Puppet Making

"Making" is an essential part of the puppetry creative process. making puppets, making props, making costumes, making scenery, making decisions. Without "things", there is nothing to puppet! 

Blind Summit's rehearsal rooms always have a "puppet making kit" in them and everyone is encouraged to make things when they think of them. This maybe a puppet, a piece of set, a costume adornment or idea. Rather than describing it, make it. Sometimes we have a day of making and sharing. Fifteen minutes to make a...

A puppet making kit will ussually include cardboard, brown paper, newspaper, string, brown paper post office tape,  gaffer tape, sellotape, some lolly pop sticks, tongue depressors, barbecue skewers, hot glue guns, black markers, paint, paint brushes, scissors, craft knives. There may be specific extra things for special materials. 

We cut out rough shapes, draw eyes onto bits of fabric, tie things to ourselves, tape things to funriture, or to the ceiling or the floor, attach sticks and strings. Basically we try things. 

We believe everyone is a maker. Ideas that people fear are "bad", or people who say "I can't make things", often end up leading to something interesting. And often good ideas lead nowhere. It is one of the paradoxes of the creative process.

At the end of a rehearsal period we will have prototypes, three-D sketches of what we need for the show. We take them away to make properly make properly. 

We work with puppet makers to manufacuter puppets that we need. Our legacy collection was mostly made by Nick Barnes. Currently we work frequently with Russell Dean of Strangeface masks and puppets.