Switching Gears to Mixed Media Marionettes

My daughter’s marionette that I’m using as reference

Teaching schedule

On Monday, July 14, I begin teaching 3 consecutive, back to back, week long kid’s summer art camps.  The first 2 camps will be at the Art Student’s League of Denver and the last one at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, CO (It ought to be really beautiful this time of the year in the mountains).  I’ll have a little break and then teach one more camp the week before school starts the latter half of August at the ASLD.  What this means, is that I have had to switch gears just a tad from making work and testing glazes to getting some of my projects together and making lesson plans for the classes.  The first class I’m teaching is “Mixed Media Marionettes”, the second class is titled “Beyond Silly Putty” and is basically different printmaking techniques on clay, and finally I’ll be teaching “Movable Clay Sculpture” at Anderson Ranch the last week in July.

Larry is my model for the marionette and clay sculpture class and the whole reason I have these opportunities to teach at both the ASLD and Anderson Ranch.  I should probably thank the ever talented and sassy Jafabrit, who put out a doll challenge last summer and Sarabeth Berk, the children’s education coordinator from Anderson Ranch who found Larry through my blog and asked whether I’d be interested in teaching a similar project at Anderson Ranch this summer.  Thank you to both of you, it’s started me on a very satisfying and creatively challenging teaching trajectory which complements my ceramic and art endeavors.

Mixed Media Marionettes

I’ve never actually made a marionette before, so I’ve had to do some research the past week before I could write my lesson plan and make the prototype – not to mention getting all supplies and tools together.  How do you know what you need if you’ve never done it before?  This did make sending in my supply lists challenging, since both schools wanted them well in advance (6+ months).  Luckily, I have some leeway and will be able to purchase a couple of extra items for reimbursement from both places.  The bonus is that if I teach anything similar next year, I’ll have the lesson plans and supply lists down pat.

I used my daughter’s marionette (see above) which we purchased at the Denver Puppet Theater a few years ago as my own teaching tool and I’ve nearly dissected her to see how she works.  I’m such a visual learner and seeing her innards has helped tremendously.   I also picked up a couple of books from the library for reference and to use during class.  Both The most excellent book of how to be a puppeteer by Roger Lade and The Hand-Carved Marionettes of Gustave Baumann by Ellen Zieselman have great images, give a little history and show how marionettes work.

Marionette Info: In addition to the books mentioned above, there are also several websites with good information such as:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marionette (a good brief history of marionettes)

• A marionette is a puppet controlled by strings, which are controlled by a puppeteer called a manipulator
• It is believed that puppetry is the earliest form of theater and pre-dates human actors
• Wire controlled puppets have been found in Egyptian, Greek and Roman tombs and are referenced in writing by Greek historian Xenephon, philosophers Aristotle and Plato, and Archimedes who is known to have worked with marionettes
• The Greek word for puppet is neurospasta, which translates to “string pulling”.  The Indian word sutradhar literally translates to “string puller” or “string holder”
• The term “marionette” emerged around 1600 in Italy while used by the Christian Church for morality plays and is connected with the Virgin Mary – however, when comedy started sneaking into plays, the church banned puppetry in churches and puppeteers started doing street theater.
• Bunraku emerged out of traditional Japanese puppetry in the 1600’s and is similar to marionettes
• In the 18th C operas were specifically composed for marionettes – Mozart, Gluck, Haydn, deFalla and Respighi all composed operas for marionettes
• Puppetry  goes modern – children’s TV shows & movies use marionettes (think Howdy Doody, Mr. Rogers, Jim Henson, Sound of Music).
• Puppetry goes high tech – Supermarionation a combination of marionettes + animation + mechanics

http://puppetbuilding.com/marionettes/ and a link to other sites http://puppetbuilding.com/puppet-builder-directory/marionettes links, videos and examples of puppets and marionettes

http://myiradofmarionettes.bravehost.com/Making.html example of easy marionette to make at home with common items

Here’s a page out of Popular Science Monthly, Feb. ‘36 showing marionette parts

All of the info gathering was necessary for me before I could even begin crafting my first marionette.  I knew that my heads, hands and feet would be sculpted using clay – it was the rest of the body that had me stumped.

Low fire earthenware clay a little larger than  a golf ball

After procrastinating just a bit, I realized I needed to make the prototype for the first class pronto.  I also wanted to simulate working in a 5 day time frame since this is our schedule next week for 3 hours a day.  Firing clay in a short time frame can be fatally dangerous – not to us, but to the clay pieces.  I normally dry my clay work anywhere from 1 – 3 weeks before bisque firing them to minimize any kiln blowups and other ware type accidents such as cracking and warping.

