Puppets on Parade: Bainbridge Island

We Won!

2006-07-05T00:28:00.000-07:00

Puppets on Parade 2006 won for "Most Unusual" at the Bainbridge Island "Grand Old Fourth" parade. We had a splendid time. See more parade photos.

Puppets on Parade Workshop is Complete!

2006-07-02T18:48:00.000-07:00

We concluded our two-week Puppets on Parade workshop on Saturday. We were blessed with incredible weather throughout, as well as the creative input of hundreds of individuals.

First, some business: If you are able and willing to march with us in the Parade, and we hope you are, please meet us at Oil and Water at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, July 4. We'll pair up puppets to puppeteers and march up the Madison (toward the library) and reconvene in our staging area. We'll have bottled water on hand, but please remember to pre-apply some sunblock. There will be a good wait, about two hours, between when we first start staging and when we start parading.

Now, some very BIG thanks to the following folks:

The City of Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Fund, administered by the Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council. This grant helped us acquire a good portion of the supplies we needed to make the puppets and allowed us to provide this workshop for free to the community. We live in a truly remarkable place!
Richard and Jo from Oil & Water Art Supply. Our gracious hosts were quick to provide us with a great storage tent, water, a Honey Bucket, supplies, and a beautiful shady lawn on which to work.
Sue Bielka. Sue did an amazing job as director of this project, providing artistic assistance, supply management, and the creative vision for our two largest puppets. She brought to POP the patience of a saint, the enthusiasm of a child, and a professional work ethic.
Debbie Fecher. Debbie designed and oversaw our children's products and provided invaluable artistic aid and troubleshooting for many of the puppets. She never failed to make our youngest participants feel important and vital to our work. She also brought loads of creative energy, delicious food, and iPod music to the workshop, and more importantly, Debbie donated a very significant portion of our art supplies.
Carissa, Lisa, and Kevin Block. Not only did this family team come and create the own amazing puppets and costumes, each of them were quick to help out newcomers, organize our supplies, and remember how things were done in Puppets on Parade workshops of the past.
Pam Christiansen. With her infectious laugh and easy going spirit, Pam brought a huge measure of peace to the workshop. She worked one-on-one with several participants and contributed the beautiful final touches to our big bird, Loleeta.
Virginia "Dominique" Phillips. Our genius seamstress provided the skins of our two biggest puppets and help create several other costumes, using fabric that was generously donated to us by Esther's Fabric.
And a special thank you to all the participants and individual donors. I'm quite sure you've all made Wendy proud!

Hello Week 2

2006-06-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the start of week two, and we're all pretty amazed by how much we've done so far. So far we have about 10 puppets/costumes in various sizes and states of completion. Check out our new photos:

Day Two: Birds and Bugs

2006-06-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

Our puppet makers worked hard to create lots of fun puppets for our parade. So far, we have a few birds, a couple of house flies, and one big bee with a long yellow stinger.

We've been blessed with wonderful weather. Both days have been sunny with temperatures close to 70 degrees. Our location--the back garden of Oil & Water Art Supply--has big shade trees and a lush lawn, which make for ideal puppet-making conditions. You will notice in our photos that even though we have picnic tables under the tent, most of our participants choose to make their art out on the lawn.

Day One: Sunny and Fun

2006-06-21T11:35:00.000-07:00

Our first workshop day was very productive. So far, we have colorful red fabric skin on one of our large bird puppets, a couple sets of wings, an amazing black housefly, some bumble bees, and other puppets in the works.

Check out our Flickr photos.

POP Starts Today!

2006-06-20T11:53:00.000-07:00

And the weather is beautiful. Hooray! See you there at 1 p.m.

Volunteer Opportunities

2006-06-04T16:44:00.000-07:00

POP needs you. Isn't it nice to be needed? Here's what you can do:

Documentors: Take photos and video of workshop participation. Requires interaction/interviewing of workshop participants and your own camera/photo equipment. Also, documentors describe the day's events as a contributor to this here blog!
Child Project Guides: Volunteer helps child participants through step-by-step instructions on pre-defined children's art projects. No art experience necessary. This is a great opportunity to help kids explore their creativity.

Both are fun jobs, to be sure, and you can do them both. Commit to being a Documentor on Tuesday and a Child Project Guide on Thursday, if you like!

Please, let me know so we can fill you in to our volunteer schedule.

