Friendliest lobster man, ever!

friendliest lobster man, ever!, originally uploaded by RaggyRat.

shane made a great lobster, and i managed to snap a few pics at the fetival tho it was a bit wet for cameras. i had been worried about shoving someone into a ton of costume on a sunny day, but our lobster was quite happy and warm and he made a great greeter, and smiled all morning.

i was very proud. louise is holding a competition goodie bag. she came away with quite a few bits and bobs...

Finished!

Its been a busy week !
too busy to let you peep at my work - ie take pics and upload.
i made my deadline and i made steve, louise and jo from IVY smile ...
as you can see - jo makes a good lobster :-D

yippeeeee
finished !

tired ....

Catching up - some recent pictures ...

louise and tompot blenny in the dorset echo last friday night...they didn't mention her name, nor the maker of the puppets. boooh!lobster trousers hanging up in my workroom ...
scarey lobster lady emerges into sunshine ...
saying goodbye to the blenny, matty and daisy give him a few pokes before i have to take him and the cuttlefish along to the marine week launch on chesil beach...
matty has a good look at the cuttlefish - she must be really impressed with the piecing used to create his head ...
sea creatures can die in hot cars ....a yummy jellyfish cake for eating after the mayor of portland has finnished speaking ...
some of the wonderful junk found on the beach ready to be used for sculpting, along with a propper artist.
the echo shelter providing good sunshade and shelter from portland type winds. my car was fitted with a lovely handmade staff parking sign just for the event...
hilda from the echo makes notes while mums, dads and children make some art from the flotsam and jetsam. finbar webster was there to take pics for the paper, and he recognised me. there was i with my hands up 2 sea creatures but did he take a pic? nope. booooh!
i didnt take any more pics after this point as my hands were buried in my puppet creations, and then i had some cake. i will probably take some more next week when i come back with louise and the lobster costume.

WIP lobster claws coming along ....

this is the lobster left 'crusher' claw, needing the stuffing sorting out and the end hemming. i slipped it on last night and reminded myself of old Kenny Everet shows, haha - the big handed preacher sketch.

not much time left now. the launch on marine week is saturday and i will be there introducing the puppets hopefully for the echo this time? the lobster will make his debut the following weekend. indeed.

Cuttlefish puppet lives !

Cuttlefish puppet lives !, originally uploaded by RaggyRat.

yippeee - i have finnished my most unusual puppet/creation yet, the pettern making for the head makes me feel i could tackle anything now! See the wallpaper shapes i made, to create his head.

Steve is modelling the puppet for me here, it only got its eyes today and before that steve was calling it my baseball mitt... after these pictures i showed it to my neighbours and one asked if it was a squid. well, same family - sort of, so im not worried.

so, back to lobsters me thinks ... if i have time today, between minding the twins while steve hoovers house, taking louise for a bike ride, bathing the ferret and other assorted mummy jobs!

have fun - its a sunny day!

busy busy .... and waiting for a cool photo ...

cuttlefish pattern pieces, the fish himself looking rather unstuffed - which is correct - and some sketches of eyes. i found looking on youtube quite useful in helping form a 3D sence of the animal.

also - some mug desgns by louise who was working alongside me...

cuttlefish puppet on the go ...

cuttlefish
Originally uploaded by RaggyRat

Here is the cuttle fish shell, as interpreted by me. they are interesting creatures that change their colours and patterns to communicate, in what seams like zebra stripes and dots ... i used white flowery stiff fabric for the frill ... are these fins? and some of the flowers onthe shell itself to tie in the piece as a whole.

In 2 other colours of upholstery fabric i made some wavy stripes, and then machined over the whole lot in 2 colours of thread. im simply alluding to changing dots and stripes rather than trying to slavishly copy from one photo of a cuttlefish. it was not easy to find whole body patterns, nor, i found, a good one of its eyes !

Blenny finnished - and moving on to more fishies!

Ran outside in between rains the other day to get some photos taken

i shoved a window cleaning tool (used once to clean windows before the rubber fell off it) up into tompot blenny's head, so i could hold him up for picks. think he is a boy, anyway ... who knows? i havent modelled too closely.





NEXT! a puppet cuttle fish, so i stripped down the blenny wall and changed it for a fresh piece of paper and some useful googled images. i worked out how to do the cuttle fish ''frill'' on waking, which is nice, and involved drawing round a side plate and making something which looks like an awful shirt collar. Opened out and pinned the outer edge undulates beautifully a bit like a full skirt.




Finally, as if i dont need a change from making fish, a challenge from Tami and Wendy from Teddy Talk to make one of these ...




so i drew this ....

and then made this ... which happens to be a bag with a zip under its chin :-)

and heres the local paper - saturdays - with a double page spread detailing the sea fest but not my puppets and costume yet ...

Did you know it was dry for one day - Tuesday wasnt it?

i do get a bit stuck on titles for my blog entries ...

Tuesday seems so far away now but me and the girls had a bit of fresh air and the ants in the garden came out to play again ...

i had a small blenny break sketching some kittens - pity the photo shows that page in shadow! i used 2 colours of gel pens and the smudging was provided by daisy. Both babies likes meowing and signing 'cat'... i have just been toting silly ideas in my head, esp while driving, and thought i would commit some of them to journal/sktchebook ... Church mouse and rat to follow!

Here, for those that have been nagging and saying i havent uploaded any pics, is the top pot blenny as of this morning, his head attached to his body and some amazing lips too made from fleece and bath scrunchie. In the end i didnt make the topnot from feathers as i was hoping, as i thought one tug from a toddler and he wouldn't look like a topnot blenny at all. his frilly bits are made from off red felted woolly jumper and now he looks just like red fraggle ... enjoy :-)

ooh, i believe the big wigs to do with sea fest and marine week have been reading this ... and they have still sent me an invite to marine week opening ... i will take my camera.

Tompot Blenny Esquire ....

yesterday i got storming with mr blenny ....


i finnished those last layered fins - might they be pectoral fins? and in serted them into the wrists or whatever fish call those bits too!









the body - still with no head - has been shaped and partly stuffed with mesh - un-used shower scrunchie jobs, which are light weigh, and a piece of shaped sponge keeps his cross section the right shape. The doral fin and the last pair of fins were stiffened with an extra layer of net - orange shower scrunchie - and some red scoobies, which really seemed to work and the dorsal fin stands up well. I have my own packet of scoobie-doos, i didnt help myself to Louise's huge selection ...






sorry that some of thse pics are blurry, im not using flash and it was so dark and grey and rainy - again. The eyes look really blurry but would make great pincushions! i used scraps of different 'shot' fabrics ...





and finally - an upper jaw - and some mouth parts i didnt photograph yet - and the upper head i suppose i must say! starting to look like a fish head. played with wallpaper again to get the right shape ... there is no centre seam on the front of the face, just a gentle curve, and a small triangular gusset on top of his head, ready for those blenny trees, or top-not thingies !



yippeeeeee !!!!
no laughing at my html, and attempts to post multiple pics that looks easy to follow xxxx

Blenny WIP ... getting to grips with a huge fish ...

The Wall of Notes is changing, the old, old wall paper is disapearing ...



Making patterns out of old wallpaper to try and create blenny markings ...
i chose stretchy oatmeal fleece so i can allow for the lateral line seam on the puppet ... did i forget to say it is a puppet?



Poor headless fishy ... looks like a big fabric herring. i have added the first fins.



Fins taking shape, with layers of bias cut scottish woollens and net and organza ...flappy!