Copyrights, Fan-Art, and You

Ok, so I might be opening a giant can of worms (read that: passionate discussion) but I thought I'd take a chance on it just being an interesting topic.

As most of us know, if we make a variation of something that someone else has made, then it's considered a derivative work (or fan-art). It therefore wouldn't violate US Copyright laws.

I was recently pointed to a blog on which I was featured (by the author). She said how much she liked my finger puppets & one in particular. She then said, that because she liked it so much, she felt she must own it and therefore put it on her to-do list to make it for herself.

Now instantly I thought, but..but...it's mine! I made it! You can buy it, but I made it! You can't make it! It's mine! (you can see that my instant thoughts are much like that of an advanced 2-year-old)

I encouraged her to make her own designs (or buy the kits Craft: sells). She meant no malice whatsoever, and seems to be a very nice person. There's no sense in meanly saying, "yeah but dude, copyright." to very nice people. Of course I'd prefer for her to buy the puppet flat out, but I don't know her situation, so I can't expect or push for that. And really, it boils down to the fact that I am very thankful that people like my work, especially enough to write about it...

Well, now that I'm far, far away from the situation (a week is far, far away, right?), I'm left to think about fan-art. There is nothing to keep her from making this puppet for herself. No one would really know if she did. But legally, if she wanted to, she could make all of my puppets with mustaches, as long as she doesn't distribute or profit from them in any way.

I guess I'd just never before thought about fan art based on my own work. I know I'm not the first to experience this, and I certainly won't be the last, so I'm curious to hear about others' opinions on the matter.

Alright then: Opinion away!

Hybrids are the future

So a friend of mine is going to help me & do the costumes. She used to be a costumer at Disneyland, so I have a huge amount of confidence in her! She's actually a librarian/puppeteer. She's the one that's helped me with the library upstairs at the Puppet Theater. She's also developed her own shows to tour at the libraries in her circuit. (I wonder if that's like hitting the night club circuit at all...)

She showed me (in person, finally!) the two puppets she made from the Project Puppet Roly Poly pattern. I'm surprised that they're so small, but they're really nice puppets. Leave it to a seamstress to produce a friggin awesome puppet. Their costumes are all gorgeous too. She's just an amazing talent & awesome person & I wish she didn't live 45 minutes away. (I want to steal her)

It's also very tempting to just get some Project Puppet patterns & do it that way. There are two that I would need & the sizing seems about perfect for the project. Is that giving in? Is using a pattern admitting that I can't do it on my own? Do I throw away all of the awesome advice I was given & take the so very easy route? It just doesn't seem like something I should do.

I can, however, take elements from the super-rad-happy-fun-time-crazy-butt-Stacey puppets and from the super-traditional-build-a-foam-skull-&-face-then-cover-it-with-fleece puppets and make a hybrid. It will run on a charge & then use gas as a last resort. Go green or go home. Yes.

In 'real job' news. I'm learning a new show. I'll perform the show twice. It's a holiday show. Off I go to the theater to rehearse it for the very first time. Hooray!

Two days in a row? I'm craaazy.

No really, I'm crazy. I've been told...by people.

I wanted to share some of the puppets that I made recently. Hooray! I'm really excited to love finger puppets again. For awhile I was feeling as though that was a sub-par type of puppet to make. Now, honestly, I think--for me--it's better. I'm a tiny girl and I like tiny things. I'm embracing just how awesome something little and made of felt can be. I think I struggle with believing this is a skill anyone can do (which I still mostly believe) and they can make it look the same if not better than what I do. And I see tons of handmade artful finger puppets that go beyond the flat"oh look I'm a monster with one eye, Whooohoo!" that I see a lot of. (No offense if you make those--the world needs that kind of puppet as well.) So maybe not everyone can make anthropomorphic garbage cans and dapper mustachioed bacon. Maybe it takes my odd little brain to come up with a happy little piece of feminine hygiene, emo pancakes, or conjoined bunnies. And don't worry, I know, the over-use of bacon is waning on all of us, however I've been doing bacon for years now and I'm not about to give it up because its gone all mainstream. I commit to making my bacon weirder and googley-eyed-er than any other bacon out there. I pledge this to you, America. (Sorry, Canada.)
Anyway, enough with the talking words.