How You Can Help

2006-06-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

Here's a list of things POP needs that you might have around the house:

old umbrellas (for turning into puppets)
bamboo poles
backpack frames
paper egg cartons

If you have any of items available to donate for a worthy cause, please bring them to Oil & Water by June 19.

Volunteers Needed
We need crafty people of all skills to help move the workshop along. Please e-mail Porter to sign up for a shift helping people make art!

Puppets Taking Flight

2006-05-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

Like a baby bird peering out from its nest, Puppets on Parade 2006 is soon to take flight! But this little bird can't do it alone. POP needs your help.

Come out to the back garden of Oil and Water Arts Supply for community, for art, for fun, for sun (we have tents in case of rain), for yourself, and for Wendy. We'll have art supplies and myriad ways for you to help construct puppets. Bring your imagination and enthusiasm and stay for an hour, for a day, or for the whole workshop. You'll meet new people. You'll make new friends. You'll remember that the best things in life are free.

The workshop starts on June 20 and runs Tuesday through Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. leading up to the Bainbridge Island Grand Old Fourth of July Parade.

POP 2005 Photos

2006-02-14T11:28:00.000-08:00

I've organized Puppets on Parade 2005 photos over on Flickr. You can view them now as a set of thumbnails.

Puppets on Parade 2005 Screening, 2006 Announcement

2006-02-12T09:42:00.000-08:00

Today we are publicly screening Wendy's documentary of last year's Puppets on Parade workshop and performance. We're also officially announcing that Oil & Water Art Supply will again host the Puppets on Parade workshop for 2006. This year's theme will be "Taking Flight," in memory of POP visionary Wendy Jackson Hall.

We're at the early planning stages for this event, so there's still time to get involved. Please contact me with your ideas or to find out how you can help.

2005-07-04T23:59:00.000-07:00

Puppets on Parade 2005 Wrap-Up
by Wendy Jackson Hall

What a perfect day! From the smiles on the faces of the audience, and the smiles of the puppeteers, I know everyone thoroughly enjoyed the Puppets on Parade: Awesome Aquatics. We even won a trophy for "Most Unusual Entry" in the parade!

Overall participation in was more than doubled from last year. We had about 30 people marching in our group, carrying puppets and wearing costumes made by the collaborative efforts of 175 people in our 2-week workshop. In all, we made 47 puppets, not including the 50+ mini-turtles and mini-jellyfish that went home with kids during the workshop!

The final cast of sea creatures in the parade included 18 fish puppets, 8 jellyfish, 4 frogs, 2 seahorses, 3 sea anenomes, 2 shorebirds, 2 sharks, 1 starfish, 1 alligator, 1 stingray, 1 Orca whale car, 1 stiltwalking heron, 1 giant interactive piece of coral, 1 pink hermit crab and 1 yellow submarine (our very first inflatable puppet). What a sight to see! After the parade, as I waited with the pile of puppets to get a ride back to the store, many people who watched the parade complemented our group.

People are already suggesting ideas for next year's theme; bugs, birds, robots. Please join the Puppets on Parade committee in early 2006 to help plan our next adventure. To get on the mailing list please send an email to wendy@animatedadventures.com with the subject "Puppets on Parade."

Your comments as both participants and viewers are very helpful in obtaining support for the project and shaping future Puppets on Parade events. I'd love to receive comments via email from anyone who participated or watched the puppets. Please send them to me via email--the sooner the better, so that I can include them in my final report to our sponsors.

And don't miss the frogs making an appearance at the high school this weekend during the Bainbridge in Bloom garden tour. BIAHC, the organization that puts on the tour is also responsible for funding Puppets on Parade, so show your support and go to the garden tour!

Thanks again to all of our sponsors, Animated Adventures, BIAHC, Bainbridge Arts & Crafts and Oil and Water Art Supply, and thanks as well to our generous supporters, Ace Hardware, Costco, Counterbalance Pottery, Esther's Fabrics, Gallery Fraga, Paper Products, Sound Reprographics and Winslow Paint. Please let these businesses know how much you appreciate their community involvement!

2005-07-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

Other blogs mentioning Puppets on Parade:

I Love Bainbridge Island

Seedlings and Sprouts

2005-07-03T12:04:00.000-07:00

Well we did it! After a fun and busy last day of the workshop, the mess is (almost) all cleaned-up, and all of the puppets are ready, and will be on display tonight at Oil & Water. There are still a few roles left so come on down, 5-7 p.m. tonight to reserve your costume. Or just show up at 11:30 Monday morning and join us in walking up to the parade start point.

