#puppet props

A Real Fake Animals Installation, 2023

MIDNIGHT SNACK, a Real Fake Animals installation came down a bit ago. I figured it's time I actually post my groceries from the show!

The installation was at the 301 Frame Gallery in Beverly MA. What a fantastic opportunity to work with so many neat friends/artists in a place I find to be a home away from home. The installation was for the two windows are the first two images there, one side a blanket wall of puppet heads, and the other a creature being caught getting a silly snack.

I obsessively assisted in the craft of the character, made lots of grocery items (not all are pictured), and participated in other late-night shenanigans. These are my favorite items that I made.

All are made from felt, embroidery floss, lots of fabric glue, some bristol board, and plastic plates.

Today I continued to work on my puppet as well as thinking about what sort of props/accessories and materials I would like to use. In terms of the puppet, I added milliput to the upper and lower parts of the legs, careful not to put too much or too little, for the purpose of increasing the stability of my puppet. Speaking of the legs, I forgot to mention that Barry thought that the legs were very similar in structure to the legs of select birds like chickens. I hadn’t really thought of that when I was designing my character but it's true, they resemble bird’s legs as you can see above. From Barry’s comment, I thought I’d look at the movement of a bird, with this kind of bone structure, and note down any elements that may be useful for my animation. They seem quite light on their feet from the videos I have attached below, very precise movements with large steps/strides. In terms of the movement that I envisioned for my character, I would like him to move quite cautiously, so slow and precise with a lot of sweeping and sharp head movements. With this in mind, these reference videos may be very useful to me when it comes to animating my creature to make it just that little bit more realistic.