Om nom nom

I had the neat experience of setting up as a vendor at the first ever Maker Faire here in Phoenix. In 2008 I participated in the San Mateo Maker Faire & had a super fun time doing it. But as Phoenix usually goes, this was more intimate &...sweatier.

Lots of puppets found new homes, which means I'll be adding lots of new puppets to my shop soon! (I came home & made 36 more!) Before I went, I resolved to make a few puppets that were incredibly rad, (instead of focusing on "what can people afford to spend right now & I'll spend my time accordingly") & I think it was a good decision. I made a crocodile that I so totally want to keep. Then I made an owl & a fox, because I've succumbed to being trendy. Somehow or other it led down the path of "they're all predators...they need prey!" & thus the "Food Chain Friends" series was born.

Keep your eye out for them, & let me know if you think 2-puppet sets would be appealing. Downside: they're elaborate puppets, so they cost a little bit more than the average one. A set could be pricey. Upside: They'll be together! Forever!...unless the person who buys them gives one away.

Also, there's a poll on the facebook fanpage if you want respond to it. It's just one question. Let me just say the business side of running a business is totally all businessy & stuff.

Puppets Are for Grown Ups

I've been doing puppet shows for grown-ups (otherwise known as Puppet Slams) since 2002. Yes, yes, the phrase, "grown-ups" has a slightly juvenile sound to it (likely because if you're saying "grown-ups" you either hang out with small children a lot, or you are one), but let's face it...if I said "Puppets Are for Adults," your minds would race down the gutter farther than a cartoon fedora in a Disney short.

That doesn't mean Puppet Slams have all of the wholesome goodness that a Disney short would (holy lemon balls, no!), but usually you'll find artists with enough sense that you won't see 45 minutes of puppet porn. Usually. Honestly I don't know what you will see, but I know at our Slams here in Phoenix, you'll laugh, you'll guffaw, & you'll chuckle. Maybe less guffawing than laughing or chuckling... but your personal boundaries for what you feel is appropriate may be pushed. In a good way. You may take offense at some things. Some things may offend you with intention. Should you go? Yes. Are you sad that you don't live in Phoenix (other than for the magnificent winter weather)? You don't have to be!

www.PupppetSlam.com is a super snappy website that delivers all kinds of fantastical news about Puppet Slams held all over the darn place! It's so exciting that I felt that it deserved two sentences in a row with exclamation marks. Do you see how awesome it is?? (Now TWO question marks? All caps?? What has this post turned into? A giant vat of amazing!? Why I do believe you're right!) ....... Run by IBEX Puppetry, the Puppet Slam Network is like the cartoon network, only more awesome, not on cable tv, and it will make your Chia pet's hair grow better than that time you gave it a mixture of beer & tabasco sauce. (Sometimes I wonder why people let me have a computer.) (...or the power of parenthesis.)

If there's one thing you should learn from the internet, it's that there are so many fantastical subcultures in the world. You should partake in them. All of them. Or just this one. Either way.

Ok so maybe you're not on the snappy email list that tells you when and where things are taking place. It's okay. I'll hook you up. Because I'm nice like that! Just click on this link & you'll be transported there like a kitten in a carrier on the way to the vet...except it will be a whole lot faster, and you won't be trapped, or crying, scared, or sliding around on a towel while your owner sings you lullabies hoping it will calm you down even though it won't. Stupid owner. And why you continue to sleep in the carrier when you get home completely baffles everyone. You hate it when it's in the car! Silly you.

Hey, do you want avoid relying on me whenever possible? Good choice! You can sign up to receive those snappy emails yourself! Way to be proactive, reader! I think you'll be happy you took that step.

Soooo, yeah. You should go to a Puppet Slam near you. You should sign up for the Puppet Slam Network's email list (brought to you by IBEX Puppetry) and then you should apologize to your kitten..... or something like that.

The View!

Let's see if this works, shall we?