Way to go everyone! We had double the participation this year, and we have many more puppets than we did last year. I expect that audiences will really enjoy our colorful creations.

-Wendy

2005-07-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

Saturday and the weather is iffy but the Puppet Projects is still a major happening!

The glue gun is fired, the sewing machine is whirring and the shouts and laughter of everyone fills the air! it's just FUN.

Yesterday was so endearing and so cute..this tiny little kid with a paper plate "jellyfish" on his head, whirling 'round saying, "sting! sting!!" In the most fun and gentle and teasing way...

Today was WILD! I hope Wendy posts the shot of her in her amazing Yellow Sub costume...Virginia aka Dominique helped make it happen...WOW!

Lizzie and Susan S. were so much fun...somehow we'll make this pink hermit crab shell come to life!!!

-Kathe Fraga

2005-07-02T15:44:00.000-07:00

Hello citiziens of Bainbridge Island! Lizzie Sivitz here, reporting from Puppets on Parade in the back of Oil and Water. This has been a very difficult process. I have been working with artistic genius Kathe Fraga, and we have been trying to figure out how to transport an enormous shell down the road in the parade. Originally we planned on a driver and a trailer, but we couldn't find a truck with a tote thing on the back, then we needed a driver. So the logical thing, abandon all previous concepts and push me around in a shopping cart. We are trying to assemble the thing that carries me, and do it with out any of us getting seriously injured! Come by and join the fun. To see our finished product come to the parade! Uh oh, I just heard a large crash and laughter, better get back!
Wish us luck,
-Lizzie Sivitz

2005-06-30T21:17:00.000-07:00

JOIN THE PARADE!
Yes, YOU can be in the Bainbridge Island 4th of July Parade ! We have many puppets, costumes and masks for people of all ages to wear in the Puppets on Parade group. The joy of being in a puppet parade is watching the audience react to the artworks and the way that you bring them to life. When you have a mask or puppet on, its easy to be theatrical. So don't be shy...come on down and pick out your puppet or costume. Still available roles include front banner carriers, frogs, fish, a bird, a snail, jellyfish galore and a few more.

2005-06-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

Sarah's angler fish and a forest of umbrella jellyfish looked absolutely stunning in the sun today. Many more exciting sights to see, I'm just too busy to take any pictures!

As of today, day 8 of the workshop, more than 120 different people have participated in making the puppets. And many of them have come for several days. What a great co-mingling of creative talents.

Favorite moments from today:
- showing off the custom battery fan pack for inflatable puppets loaned to me by the extremely generous and puppet-knowledgable Lyle Morgan in Seattle.
-being saved from winding a bobbin on the sewing machine, by a sewing diva who just happened to show up with her kids when it needed to be done.
-having Sean F. come down and videotape interviews of artists at work. Thanks Sean!
-hearing car horns a-honking as Sarah waved to passing motorists in full fish costume.
-being sprayed by an Orca whale! If you don't know what I mean just wait and see!

Join us Sunday night July 3rd during the street dance for a display of the puppets on the eve of their parade debut. They'll be set-up on the lawn behind Oil & Water Art Supply starting at 5 p.m.

-Wendy

2005-06-30T00:30:00.000-07:00

Come join the fun!

2005-06-29T22:14:00.000-07:00

Pictures from today....characters begin to emerge!

2005-06-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

Wednesday and the sun comes comes out good and strong! Hurrah! it feels good! It feels like summer! We pull the crab cone out of the deep, shady confines of The Tent. It seems to straighten up under the heat, even though we still have it lying sideways, leaning on a relunctant plastic chair.

Lizzie S. (the hero who convinced her parents to drive to Poulsbo and pick up art provisons!) has pulled an creative all-nighter, fashioning a wonderful backpack creation that hosts dangling big styrofoam bobble eyes and also, she's made amazing purply magenta crab claws from those funny foam mitts that diehard fans wear during ball games--we're number one!

Virginia, Lizzie and I paint the cone "Hot Lips" pink. The dogs romp and play dangerously close to the paint.

Sarah J.'s fish evolves from paper foundation white to vibrant blue and knock-out red. It's really neat! She's worked hard. I love it that she's had this vision and kept at it! You'll see her in the parade...keep in mind she created, (with Wendy's gentle guidance), the whole backpack contraption to hold up this extraordinary fish...clap extra loud for this young artist! She deserves it!

