Confessions of a series of bombed puppets (serious title)

So I completely bombed on a series of puppets that I was engineering. A few months ago, I aspired to make butterfly puppets-gorgeous, soaring mechanical flying creatures, using telephone wire, hanger wire, thick copper jewelry wire and beautiful, textured fabrics. Only now do I giggle when regarding the botched and defective puppets, but while I was making them, I was beside myself. Hour after hour I labored, burning myself with the glue gun, twisting wire with wire cutters, stretching fabric, believing that whatever prototype I was working on was going to be the one that finally soared. My back ached from hunching over fabric scraps, my mind reeled with glue fumes as I wondered whether I was losing my touch. I created a thinly wired gossamer moth beast that now lives somewhere in my discard box, a misshapen butterfly puppet strapped with safety pins onto a black bra with hanger wire protruding out of the akimbo right wing, and one navy blue amorphous BLOB attached with gangly wires to a badmitton racket that I found on the street. But this morning,thankfully, finally, something happened. After a month and a half of soul searching (Am I JUST A SOCK PUPPET PUPPETEER??? DRAMA!!!)and questioning my career choices, something happened with swing music playing, the sticky rain outside and the quiet of my apartment, shades of green velvet strips and spoon eyeballs...I revisited the realm of verdant puppet possibilities and this is stage one of the resuscitation of the triumphant flying BLOB puppet! If I were talking to my daughters, I would have said all along, "Honey, some art works and some doesn't. The important thing is to know that and to keep on making art...it will become something eventually. Or not." But to really live that as I bombed puppet after puppet and totally messed up a corner of our living room with my wild attempts was a DOOZY. I am grateful for the whole process. Thanks for reading.

SPRING 2012

Hello. It's fitting that I am working on a BUTTERFLY show for the Greenburgh Nature Center, because I truly feel like I too am in a period of metamorphosis as an artist. I am attracted more and more to the dance world and am searching for ways to bring more choreography into my puppet shows. Last weekend, I began working on a piece, all dance-and created a fairy-like costume. I don't know whether I will construct wings for the dance piece, or leave the movements to speak for themselves. But people come to my shows expecting to see puppets, so I am attempting to craft a whole new set of puppets for the rest of the show. I made one prototype butterfly puppet with wire and diaphanous fabric; I have A LONG way to go before it's breathtaking! I am planning to include more instruments too for the children-I am smitten with a new affection for the tambourine-and definitely want to play around with it's sound and movement. But it's still all mostly in the inspiration ether-the puppets are somewhere in my unconscious, waiting to be crafted. I have a whole new batch of silky fabric from a friend, and spankin' new fabric scissors too (!) so I have the tools. I just need 5 straight hours of inspired art time, lots of music playing and dancing while I glue gun and try not to burn myself with the boiling hot glue. Hope to see you at some Spring and Summer shows! peace, love and METAMORPHOSIS!

Jilly PS-A special shout out to Ossining's Earth Day celebration. Thanks so much for having me. What a beautiful event.

Wow~ Spring has Sprung!

Hello! It's been a while! How did that happen! I have been BUSY with a grant-like application that took me a few months to pull together AND I was dancing with the Evolve Dance festival. Because of doing all of that writing and dancing (not bad things to do!!!), I have not made a puppet in a while-my juices are ready. Maybe next week when the kids are off I can shuffle away to my lair and make some puppets. Especially because..brace yourselves, my old and neurotic dog, Keira, got into my puppets and wrecked a few.She digs when she is scared, and my puppets were the scene of her crime. Even the puppet hospital could not save the sun. Earth Dragon is a mess, but can be rehabilitated.
I am doing a bunch of birthday parties-the next public show is at the West Nyack library next Friday.
I hope the sun is shining on you, and that I get to see you at a show soon!
peace,
Jilly

Well, life on a farm is kinda laid back -OR-How I wrote the farm show part 1

I was hired earlier in the Fall to perform a puppet show at the Greenburgh Nature Center on "A FARM."
So, just wondering, how does a topic, like "A FARM" become a fleshed out, cohesive and satisfying puppet show?

Thanks for asking! When I receive a topic, I begin to "tune my dial" to that topic in the world around me, looking for inspiration. I browse children's books at the library, play with my kids relating to the subject, listen to all sorts of music to see what grabs me, and open myself up to whatever comes up.