I have NO idea what happened to their hair, but I did make them over a period of time from November of 2008-February of 2009, so probably a year's worth of storage & maybe an over-excited comb got all jiggy together.

This is what they looked like before I sent them out. Snappy, eh?

I'm super excited & honored to have had my puppets GIVEN to these women, let alone used on the show! I hope they use them again and again!!

still figuring it out...

Alright, just because I've got my plot of land & need to watch my fruit ripen (hmm...) doesn't necessarily mean I have my act together enough to have places to put the fruit (uh..yeah), or even to let others know that I've got a sweet little farm goin on (I think my analogy has fallen apart)...

So I did the Sunnyslope Artwalk last night. The good news is that I got sweet new packaging for my finger puppets the day before, which just finished off what they'd been lacking in person for so long. Alright, then! Sunnyslope art-walkers, be prepared to fall in love with some delicious puppet pie! Booyah! In your face artwalk-y people! Yeah!

Ok maybe a little less than that...I had a few people tell me how awesome they were & how I should try to sell to children's boutiques in Scottsdale & I had others tell me that they recognized me from the Puppet Slams. I sold 2 finger puppets to some really rad teenagers who came back 3 times before they got money from their parents (Thanks, stranger Mom & Dad!).

So that's good, right? I made my money back from the booth fee plus three dollars! $3 is good for 8 hours, right?

I mean, it would be good if the people to the right & left of me hadn't been selling things every 5-10 minutes....I felt very over-looked. And I wasn't the whole night, I did get people coming by & telling me that my stuff was great, but anytime I had a lull, it was a long one & nobody else was lulling.

They sell so much better online, and I'm not sure why. Are people buying them because they like what I write? Do they just look horrible in-person? Are people afraid to pay $12-$18 on something 2" tall in person whereas they're okay with it online? Why did I forget to buy eyes while I was at Michael's the other day? Drat......And what about Naomi?

So I was sitting back and observing a lot. My friend Erin makes the most amazing Sock Zombies in the world. She just won a Best of Phoenix Award for them. We were in the same issue of the Phoenix NewTimes, I was in as an artist, she was in as a winner of "Best Zombie Related Art", & I'm all manners of proud..Anwyay, she was on one side, and some tweens were on the other side with bottlecaps-turned-magnets that they were selling for charity. I kept hearing "Whoopies" "Sock Zombies" all night...

Was anyone saying "Puppet Pie"? Well of course not...in order to see those words anywhere, they'd have to walk over, pick up a plastic box & look at the bottom (of which the lids keep popping off) before they could even find the words "puppet pie". And even then, when they flipped things over the first things out of their mouths were "No choking allowed" and then they'd say the name of the puppet. Just walking by, from far away they could see some things in containers & a pig hand puppet inside of an unfinished wood dollhouse (I keep saying I need to put electricity in before I put wallpaper in...so I'm stalling)--but nowhere could they see the fantastical words "Puppet Pie" to intrigue them to see what was in the actual booth. (On a side note, I dont think I'll use the dollhouse again until I finish it. because really...)

It's the same reason that nobody bought the painted dirt clods that Zachary & I sold from the playhouse in my parents' backyard when we were 7. Nobody knew we were there! Had they known, we'd have run out of the painted dirt clods, for sure--and probably have had the local paper come and do a story on the operation to boot! (It really was high quality work)

So long story short...ok not really short, but to conclude my long story, I'm making a banner. Well, I'm designing a banner & I'll have someone print it up & ship it to me.

I questioned whether or not I should just give up doing artwalks, but I think I can't give up just yet. I'll get a banner first, then I'll give up! That's called perserverance, and baby, I gots it!

Again, with the spelling...I hope I got at least a 97%.

I'm getting all serious about poop

As the title would suggest, I'm getting serious about poop. And I don't mean I'm making more toilet paper finger puppets. Not until the first one sells, anyway. I mean that I'm setting up goals! I'm asking myself if I'm successful. I'm pursuing talking about success so I can avoid actually taking action on that success. (I'm honest, right?)