Ok so because blogger seems to lack the wonderful formatting previewerage that would be so helpful in times like this...I'll say what the puppet is, and you can guess which title goes with which puppet. It will be a great challenge. Alright here we go.
*Mustachioed Rain Cloud....see, I didn't realize the felt was green until I got it into better lighting....when it was finished. Ah well, acid rain it is.
*Mustachioed bacon. I actually made this puppet on the plane going into Missouri. I just haven't photographed it until now. I really like it. A lot. I think this is one that will stay in my own personal collection.
*Rabbit of Makershed fame. Yet another bunny that I made back in May at the Maker Faire in San Fran (I can call it San Fran because I'm native to California and it makes me sound cool). I'll remind you now that the kits are available at the makershed online. I hand wound each spool of thread that's in those kits (No really, I did). Indie kit all the way, baby! Support the indie artist! Or don't, it's cool. (I can say indie because I'm on the tail end of gen-x and it makes me sound cool.)
*Googly Eyed Strawberry. I was at my friend's house while she was making dough on Saturday and she gave me a pile of felt, a needle, thread and scissors. Also she gave me a straw for my drink. Wendy's failed. This (and the acid rain) came out of the felt. With my help.

Side story: our children (age 4--but collective age of 8, so they should have known better!) were hanging out in her backyard unsupervised, because really, what harm can two four-year-olds do to a backyard with a playhouse and a swing-set? Let me answer: They threw rocks over my friend's fence, apparently hitting her car, putting dings in the paint as well as breaking the windshield. That's right, my son is a vandal. Hooligan. (I feel terrible about that, by the way.) When asked if there were things on the other side of the fence that could get broken, his response was, "No. We couldn't see what was on the other side of the fence."
So you know how when you go out of a baby's line of vision, they freak out because to them you don't exist anymore? Apparently fences have the same effect on four-year-olds.

Ok, finally I have to tell you about an artist whom I stumbled across today on Etsy. His name is Dean Kendrick and he does amazing shadow boxes and has some beautiful hand-drawn and stop-motion animation on his website. I dig.

This wasn't it....But it's Exciting!!!

The big thing I was awaiting wasn't this, but this is one thing I was awaiting! My finger puppet kits have arrived at the Maker Shed! (Craft: & Make: Magazine's online store)

They said that the kit is by Stacey Rebecca...implying that either I have no last name or that Rebecca is my last name. I think people have a problem with my name. Poor Stacy Wolf. I'm not sure if I should ask them to fix it. I'm just kind-of excited that I have a product ID number. Although the free-art non-consumer in me is saddened by that...although the desire to pay mortgages and eat food and send my child to school is again excited about it. Hooray consumerism!

So go buy my hard work from someone else! And then they'll buy my hard work from ME! Hooray for the man!

It's a long one...sorry.

This month has been insane! Maker Faire, Mother's Day, last month of teaching, first trip to Chicago, music video, 8-year anniversary and Hobo Soup! Crazy.

I've been meaning to post about the Maker Faire since it happened! I asked permission to use this photo, but for some reason its not uploading to Blogger or downloading to my computer. SO, you'll have to click the link to see me in action at the Maker Faire. I was a very busy girl. I auditioned for Make:TV and did a demo/talk on the Craft:magazine stage and spent hours upon hours showing kids and grown-ups alike how to backstitch and whip-stitch their way into a finger puppet.
See that pile of puppets there on the workbench? Four of them were taken right out from under my nose! Isn't that terrible? If I believed in karma I'd say it'd one day bite them in the tuchus, but since I don't, they'll probably just play with the puppets for a little while, and enjoy the fact that they stole my hard work without me ever noticing. I guess it affirms that people like what I do. It also affirms that the bunny & carrot set are more popular than the steak & dog set, as the bunny/carrot set were swiped twice. Someone also took a Sakura tool-belt full of awesome pens & markers AND a few puppets, but at least I was off doing something else so it was left unattended. That's enough lamenting, I suppose. Lesson learned: Trust no one.

