From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Mathieu_Ren=E9?= <creaturiste-AT-primus.ca>
To: <puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org>
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:50:40 -0500
Subject: [Puptcrit] Swazzle Workshop - activities


http://www.swazzle.com/swazzleworkshop1.html


Hi all.
I took the time to watch the 8 episodes of the "Swazzle workshop", meant to 
show kids how to make their very own simple puppets.  The methods are truly 
simple, and the results are surprisingly fun and versatile.
While they won't make longlasting puppets, they are certainly lots of fun, 
and the basic ideas can totally be expanded upon to make durable versions.

I teach workshops myself, and I find lots of inspiration in those quick 
videos to make my own versions.

I love their way of folding a paper pattern on top and bottom of a pompom, 
which becomes the bulk inside.
The same is done over a sock, to make a better looking sock puppet. This 
principle, coupled with a proper mouthplate, can probably eviolve a sock 
puppet further, if the patterned piece is done with stronger paper, or even 
fun foam (L200). The very idea of using the sock simply as an inner sleeve 
is launching me in other possibly fascinating directions.

Their simplified shadow screen, made with waxed paper stretched over a frame 
in a cardboard box, is a smart time and money saver.

The sliding tube puppet (Bark the robot dog) is a fun idea too, I've seen 
versions of it in various activity books.

These are the kind of activities I would have been thrilled to see and make 
as a kid!
Heck, I'm thirty years old and it takes all my willpower to resist dropping 
what I'm supposed to do tonight.
I'm really tempted to make experimental sock puppets!



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