So I set out some goals for myself. As I mentioned...yeah. I'm on codeine (legally). Give a girl a break.

I often get a bug in my butt to go posting to Etsy.com's forums about how to succeed in life. And I give amazingly good advice. Such good advice that I actually sell it. And people actually buy it (crazy, right?). So this is a refined post to the forums that got ignored, but I don't want myself to forget it. So I'm posting it here so I can go back and read it like a narcissist.

Some of them are pretty darn generic. OK, most of them are. It's like they don't really tell me anything, but it sounds pretty.

Ready? Are you? You don't care, do you, you just want to see pictures of puppets. I made dead jam the other night. It's nice. I'll get photographs up once my ruptured eardrum (yes, ouch) allows me to get up and do things. like shower. (I know).

OK so some of these things have already happened, so that's awesome. Some I'm still waiting on. That's okay. In fact, I think it's good.

Artistically I'll know I'm succeeding if:
1. People all over the world are viewing my work. And smiling.
2. I get compliments on my work.
3. I'm creating new work that isn't forced.
4. My work is represented in multiple cultures/countries and speaks to a broad population.
5. I gain recognition among peers in my field.

Businessly(totally a word, I did not just make up that word):
1. People buy my work.
2. Enough people buy my work that I survive.
3. I have 1000 fans that spend at least $10 each year.
4. I gain at least 100 hearts/month*


Ways to make it happen:
1. Not treating it like a job, but rather treating it as though I'm positively surviving on loving what I do./Focus deeply on loving what I do.
2. Seeking out avenues locally to display and showcase my work.
3. Pursuing education in my art form so I don't become stagnant.
4. Introducing my work to people outside of my selling venues.
5. Establish meaningful connections with fans. But not in a whore-y way.
6. Seeking out support from other artists, both in my field and elsewhere.
7. Not allowing myself to not create. Pushing past the runner's wall.


OK so some of those sound a little gay. (Pause--I tried to think of a synonym for this that would still convey the fact that I understand that I know I'm being really....uh..gay about it all, that wasn't offensive, but I'm taking codeine and my brain-thesaurus isn't working properly, so gay it is!--Unpause) But that's what I came up with for goals. I have a few specific goals that I didn't put here because I just didn't. I don't need to justify to you people!........Ok so it's because it's just businessy stuff that probably isn't useful to anyone but me. A laundry list, if you will.

*For those of you who don't know, "hearts" on Etsy.com are given to you when someone adds your shop or item to their favorite bookmarks to their profile. So the goal here is to have 100 people add my shop to their favorites per month. I could just say that, but hearts sounds more cutesy. And if I'm all about anything, it's cutesy. Hence the bloody tampon. Schmadorable.

Oh, and somewhere in the middle, I threw in a picture of a daisy in a jar. I've decided that jars are the way to go when packaging my finger puppets for in-person shops. I suppose if people want, they can have jars in the mail. I'm sorry Amanda, but I really, really like it. Thems is funny to me.

On that note, you should come watch me every Tuesday night at 11pm EST on blogtv. because you need further proof that I'm a dork. Yes, watch me make finger puppets and chat with the people. My good friend and fellow puppeteer, Mack Duncan usually co-hosts with me.

15 minutes

I forgot that my puppets are in some more hockey commercials.

The snowman is by furry puppet (or so says the ad agency)

The guy that's a guy & not a monster had his eyes replaced & I couldn't be happier with them It gave me an opportunity to give them a much-needed re-focusing. I'd like to sculpt their hands a bit, but I haven't been asked/paid to do that, so I didn't.

the only actual puppeteer they used (Don Kruszka) is for the Snowman. He funneh.

Loving my meat

I've been really busy these past few weeks, but by far my greatest achievement happened yesterday and was the creation of raw meat.