The trip to Toronto was postponed, but I really didn't mind because it meant that I could spend Mother's Day at home with my family. It's also always nice to stay in Phoenix when it's not roasting-hot outside. I'll hopefully get away to Toronto when it's 118 here in the desert.

Last weekend I was in Chicago doing some puppetry on a music video, but I'm not sure how much I can share. I think I can share a production photo and if I can't, I'm sure the right people will contact me and ask me to take it down. The photo is courtesy of JP's cell phone. You can see me tucked underneath the table. I was puppeteering a butterfly that I had been asked to make about 10 minutes prior. I think I whipped it out in less than 5 minutes with only a t-shirt, wire, hot-glue & a marker. I felt like McGuyver.

In a way, that butterfly was very important. At least performing it was. As a kid I watched Sesame Street (of course I did) and in the Bert & Ernie segments especially, there seemed to always be a butterfly flitting around. I can't tell you how much I wanted to be that little butterfly. About 6 years ago I saw a purple Folkmanis butterfly puppet at the Great AZ Puppet Theater (my first trip there) & bought it right away only because it helped fulfill that little space in my dreams. So I made this puppet & went onto the set and basically said, "I'm performing it." There wasn't any way that anyone else was going to do it. A little dream was actually fulfilled with that t-shirt. Hooray for little dreams!

Doing that project was amazing. It was hard work, but I wouldn't mind more hard work like that at all! We got there at 8:30am and left at 3:30am. I'm really thankful that I was brought in for the it and I worked with some amazing puppeteers! This was my first professional video and my first experience with monitors. I was not only intimidated by just the project alone (and the monitors), but I was surrounded by experienced puppeteers. It really was an honor working with them & watching them perform. I'm sure my performance will be picked out easily as mine will be the puppet slowly sinking and hardly emoting.

It certainly pushes me to try to improve those skills. Not that I'll ever really have an opportunity like this again, but just in case I do, I want to be prepared.

I'm leaving with my family on Friday for a much-needed vacation together. We'll return home for 5 days and then leave again for another much-needed vacation together. I'm pretty excited & busy making puppets for people in the meantime. Tonight for dinner we're having Hobo Soup.

Maker Day!

So here I am in California. I was able to attend Maker Day for the Maker Faire yesterday, and met a LOT of wonderfully geeky guys and gals. Mostly guys! The makers are into programming and hacking into things, making things with gears, soldering, and dremeling which is lovely. Someone had a machine that was a tongue to lick a lollipop with the turn of a crank. A gentleman who goes by the name of Doc was telling me about his boy on a bicycle and his next goal being to animate his face. The boy's, not his own.
Another guy I met, Simran, has made (to the best of me being able to describe things) an application that uses the wonder of virtual gravity and boxes and things crashing together in pretend-space to create a symphony of music. It's a very cool app & reminds me a lot of Electroplankton by Nintendo. (Which is a lovely little "game")

When I talk to most any of the makers--especially the ones who make baby arms move by sensors in the feet, or people who are exploring using ventriloquist dummy parts to create robots-- I think about how these things can merge in the world of puppetry. Puppetry overlaps to nearly every art-form. Hackers, programmers, visual artists, fiber artists, welders, woodworkers, actors and vocalists all have their important and vital roles in puppetry. WOW. I can't wait to talk about puppetry on Sunday and how each and every person there should become involved with it in some way.

Want to see a picture of me at Maker? Yes. So silly I am. I took a trip to the Maker Shed to see my kits displayed and they were sitting right next to John Kennedy's Puppet Planet. That's pretty darn rad, if I do say.

being proactive instead of reactive

Of all of the puppets that I've made, I think this frog might be my favorite. I think one of the reasons for that is because I didn't get to keep him for very long. He was shown at a local art gallery in '06 and I wasn't expecting him to sell. I'd made him out of the leftover fabric from a dinosaur costume that I'd made for my son for Halloween that year. At least I think that's where the fabric came from....

