Marionette building Demo at Woodcrafters

Just spent a lovely Saturday carving a leg for the puppet I have been building for Woodcrafters. (212 NE 6th, Portland, Or.) I love doing the demos there because I get to talk to all the woodworkers who come through the door. I get a lot of questions about my craft as well and I hope I inspire at least a few people to try puppetry and puppet building.

The Puppet I am building is one I have been working on for over two years now. It taken that long because I only work on it when I'm at the store during the demos and then only for a few hours at a time. I do demos about four times a year so really, I've only put in about fifteen or twenty hours in all that time.

It's a slow project but gratifying because I have the luxury of experimenting with different joint approaches in a way that I don't get when working on puppets for a specific show. If I don't like the direction the puppet is going, I just change my mind and discard an arm or a torso and start over with a new plan. I have all the time in the world to finish this guy so there is a lot of freedom to try different things. It also gives me an opportunity to do drawings of processes of construction techniques that will eventually end up in my marionette building manual. I get two for the price of one! In the future, I will be posting Woodcrafters demos here so you know when and where to find me.

Cheers! ~ Geahk Burchill