About the Puppets Joy says: After the birth of my last daughter Gaia, I needed to put something down, so I stopped (rather sadly) being a costume designer and concentrated on storytelling and motherhood. I missed making things, and besides, something was struggling to come! We were travelling on our boat at the time, I had no electricity or materials with me other than a basic sewing kit, but Lutey was insistent- scraps of sheets, old tights, chamois leather, boot buttons for eyes - he was born, (far less painfully than Gaia!), somewhere on the River Trent between Trent Lock and Cromwell. After Lutey they just kept coming: Mermaids, Princes, Anansi, Coyote, Raven, horses, turtles and Native American chiefs. They are the most intensely personal thing I have ever made, from me, of me, about me if you like, and yet strangely very much themselves. I never think “this week I am going to make a new puppet” - it doesn’t happen like that. A small voice starts whispering to me. If I am too busy it niggles and prods until I listen. Once I have begun there is nothing I can do about it, I just keep going until I am done, and it truly is like a birthing. I don’t make sketches and I don’t keep patterns or moulds. Each is truly its own self and I am always amazed every time. It is sort of like “hello! I didn’t know it was you!” As to how I use them, in some ways they are more doll than puppet and they act out the stories, much as a child acts out a story with toys. Sometimes they are very active, sometimes they just serve to illustrate. Sometimes I tell the story to the dolls. With small children they act as a wonderful pull, to focus attention, in this generation of youngsters who are used to the passive watching of television and computer games that leaves no room for the imagination. They are not intended simply for children, although they may seem the obvious target. Adults of all ages are charmed and enchanted by them, as are secondary school children. Magic knows no age barrier, and we all need to be enchanted sometimes. |
|
About the Puppets |