Part 2: Say Hello To My New Marionette “Sally”
“Sally” Mixed Media Marionette (clay, underglazes, wood, metal, fabric, thread, string & stuffing)
Since I’ve been a little long winded in my posts lately, this one will be mercifully short. Long story short, I started teaching a kid’s summer art camp at the Art Student’s League of Denver yesterday afternoon and we’re going to be super busy through the end of the week making marionettes from a variety of art and everyday materials. The kid’s have some great ideas and I love what they’ve come up with so far.
To aid in character development before they even started sculpting their clay bits and pieces, I had them sketch and describe someone (person, animal or fantasy creature) – favorite foods, pastimes, colors, likes, dislikes, what they’re good at etc. etc.
Here’s my story about Sally that I shared with the class:
“Sally (no offense to any of the other Sallies in the world) loves to sing and perform on stage. She’s not the cutest girl on the block, but she is very colorful and friendly. She loves her black patent leather Mary Jane’s because of the clippity clop sound they make when she walks. She wears them every day regardless of what she is wearing or where she is going, she even wears them to bed.
She didn’t have great dental care when she was a child, in case you didn’t notice. But, she makes up for it by wearing the reddest lipstick in the world. She hopes the red lipstick is just a little distracting when you see her out and about. Sally also wears matching fire engine red finger nail polish just in case she gets any spontaneous requests for a song or two. Believe me, it’s happened before.
She doesn’t care if her clothes match or not because she wears what she likes – especially if it’s colorful and has pretty patterns. ‘The louder the better’, her mom always says.
Sally came from a family of red heads – but somehow her hair turned out blazing orange. She thinks her orange hair helps people remember her and she stands out from the crowd even on a darkened stage. Sally also likes to wear all sorts of hair bows, accessories and jewelry though, she can’t seem to find her crown at the moment.
Sometimes, people make fun of her. This makes her a little sad, but not too much because she knows that she is talented and people will love her if only they could hear her sing. She’s also a very good and loyal friend – pinky best friends.
Her favorite food is pickles with extra pickle juice on the side, unless she’s sick and then she likes ice cream. Vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce, whipped cream and a cherry – but she don’t want no nuts mama – thanks very much.”
I hope you like Sally, though I must tell you that she sort of scared my family after I introduced her to them. She’ll grow on them over time – they just have to get to know her better. 
Here’s Sally’s fancy black patent leather shoes
I don’t really know how old Sally is, except that she does enjoy a dirty gin martini once in awhile (this must mean that she’s over 21 and if she’s anything like me, I’m 42 going on 13.)
I had a lot of fun with this project! Now, I have to start on next week’s lesson plan.
Hope everyone is having a good week,
~Cynthia
P.S. I’ve put a lot of effort and time into making this lesson plan along with a few others that I’ve developed. I’m considering putting an e-book together that I’ll make available for others to download. That’s a future project though…
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
Success! Pink and Violet ^6 Glaze Test Recipes Part 2
This is a continuation of my last post.
Mason Stains in ^6 Glazes
In my second round of testing, I was optimistic that I’d found the holy grail of base glaze recipes to achieve a pink ^6 glaze – but I was mentally prepared to open the kiln this morning and find nada. Imagine my surprise and delight, when I opened my kiln and found these gorgeous tiles! After loads of research and internet sleuthing, I happened upon this article by Tony Hanson that included a recipe for a base glaze good for chrome/tin colorants on the ceramic-materials.com on Sunday morning. I quickly made up 3 test batches of the base glaze and fired up my little test kiln yesteray with anticipation.
To be expected, color developed much better after using a higher percentage of colorant. I decided to try up to 12% stain this time just to compare with my tests a couple of days ago where I used up to 10% stain. Truth be told, 10% is plenty – but I wanted to see if it made any difference. It looks like color doesn’t start to really develop until tile 3 which would be 25% of the total amount of stain used (in this case, 25% of 12 = 3% of the total 100 gram recipe which results in a very pastel color). I’m guessing that when I test some blues & greens, I will need even less colorant since cobalt and copper are much stronger colorants. Also, I’m going to try redoing the pink glaze using chrome oxide and tin with the new base glaze. Yesterday, Annie generously forwarded another chrome/tin compatible recipe to try and my friend Mary Cay emailed me this morning reminding me about a recipe that she included in the materials from a glaze workshop I took with her last year. Thank you to both of you!
I also retested the chartreuse stain using the pink base glaze #4 (used with the pink and violet stains sucessfully) from Tony Hanson. I’m interested in have 1 or 2 base glazes so that I only have to buy minimal ingredients in bulk for future use. And, I had a thought… I plan on using a combination of 2 different glazes for my work. For example, glaze the exterior of a cup violet and the interior chartreuse. My thinking is that if violet is a chrome/tin glaze that can have no zinc, magnesium and needs calcium – then some funky stuff might happen where the violet and chartreuse glazes meet. But, not if they’re the same parent base glaze (or so goes my rational). I may be wrong and I plan on calling Mason Color later today to ask some questions.
There is a slight color difference between the 2 glazes. The one tested in the last post is more green, whereas the one with the pink base glaze #4 truly is more mustard yellow. If that’s what I’m going for, I could simply use rutile as the colorant at a lower cost than the mason stains. I suppose this is the whole point of testing; to see what can be learned and how to apply the knowledge effectively.