With this particular show about a farm, for example, I started with a song from my 5th grade chorus concert,"Thank God I'm a Country Boy" by John Denver. I remember standing on the risers performing this song,the solo-ist belting out the country lyrics as we chanted, "Boom chicka boom chicka boom chick........boom chick."
As I learned the song on the ukulele, I imagined I was a farmer with a country lifestyle and I built the show around the song's sentiment "Well life on the farm is kind of laid back, ain't nothing a country boy like me can't hack, it's early to rise and early in the sack, thank God I'm a country boy!" YEEEHAW!
From there, I moved to another country song,"Momma's in the kitchen makin' shortnin', shortnin', Momma's in the kitchen making shortnin' bread..." a tune from a video that Lily used to watch when she was two. The two songs that I was practicing had so much character, that combined with "Old McDonald," "You are My Sunshine," and a slight adaption of the Pete Seeger song, "Bluebird Bluebird...fly through my window" I had the makings of the the musical sections!

Now, I had to inventory my puppets and see what could be applied to a farm theme. I made a sheep puppet who was born to rap with Wormie, then a quick duck sock puppet for the bird number. I turned the squirrels into farm interlopers, who jump onto the fence of the horse pen to tease the animals. Sally (sockpuppet)with the awesome hair visits the farm because the various farm activities make her hair look 'excellent'. I changed Bertha's fancy blouse and made her the spirited farmer's wife who gives out eggs from the henhouse.

Then, after components exist, I try to blend them into a form that makes sense to an audience. I created some movement segments, got my hands on a cowbell, painted scenery, drew a coloring page, wrote out the scenes and mixed them around to see what order worked best, put together a costume and....VOILA. A farm show is born. MOOOOOOOOOOOO.

That's all for part 1~ See you around the farm! yeehaw.
peace, Jilly

SQUIRREL MUSIC VIDEO BUZZ

Oh! You've heard about the upcoming squirrel music video? You must be "in the loop", because these squirrels have declined to comment!

A day in the life

*I am now the proud owner of a tenor ukulele. I have been searching for a larger sound before taking the leap to guitar-land, and this uke is louder, more resonant, and not too hard on the eyes! It's a travel uke, so it literally could fit into my backpack and would be about as heavy as two apples and a bag-o-chips.

*I am germinating on creating a puppet workshop for adults-"CREATE YOUR INNER PUPPET." I imagine a bunch of folks around a table surrounded by breathtaking socks and sensuous wool...overgrown buttons for eyes...skeins of brightly colored thread and swatches of fabulous fabrics...the thrill of grownups playing freely with puppets..the puppet conversations and revelations!

*I have two videos in my head-will I ever make them? This is a huge question for an artist mom person--choosing what projects will get the juice and the go-ahead, and which ones will remain in the artistic ether as potential energy. If you are in a 7 piece brass band and would like to puppet-out with Jilly Puppets, give me a shout out and let's make a video!

*My next puppet: Well, I found a racketball racket yesterday, so I'd wager that my next show will have something crafted from this. I like how the racket is held, how it moves in the air, it's potential for flight or travel. Stay tuned.

*Thanks for reading my blog. Please email me at jillypuppets@gmail.com if you'd like to talk puppets or have me do a workshop or show at your school, synagogue, church or mosque, birthday party, or forest puppet adventure.

Happy 4 year anniversary Jilly Puppets

This picture is from my first first public puppet show ever! And today,
October 6th, is the 4 year anniversary of Jilly Puppets! yahoo! Thank you Barry and Kate (my brother and sister-in-law) for asking me to perform at your wedding.xoxo It was the START OF SOMETHING FABULOUS!

I was 6 months pregnant with Ruby and was up all night with Lily anyhow, so in the wee hours of the evening, I wrote my first show to celebrate Barry and Kate's wedding. I purchased Folkmanis puppets-Mr. Rat, Reubini the Border Collie, a Troll, little woodchucks and mice, a small mouse (yes, you guessed-named "Mousie")..and told stories of Barry and Kate's courtship. We danced with swirling ribbons to 'Brothers and Sisters' from "Free to be you and Me". I wore a Ren Faire queen smock over my belly and we called each other on 'Bananaphones' (Rafi)as we danced around the room.

One of the best parts of this show for me was that the audience was composed of folks of all ages, and that there were lots of giggles and smiles. One of the highlights of the whole wedding weekend for me, a vision that I will never forget, is looking out into the audience and seeing my brother's face filled with laughter and seeing Kate smile and enjoy herself.

I believe that the experience of realizing that I had the potential to make people laugh and giggle and dance and listen to silly stories was absolutely life changing. After the show, I said to Mark, "This is it. I love this!" A few months later, I asked Patty Cohn from the Warner Library to take a risk and let me perform a Mother's Day Tribute to the moms of Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown. But that's another story, and I have to drink my wheatgrass juice now. :)

Thank you for supporting me these 4 years of puppet deliciousness. I look forward to many more years of laughter and joyfulness. I LOVE what I do.

love,
Jilly