Julie and her three wonderful girls arrive later in the day taking in all the activity. There's a lot to see now--lots of finished art projects: sea creature masks, seaweed crowns and more in the making...A new project has suddenly sprouted in the middle of everything...not quite sure who's attempting it but it looks like a large coral, or maybe a piling with sea stuff stuck to it? It's evolving and it's cool. Stay tuned.

We righted the cone, feeling good about the pretty paint and the sun.

After a while, one of the kids looks up at the bright pink cone and says, "Wendy, the hermit crab is moving..."

And it was. Melting. Sliding down unto itself. Nightmare!

Again, stay tuned.

(If anyone reading has a truck with a hitch to pull the small trailer that will house the gnarly melting crab cone with Lizzie inside...let us know!)

-Kathe Fraga

2005-06-28T23:37:00.000-07:00

What a day! More than 40 people showed up for the workshop. It was a very productive time, with several new umbrella jellyfish costumes, fish rod puppets and construction of frames for large puppets. Thanks everyone! 4 more days left to create....

2005-06-28T23:35:00.000-07:00

2005-06-28T23:30:00.000-07:00

Tuesday and the sun flirts with us, shining out a bit here and there and retreating behind dark clouds.

"Come on out and do your work!" I want to yell. "I've got a hermit crab shell that's drippy and damp and dank and needs to dry!" We tip it over on its side and it hovers nervously (I think) supported by a plastic chair and we begin to mache the top peak.

Today, the activity level behind Oil and Water is high. Lots of people...parents and teens, big-little kids and a few teensy ones lolling in strollers.

Creativity reigns.There are new species of colorful (papier mache) fish being born everywhere. Frog masks are multiplying.( One has a goatee.) Sarah J. works to create a backpack for her "grouper" fish. A purply greeny blue fabric encased seahorse waves in the wind, hanging under a white tent. The jellyfish umbrella brigrade is billowing to the right of the activity table--fabric swirls over the kids in a spin of sheer pinks and blues.

It's pretty and exciting! And Wendy is everywhere: encouraging, suggesting, appreciating, welcoming.

Fun to see the newcomers venture in. The kids are wide-eyed. Wendy shows them around.

"You wanna make a fish? How 'bout a frog? Do you want to make something out of clay? Or papier mache?"

They are thrilled by her encouragement!

The hermit crab cone (aka octopus, aka starfish arm) is being warmly nurtured along by a lot of newcomers...Wendy's nephew from L.A. among others.

A little girl named Chrissie patiently dons gloves and dips into the goo to help complete the crab shell's top cone.

Lizzie, a soon-to-be BHS freshperson, volunteers to be the crab inside the shell and quickly sketches out her head mask idea and claws. She's awesome! Enthusiastic and full of fun, open to ideas...She epitomizes the joy of the question "what if...?"!

So glad she joined in! So glad to see such a fun gathering! Neat!

-Kathe Fraga

2005-06-26T19:07:00.000-07:00

Sunday afternoon and the Puppets on Parade staging area is too quiet, devoid of all the chatter and laughter of the "artists" at work: molding clay, papier-maching, exchanging tips and advice and encouragement. No dogs running about. No kids proudly showing off turtles and jellyfish projects.

Wendy is taking a well-deserved break from the first week of getting started but I dropped in with a definite goal in mind: what to do with my larger-than-life almost completed papier mache "cone"--what was first envisioned as an octopus with eight flailing arms...then morphing (in my mind) into a bright orange gigantic starfish.

There it sits under the tent, almost dry...the top point still not finished and time is running out and the sun, the most important part when it comes to drying a large scale, ooey gooey papier mache piece has, of late, become a relunctant participant.

Recent cloudy, misty June days are not helpful. Wah!

As I ponder what to do, (undersea volcano, perhaps?), Richard Nelson of Oil and Water pops out of his shop.

While his energetic Wheaton "Duffy" romps with my little Havanese "Poco" among the frog masks and sea horse projects in progress, Richard looks over at the towering cone I've created and says, "y'know, I'm thinking hermit crab."

And then I see it, too! The wet papier mached newspaper strips that so many people's helping hands have smoothed onto the steel dowel and rubber tube frame have melded onto the tubing, creating a distinctive spiraling effect, just like a crusty old crustacean shell! (Sebastian from Little Mermaid?)

Richard adds, "with a couple claws and some big googly eyes..."

Genius!

I love the generosity of art and of artists! A hermit crab! But of course! I'm thinking now a pink shell with lots of glitter...stay tuned!

-Kathe Fraga