Raw meat was more significant to me than anything else I've done recently. I think it's because I created a finger puppet that got me wanting to create more finger puppets. For so long I was creating for others. Previously I'd made something I liked, and naturally more than one person wanted a 'copy,' so I didn't have the time (or the creative juices) to create for myself anymore. Not for a long time anyway. So, I've stopped taking custom orders in my shop & now, if I don't want to recreate something, then I don't have to. Sure, I could have denied people before, but I'm one of those people who wants to accommodate everyone. If you ask for maize, by golly I'll give you maize...or squid Elvis...or bacon...or other personal-to-a-woman type puppets...

This break really came on the heels of doubting myself as an artist. I had stopped expressing what's inside of me (yes, raw meat is totally inside of me). I was creating what *had* been inside of me but was now put into a tiny felt sculpture. I hope this will also affect my hand puppets. I've lifted the pressure of deadlines & requests in some ways. Of course there area always deadlines for show puppets, but let's take baby-steps.

~

The workshop in Casa Grande went swimmingly. I had a wonderful mixture of adults and kids (ages 10+). Every time I do a workshop, I am absolutely floored by what comes out of the minds of others. I really can't wait to go back. It was lovely. Just being in that city makes me feel warm and fuzzy. The craft store closes at 3:30 on Saturdays. It's very similar to the town in which I grew up. Simply adorable. Granted, it's much larger than my hometown, but the main, downtown area is very similar.

~

First Friday's Artwalk at the Trunk Space was quiet and lovely. The rain kept most people away which, for me, is a very relaxing thing. I adore spending a few quiet hours in the company of friends, drinking an Izzie, surrounded by art & talking about...youtube videos.

I'm getting around!

I feel like I might be everywhere at once. This is a bit of late-night thought gathering, so it might be disordered & long-winded, but then again, when is my life not that way?

So I was thinking about where my puppets are as of late...
I may or may not be sending puppets to Everette, Washington (just waiting on a contract) to be sold in a bookstore/gift shop there.
My work will be not only seen, but for sale at The Trunk Space's gift art show for the next two months, the opening is this Friday night.
Commercial is still running. That's exciting.
I'm also doing a workshop at the Paramount Theater in Casa Grande, AZ on December 8th! Same as the other one, but further south & $5.00 more (if you want to go, 520-316-9290 or email michelle@paramount-theatre.com).

I feel extremely happy with myself regarding all of these "goings arounds"

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.

Me and the Commericals

I was very recently asked to make puppets for a local commercial.
Wow!

My life is weird. I enjoy weird.

It makes me think, well, maybe they were desperate...maybe I know the right people.... maybe I'm not that bad of a puppet-builder. Maybe I'll get more work from this...maybe this is just a fun jaunt...maybe I'll meet Wayne Gretzky.

All of these things could be and probably are true. A combination of talent, who you know, and dumb luck.

I will post photos of the puppets as soon as they're finished. Until then, I'm off to make some monsters for television!

I haven't exactly been at home for the last few days. We're having some unexpected electrical work done to our house. I.E. The entire house is getting re-wired & we're getting a new panel and circuit breaker. Sadly, that means I can't work on my Once Upon A Puppet project. My home has no electricity. Last night we had partial electric in the kitchen and the bathroom & kiddo's bedroom, but try to set up a sewing machine on the toilet and you'll just annoy those who need to go. They said it's going to be "a few more days."

The good news is that I've finished the body of my puppet. It looks great! I'm thrilled with the hands, and the mouth-plate. Although, in the future I'll probably add another digit. I'm a fan of 5 fingers. The other good news is that all this time at the Great Arizona Puppet Theater, with nothing else to do (I did all the work last week), I get to sit and make finger puppets. So when I can upload pictures to my own computer, expect a lot of pictures!

It begins...

After finishing up a large custom order, I've decided to reward myself with starting on the project puppet project. It starts with printing off the pattern (easy enough) and cutting it all out. I got the head cut out and decided to blog about it. Not sure why. Vanity, I suppose.

