clear skies and sunshine!

Wild and Woolly in Maryland!

Wow. I was hoping to be overwhelmed…and I was!

We had so much fun at the 37th Annual Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. There were over 250 vendors with so many choices, activities for the children, workshops, seminars, and so many other things I did not get to do!

The festival was held at the Howard County Fairgrounds in West Friendship, Maryland. It was a hot, hot day. It seemed a bit strange looking for wool while sweltering in an unwanted heatwave, but our (OK, let’s be honest…MY) course was undaunted…much like my use of the credit card!

We went en masse: me, my husband (Sam — thank you for watching the children), our lovely daughters, and my amazing puppeteering partner-in-crime, Melanie. Melanie was sporting a lovely felted hat with fun spikes.

She received more than 40 compliments on her hat (yes, we were counting). I was happy, ‘cuz it was a hat that I made! (

Our daughter, Thea, was signed up for two workshops and had a blast — plus seeing so much of the festival. Our youngest enjoyed the jugband, rolling down the hill, lamb sausage, and roaming around the barns visiting sheep, alpacas, and llamas. Sam was the child-herder.

I shopped. Mel took lots of photos.

We walked, we shopped, we talked to vendors and had so much fun. I met so many people who could relate to my obsession with felting that I felt perfectly normal. When I talked to people about my upcoming “big project,” I was not given a quizzical look…just an understanding nod with lots of support.

Wow. I felt normal? (Pun not intended, but there anyway.)

Heidi in a Yurt…of course.

The new butterfly spreads her wings and flies!

Well, the new butterfly has emerged from the cocoon of an idea and metamorphosed into reality.

The New Butterfly

A butterfly features as a character in two of our most popular shows, “Trickster Tales” and “Dreamtime.”  The same puppet – which is ten years old now – has been doing double duty in both shows for many years. Using one puppet in two shows has caused a fair amount of stress when loading in and out.  Many trips back to the storage unit to retrieve the forgotten butterfly (and frog) have caused Sam much frustration, not to mention our nervousness that this very important – and very delicate – puppet will somehow be damaged. (We have even worked comments about the butterfly’s fragility into our post-show talks with the kids – “No, no, no, the butterfly doesn’t like to be touched…”)

So, we decided to actually build a new one for each show!  The old butterfly was one of the simplest puppets we have.  It was constructed of painted foam cut in the shape of butterfly wings and attached to a rod.  The puppet was controlled by just moving the rod up and down – causing the wings to flutter. The new design incorporates the collaged handmade paper technique that we use in all of our scenery and many of our puppets, rather than foam, and improves upon the old design with a simple mechanism (made with wire, fishing line, screw eyes, and a plastic tube recycled from the inside of an old ink pen) that allows the puppeteer to control the movement of the wings with a trigger.  I have attached some photos of the process and a very short, homemade video of the puppet in action.

Cutting out the frame.

Designing the Butterfly

Butterfly Mechanism

Back in the studio!

Ahhh….the smell of a hot glue gun! It has been too long, about three years, since last I did any major studio work. Our schedule has been busy, busy, busy with performances and parenting challenges. Sam and I have been very busy keeping up with our girls! But we have some shows in need of maintenance a new show to build, too.

This week, Melanie (melonious) and I are rebuilding some butterfly puppets and a frog. We are also repairing the elephant, the Sky-God, and some props from “Trickster Tales,” while working on sketching out the new show. We spent the earlier part of the week getting the space ready (oh the challenges of working in a basement home-studio!). It’s rather full-circle: my first studio was in the basement, then the second bedroom, then we moved to an arts center, then a warehouse space…and now back to the basement.

The new show? Yes, we’ve been alluding to our new show! “Little by Little” should be ready to go in Spring of 2010. We are allowing plenty of time for the build as we are working on some new building techniques involving a movement away from using polyfoam. We’ll post more up on that with some pics of the new frog we are building later this weekend!

Studio Progress

I have been up late the past few nights trying to get some semblance of a studio space set up in our basement. We have had lovely studios outside our home, but have moved in temporarily while we prepare to make some BIG changes (more news on that later!).  It’s challenging to set up our basement (we have a cape cod with a half basement), but it also forces me to simplify, purge things I don’t need, and really focus on what I DO need.

Tonight, Melanie and I should be able to start on some repair/building projects for “Trickster Tales” and “Dreamtime.” We are building new butterflies and a new frog (or two?) to start. I also want to make a new Anansi puppet, though I confess an attachment to my current incarnation of this wonderful character. We will be posting pictures of our progress — stay tuned!