To minimize any kiln catastrophes, I used a small amount of clay for the head (a little larger than a golf ball – maybe 1/4 lb.), and lesser amounts for the feet and hands.  I made the clay bits on Thursday evening, then left them uncovered until Saturday.  On Friday, they were still cool to the touch, meaning that the pieces were still too wet to fire.  On Saturday morning the pieces had changed color to a lighter gray color and felt dry.  The reason explosions happen in the kiln is because the clay hasn’t dried out enough and when the water in the clay reaches boiling point in the kiln (which is less than when you boil water on the stove since it’s under pressure), the vapor from the steam escaping the clay has no where to go, so the piece explodes to relieve the pressure.

The initial clay head, feet and hands

I decided to make an additional/backup head just in case the first one blows up.  In fact, I’m going to have the kids in my class make additional parts as back up.  If all survive, they’ll have the pieces to make another marionette at home.  One note when I made these – I was thinking of specific personalities when I sculpted the heads.  I think that will also be a fun exercise for the kids whether the make human or animal forms.

I attached little loops of nichrome wire to the feet and top & bottom of the head

When making these, I knew I needed some way to attach the string that attaches to the control bars and the body of the marionette to create movement.  I punched holes in the hands and then added high temperature nichrome wire (has a melting temperature of 1400° C and I’m firing these to cone 05 around 560° C) to the heads and feet.

Painted using Duncan CC underglazes and Amaco LUG underglazes

I like my back up head better and am going to use her to make the marionette for my prototype.  I fashioned the first one to be a sort of self portrait   she’ll have blond hair and I even added a little nose piercing and appropriate mole placement just like my own – now she I just need some feet and hands.

I really want a pair of shoes and stockings to match in real life!

I originally thought I would glaze these with clear over the underglaze, but realize that it’s just not possible unless we once fire these.  I’ve come up with an alternate solution:  we’re going to add a gel medium to the clay parts which will add a nice little sheen and also protect the surface.  We could also add a wax for a soft feel – but this is something I’ll have to experiment with later.

Miter saw – use appropriate safety precautions

I even got to use power tools – which makes me feel so macho!  Since the age range for my class is 3rd – 5th grade, I had to do the cutting.  It just wouldn’t do to have a parent pick up their child from camp missing a finger or 2.  So, I pulled out the old miter saw after measuring the dowels for the hand controls and the 5″ x 2″ x 2″ wood blocks for the torso.  I have 18 kids enrolled in class (no worries – I have an assistant to help), so I need 18 torsos and 36 5″ dowel pieces for the controls.

Power hand sander

I also sanded the ends of the dowels and wood blocks so that no one gets a splinter.  My whole right hand and arm was vibrating after sanding all those pieces even after turning off the sander.  The feeling lasted for quite some time, much like it feels after you take off your skates or ski boots after having them on awhile.

I removed the clay parts from the kiln this morning after bisque firing them last night and I’m happy to tell you that all the pieces survived!  I did a really long kiln pre-heat on low with the kiln vented for about 6 hours before starting my firing program in an attempt to prevent the pieces from exploding.

Today, I’m sealing the clay parts with medium, gluing on hair and beads for the eyes, and will add a fabric body over the wood block torso, will add some stuffing to flesh out the body, sew some clothing and finally add the string and attach to the control bars.

So far, I’ve really enjoyed the process and feel like making more.  But, first, I must adapt the project for the class at Anderson Ranch titled “Movable Clay Sculpture” – never mind that I’ve never really made one before, unless you count Larry and now this marionette.  After making the marionette and Larry, however, I have a lot of good information and ideas to get started.

Update on cone 6 glaze testing:

Meanwhile, I have revised the Tony Hanson Pink Base Glaze #4 cone 6 recipe that I successfully tested last week with pink and violet Mason Stains and will fire these test tiles with some chrome and tin for a pinkish glaze (fingers crossed) – I might even do that today while I’m assembling my marionette since I won’t be in the studio inhaling glaze fumes.  I was also going to test some manganese and cobalt for a purple, but realized that I need a glaze high in MgO.  So first, I need to make up another test batch of the High Calcium Semi Matte from MC6G, since it is high in MgO – and the base glaze #4 has a negligible trace which is why the pinks form.

I normally maintain safe studio practices (especially with glaze mixing), but after reading more and more realize that I really should be hyper vigilant.  Manganese is a very dangerous oxide in its raw state – but it seems that several other ones that I use are up there too along with cobalt and copper.  What’s odd is that manganese is an essential trace nutrient for all life forms and our body stores 10mg of the element.  Anyway – way off topic….

Have a great week,

~Cynthia

Stay tuned for part 2