Drawings are for artists.

As much as I love participating in contests, I love holding them, too.

The first contest I held was to explain to me why you deserved a free finger puppet and I'd arbitrarily choose a winner based upon the answer I liked the best. Sort-of like Apples To Apples, where its not necessarily the *right* answer that wins, but rather the answer that appeals to me the most. I think I chose the girl who lied about her grandma and her dog dying in the same week and then quickly admitted that it was a lie and that she really just wanted the finger puppet. I applaud outlandish tales when repentance is so quickly achieved.


So I made a little hand puppet. This shouldn't shock you. I tried lining it. This also shouldn't shock you. I failed at lining it. Now you can be shocked. He turned out pretty good, I just felt like he was worthy of giving away. Not that he's terrible. He has personality. I'm sure he'd make a great friend. And hell, who doesn't want a free puppet, right? I know, I know... that's what they say about having to take the ugly kid to the prom. But, even the ugly kid needs love. I know, I was the ugly kid. I need love, dag nabbit! Love me!

So I have this little drawing going to happen in my shop for the next 20 orders that I get. Their names will get put into a bag, and upon receiving the 20th order, I'll have my (by then) 4-year-old son whip a name out of the bag. Adorable isn't it? We'll make it a big ceremony. Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures and post them to flickr.

I figure if, by having the next 20 orders, rather than the next 20 sales, that guarantees that the odds are 1-20 of winning. Unless, of course you're order #1, 4, 5, 9, 19, & 20. But at that point, seriously, if you're going to buy that many puppets, you're a little more deserving of your odds being increased, right?

I don't exactly expect this to boost my sales any. OK, maybe I expect it to boost them a tiny bit. Maybe someone who wasn't exactly going to get a puppet *right now* would consider getting the puppet they've always dreamed of having a little sooner. (Because the doors are pounding down with people clamoring to get a puppet by Stacey Gordon, right? hehe) AND they'll get a pretty adorable and easy-to-manipulate puppet to boot. If they win, that is. Everyone else will just get the ugly, difficult-to-manipulate puppet that they ordered. (muhahaha)

Right now I'm just wondering how long it will be by the time I get my 20th order in this little race to win a puppet...

Project Puppet Project has been put on hold until all of the bad workmanship on our electrical has been fixed. That's a saga for another blog.

I can't get to my sewing machine. Ah well. I thrive on pressure. I also thrive on forgetting to take pictures of what I have completed.

I *do* have pictures of some new puppets I managed to make while sitting in a car. I thought I'd share. It's a new direction for me, be it ever-so slightly new.

I begin teaching at a new school in a new school year tomorrow. The school seems very open to the arts and puppetry. I'm pleased. We'll see what that's like, too. Not sure that this journal entry is all that entertaining. Ah well, at least you know I have electricity!

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.