I was telling a friend of mine how I am sad that I haven't kept a few key puppets in my building career...the frog, the Phoenix Coyotes Puppets, and a bunny or two. My friend said, "Well, why can't you just recreate the frog?" I thought of a long list of unreasonable reasons to not remake him, one reason being, "I don't have the same fleece." Then thought that I should at least try it no matter what color he is. Green is still the goal, here.

So I've embarked on a make-a-puppet-for-myself adventure. I am not going to post this one to Etsy and I'm not going to use it for any shows (that I know of). I'm taking my time, I'm starting over with things when they don't work right, and I'm allowing myself to put him down without being finished with him. Leaving him alone when he's not finished is actually the hardest part of this project. A) I want to see him done! B) there's a lingering fear that if I put him down, I might never find the time/motivation to pick him up again. So far, I've gone back to him. And, I'm really excited about the whole thing.

I give another workshop to another library for teens & tweens tomorrow..and then again on Thursday & the following Saturday & that ends my library run of workshops. By the way, if you live anywhere near Phoenix, just let me know if you want to know about the workshops in more detail...the Library is paying me to teach, so it's free to anyone ages 12-18.

There. I've updated. Are you happy?

I'm apparently bad at blogging

I keep meaning to write something of great importance, but I put it off, then I forget about it. It was so important, right?

I've been taking these last couple of weeks to actually be productive. That includes making puppets, listing puppets on etsy, taking pictures of puppets, updating bad pictures of puppets & giving puppet workshops.


Speaking of workshops, the workshop on November 10th was amazing! Thank you to everyone who not only showed up, but showed up with enthusiasm and an open mind to discovering their puppet. Yes, it sounds like a hippie way to build, but sometimes you just have to let go and let puppet...or something like that.

A bit of an amusing story...So about an hour and a half before the workshop, as my husband and I were on our way home from grabbing some last-minute supplies, I start to feel a bit under the weather...the car ride wasn't helping. I just barely made it to the toilet & had some diarrhea of the face. I climbed into bed with the usual post-barfing shakes & called the venue. Basically we decided that if I could do it, I'd do it, but if I couldn't, the people who signed up are all very understanding & some might not mind a postponement. I didn't want to leave anyone hanging, so I decided I'd go as far as I could. If that was 1/2 way through the workshop, then so be it. Thankfully the more I got to thinking about puppets, the less I got to thinking about vomit. The ginger ale helped, too.

There seems to be a trend in my puppet workshops & vomit coming out of my body. 3 hours before I was to leave for New York to give a workshop at the Etsy labs in June, I got the stomach bug that had been going around our home. I decided to still go & had a great time. I think I need to give at least one more workshop for adults to see if this theory holds up.

Puppet-Making Workshops

I'm going to be giving a make-and-take puppetry workshop at The Trunk Space on November 10th. I hope lots of people sign up.

I'm also giving a puppetry workshop in Brooklyn, New York on October 12th. Oh, and I'll hopefully also be giving a kid's workshop in Brooklyn as well! I hope more people sign up for that one because it costs a lot to fly across the country. That and I love teaching. Especially kids...and adults. Man, that's a tough call. It's a really neat experience watching adults turn into little kids when they make puppets and at the same time I love to see a child with that overwhelming power of "OH MY GOSH I MADE A PUPPET!"

Either way, I'll get to see what this strange phenomenon, "Autumn" is. You see, New York has things called "trees," and those trees have "leaves" that actually change colors when it gets cold outside! Its like a hyper-color shirt from the 80's.

Hooray 80's.

Also in the exciting world of me, I'm attempting to develop my website. Not much there right now, but I have a friend who is going to help me. And unlike when most people say, "I'm having a friend help me," I think she'll actually help me. You can check out her stuff here.