We make puppets! This recent find (by A.R. Philpott, pub. Evans Brothers London 1972) shows us how to go about it. But like the hasty child I am, I've ignored the 'Let's Make' parts and skipped to the 'Puppets' bit. The young man on the cover seems to be a little ... apprehensive about the relic on his arm. He doesn't seem to be able to ... stop looking at it. It's all pupaphobia you know (yes there is an official label for fear of puppets, although as my father would probably say "Whats the Latin for 'For God's sake pull yourself together?'")
Maybe for a primary school production of 'The Fog'?
I refer the Right Honourable Readers to my comments on Found Objects.
I remember that glue. It ate into polystyrene and left a wonderful gummy cap over the nozzle when left for a while. It could also cause blindness and hallucinations. Be careful, little girl!
Yeah yeah, nice puppet. It's the background I'm interested in; slatted wooden benches, smooth pebbledashing on concrete surfaces, hardy shrubs in containers, plastic-coated wire fences with gaps just big enough to fit the toe of your Clarks in ... Ladies & Gentlemen I give you the Seventies School Playground!
The title of Janis Joplin's posthumous unreleased live album.
Barely able to function after being parted from his puppet-master, the young boy sits slumped on a bench in the playground. I'd be catatonic as well if I had to untangle the wires of 'the metal tape creature' whilst Miss Goody Two Shoes gets to swoop about with the ace 'Let's Pretend'-style cat. Look at his knees. Pre-five pound jeans, these haven't been patched for the sake of fashion!
'The thing that stuck in young Jenkins' mind was the hands. As the apparition bobbed silently behind the chair towards him, he noticed that the hands, ostensibly shaped rosewood, had a peculiarly sinuous and lifelike quality. Indeed, Jenkins was almost convinced that he could see the tiny veins rising and falling slowly and miniature beads of moisture glistening among the folds of skin. The effect was as if some person unknown had replaced the puppet's hands with those of a large frog.'
'The Imp' by M.R. James from 'Ghost Stories of an Antiquary', 1904.
I don't really fancy making puppets any more. Back soon with more handicraft, markets and shopping centres. And music. Check behind the sofa before you turn the light out tonight.
