From: Fred Greenspan <greenspan-AT-earthlink.net>
Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2007 17:18:02 -0500
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Tech question on shadows


Try a table scroll saw in you can't find a laser cutter and hate the 
sore fingers from cutting with an X-Acto.

In the early 1980's I helped build the shadow puppets for "The 
Legend=A0of=A0Sleepy Hollow" for Sunnyside, Home of Washington Irving in 
Tarrytown, NY. We made them back then using 2 ply matte board and cut 
them with X-Acto knives. Our fingers were all sore from all the 
cutting. The puppet parts were sprayed with black enamel (oil based) 
spray paint and urethane - multiple coats of each to add strength. 
After more than two decades of heavy use, the puppets were beginning to 
show the wear. The museum asked me to build all new replacement puppets 
using a heavier material. I used 3 or 4 ply black matte board - don't 
remember exactly. This time I was cutting them alone, without a crew =F8f 
cutters. Fortunately I already had a Hegner scroll saw in my shop. I 
found cutting the matte board with a scroll saw was ideal. Zipped right 
thru the project and used an mini drill press to make the holes. 
Quadrupled and knotted black upholstery thread went through the holes 
once and then triple knotted - each knot on top of the other to make it 
snug against the puppet. The knots on both sides of the puppet were 
then dabbed with clear nail polish. Rods attached the same way. These 
triple knots may protrude too much for some puppeteers, but it's worked 
well at Sunnyside on the cotton cloth shadow screen stretched over the 
frame in the two person stage I built for them back around 1982 and 
still in use today.

Fred Greenspan - Traditional Puppeteer
Ossining, New York
http://www.traditionalpuppetry.com

On Nov 11, 2007, at 1:09 PM, suki-AT-almost-human-marionettes.com wrote:

> Oh yeah, I forgot some of you might not be familiar with a lazer
> cutter...
>
> Basically, anything drawn electronically on cad software can be sent
> to the lazer cutter, which will cut through cardboard, wood, plastic,
> etc. in seconds in a perfect replication of the drawing.  3D objects
> are created by using many layers and specifying the depth of each
> layer.  You may have seen furniture made from recycled corrugated
> cardboard - this was made with a lazer cutter.  You may have also
> seen industrial design prototypes  of perfectly formed miniature
> products, and those are also done on a lazer cutter.  Cut-outs for
> paper goods are also done with lazer cutters instead of traditional
> dies.  So if you can get access to one, you can learn to draw your
> shadow puppet on cad or hire someone to do it, and you can have the
> most complex, delicate filigree known to man and it will come out
> perfectly in seconds...
>
> These machines are very very very expensive, but typically they
> collect dust in design offices.  There might be one willing to let
> you use theirs.  Or a student who is willing to do it for you at
> their school.  All for a fee, of course.
>
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