My bunraku puppet - finished!
(As a special Sunday treat, for all of you who’ve been so patient for waiting!)
You may recall that I did a masterclass in making a bunraku head (actually, a ningyo joruri head… technically speaking) with Nori Sawa at UNIMA 2008 (a festival for which, UPDATE 30 July 2009: the site is no longer available). Well, I’ve finally finished getting the video of it done. You see, when I came back, I actually got the finishing touches of the head done in a week or so. But with one thing and another, the video’s taken me much longer. Anyway, find the short film at the bottom of the post. (Despite the title, the puppet isn’t finished. The costume isn’t completed, due to both lack of time, and the need for it to be easily removed for the video) Although there are inherent issues with this particular build, and the repetitive nature of papier mache, I really love the design of bunraku puppets, the expressiveness of the performance of these types of puppets, and the building process. I’d love to do more of these traditional bunraku puppets in the future.
More pictures of the building process can be found at Flickr. The masterclass is discussed in more detail on the five diary entries for the event: day two, day three, day four, and day five (full wrap up of the festival is here). Also, for anyone interested, I’ve found the online version of Introduction to Bunraku, the booklet that Nori had with him, and which is pictured on my Flickr set. It’s definitely worth a look.
Do leave a comment or question if something’s unclear; due to the shortness of the video, I couldn’t explain a lot of the build in more detail. UPDATE: More explanation of the shoulder boards can be found here. (You may need to turn your volume up on both your computer and the player - I just couldn’t get the vocals to be both loud and clear)… Read about how to make a bunraku puppet here; an intro to bunraku is here; and buying them is discussed here.
Want more? Help build a puppet!- July 6th, 2008
- Posted in My Builds/Shows, Bunraku, UNIMA 2008 Diary
- 5546 views
- 2 comments
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PROGRESS ON VARIOUS PROJECTS
| Novella on puppetry - 70% |
| Guide to building websites - 30% |
| Puppet noses tutorial - 66% |
| Marionette tutorial - 33% |
| Finishing Aquaria set - 80% |
| Cleaning workdesk - 10% |
| Making new shadow puppet screen - 20% |
| Reconstructing giant teddy bears - 0% |
2 comments
One question: What is the shoulder board made of? Is it something completely rigid or something that's a little soft and flexible?
Thank you so much - it worked out quite well considering, although I'm disappointed the trigger doesn't work properly. For a first go, it's pretty good though.
I've added a new post today which explains how the shoulder boards work in more detail. Although, I did forget to explain how they will be finished, since I had to leave the finalisations till after the video was done. The two interlocking boards will be joined with some rope, threaded through a hole which goes through each board. That will keep them in place; then I'll attach the shoulder pads properly in a similar way, and finally, the materials will be added (draped, as pictured on the video) with a simple toggle button as a final touch.
Cheers,
Naomi
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