Thermal Expansion and Clay/Glaze Fit
I still need to find out a little bit more information too, before I mix up big batches of glaze. Kris left a comment on my last post about the thermal expansion of the clay body I use. If the clay body and the glaze’s thermal expansion don’t jive, crazing and a host of other issues could crop up down the road. Funny, thing is that I was just reading up on this last night in Mastering Cone 6 Glazes, Chapter 5 “Fitting Glazes to Your Clay Body”. I need to call Mile Hi Ceramics this morning when they open and find out what the thermal expansion is for the 2 clay bodies I generally use – Ash (^6 white stoneware) and Aspen (^6 porcelain). If the glaze is too big for the clay body, shivering results. If the clay is too big for the glaze, crazing results. Shivering is not cool – chunks of glassy glaze falling off the ware. Crazing (fine crackling) is sometimes desirable for some potters, but isn’t really a good attribute for functional ware that comes into contact with food.
Update: Neither of the people I spoke with at Mile Hi Ceramics know the thermal expansion of their clay bodies – I was told to call back when the owner is in. Boohoo. Am I over thinking this?
Using Underglazes to ^6
I did come upon some other interesting test tiles in my studio a few weeks ago while cleaning. These were tests that I had mis-fired last year involving Duncan Cover Coat Underglazes. I was doing these tests to provide my kid’s clay classes reference color chips. The kids always wanted to know what the various colors were going to look like when fired. My mishap was due to my Aim cone 10 test kiln over firing due to a couple of very careless mistakes. I put a small pyrometric cone 6 in the kiln sitter, loaded the kiln, turned it on, ramped up the heat on my predetermined schedule. My mistakes: I wasn’t around when it was supposed to turn off and when I opened the kiln in the morning I realized that the kiln had totally over fired because one of the shelves was touching the kiln sitter. I’m not quite sure what temperature the kiln reached – the pyrometric cone was totally melted and black (normally white after a succesful ^6 firing) and the kiln fires to cone 10. It’s a good possibility that these tests were fired to cone 8-10, depending on how long it took the pyrometric cone to melt allowing the sitter to turn the kiln off.
I used cone 6 porcelain test tiles and though they didn’t melt or even bloat, they all have a sheen to them like glaze in all the unglazed places. So, why am I telling you this? Because I found out that Duncan Cover Coats can be fired quite high and retain their colors. When I get around to photographing them, I’ll post those results. Underglazes would certainly be an option for me to use as a colorant under a clear glaze. I should redo these tests firing them to cone 6 and compare the results. I have everything from yellow, organge, red, violet, light and dark blues, green and black in my “failed” tests.
I originally wanted to toss these test tiles since I was angry at myself for my mistakes, but held onto them for some reason. There’s something to learn in both our successes and more often in our mistakes. Zen master is teaching me again
So – I’ll post those tests later this week for you.
Meanwhile, I’ll be teaching a kid’s class at the Art Student’s League of Denver starting next Monday called, “Mixed Media Marionettes”. The class is now full and is for grades 3-5 but, lucky for me I will have an assistant to help. I will be spending part of my time this week making the proto-type and lesson plans for the class so I’m well prepared. I pulled my daughter’s wood marionette down from her bedroom ceiling ceiling the other day and am studying its construction so I can successfully recreate a working one next week with the kids. I’m also deliberately working fast since we only have 5 days to work on these. 3 with wet clay and the other 2 decorating, assembling and hopefully playing with them on the last day.
Whew… have a good day,
~Cynthia
Summer Art Market Recap
Moi
What a great weekend for an outdoor art festival! It was a bit hot, but otherwise perfect weather and crowds for the weekend.
I originally wanted to have a solo booth, but realized early in the spring that I wouldn’t have enough work to fill a booth. I was asked to share a booth which turned out to be the perfect option for me. I shared a booth with Joe, Ross and Jane, all members of the Art Student’s League of Denver. Our work is all so different to so I thought we really complimented each other. Joe makes some amazing sculptures from clay, Ross makes these crazy clay masks and Jane makes beautiful sculptural and mostly functional pieces from clay.
Some of my work
Last year, I took an art marketing class online taught by Alyson Stanfield and talked with many other artists virtually, meaning we have never actually met each other in person. Our class formed a Google group after the class was over since we didn’t want to let go of the camaraderie that had developed over the course of the month we spent together. This past weekend, I got to meet one of the members of the group in person! Peggy recently relocated from North Carolina to Colorado and popped into my booth on Sunday afternoon to say “Hi”. It was so fun to meet her! In addition to meeting Peggy, I also met Annie Chrietzberg on Saturday and will be spending the day with her next Saturday taking one of her hand-building workshops. I can hardly wait!
Meanwhile, I’m going to spend this next week making some new lino-cuts to use in my ceramic work. I have a lot of ideas that I’m going to start sketching and will post some photos when I start carving. I like to use golden linoleum for my ceramics. It’s soft enough to cut, yet sturdy and will hold up to under clay and moisture.
Have a good week everyone!
~Cynthia
P.S. The market was a little slower than last year. I credit that to the economy and the fact that Sunday was Father’s Day. I still have some ceramic boxes and other work that I will be photographing and slowly listing in my Etsy Shop over the next week.