So far, so good. The directions seem easy enough to follow. So here I go...backwards into the realm of following instructions!

Me and the Contests...

So I'm the kid who is always up for a challenge. Especially when that challenge has the potential for a gleaming, shiny prize at the end of it turning it into a contest. I always put a lot of myself into these projects, and whether or not I win, I always grow as a builder and artist. Two puppets, of whom I am very proud, were both products of contests.

Little Pepe Fleece For Eyes was built for Craft Magazine & Etsy's contest to do something amazing with the Craft Logo. So that was one of my ideas (I also made finger puppets of the letters, but I'm less proud of them). I really liked how Pepe came out, and how he manipulates. He's just one of the most comfortable puppets I've made. And I gave him his own tote bag full of things with which to make finger puppets. Brilliant, I know.

Peaches was another contest participant, again through Etsy. This time the rules were to use items that were intended to only have a single use before they went into a dumpster and bring new life to those things that wouldn't have had a life otherwise (broken things..). The idea is called "Upcycling." So I rummaged through the garbage and found egg-crate packaging from our computer, spoons, forks, an old sweater that had a hole in it, a torn bed sheet, and even pink dust from a kool-aid packet. The only new things used for her were staples and glue. Of course she didn't win, but again, I love a challenge. And I learned how to turn literal garbage into something that I felt was worth something. So instead of taking up space in a landfill, she's taking up space on my top shelf in my craft room.


So today I heard about Project Puppet's annual contest. Immediately I thought about how I *should* have bought the pattern when I saw it available at Puppet Rampage! Then I thought about how much I could learn from actually following a pattern to begin with. I know I need to improve my building skills, and I've done the innovating with materials around me thing. Next is to go to the territory in which most people start: Following instructions. So tomorrow I'll buy the pattern. I'll download it, print it and do my best to follow it. Hopefully I'll update my progress here with my frustrations, successes, and photographs of how its all going. The deadline is August 31st, so I know I have some time. I'm very excited to do this. I don't think I'll win, but really, it's a great excuse to not only buy something I've kind-of wanted for a bit now, but to also push myself into being a better artist.

I make puppets.

It's true. I make them. Now, I make blog posts, too.

This is one of the first finger puppets I made. Super Chicken.

It started when I was asked to put my hand puppets into The Trunk Space, a local art gallery here in Phoenix. I had mono and couldn't get up to the sewing machine to make any more hand puppets, so I grabbed my piles of fleece and started making finger puppets. Hamburgers, penguins, whales, mushrooms, lions, cats, dogs, giraffes, monsters, ladybugs, etc. all made it over there. I think I gave them about 35 of them.

I discovered making finger puppets was addictive. Instant gratification. Unlike a hand puppet which takes a lot of time before you get to the fun part of giving it a face, hands, tongues and the what-have-you, with a finger puppet you can add all of those things in about an hour! My living room was covered in thread and fleece. My bedroom was covered in thread and fleece. I think I actually broke our vacuum cleaner because of all the thread that wound around the brushes (really, it was on it's way out anyway...I just finished it off).

A friend of mine was urging me to join a website called Etsy. I figured I had my hands full enough with trying to keep the Trunk Space supplied, so I didn't do it for several months. She finally came over to my house and set up my shop for me. She took me outside to take pictures of my puppets (that picture there is one we took that day) and then we came inside to list them. That was about a year and a half ago. If Etsy has done one thing for me (other than give me some money to fund my puppetry habit), it has been to force me to better my artwork.

By no means do I know a lot about puppetry or puppet building. I have been fortunate enough to work with and for the Great Arizona Puppet Theater, who has one of the most kind directors you'll ever meet. They have done nothing but encourage me and guide me in my less than mediocre puppet building over the last 5-and-a-half years. Because of them, I'm doing what I dreamed of doing as a child. I only regret not having done it sooner.