(Oh, my mind almost melted just trying to type ‘backwards’ … backwards!)

There’s so much stuff going into this table-top puppet tutorial, that I’ve had to make it a two-parter. The first part is for the adults, the second is for the kids. However, due to Youtube taking forever, general tiredness, and some pictures that I forgot to upload, the second part is available but not the first. I’ll be posting the ‘real’ tutorial tomorrow… Ah, tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…

The poll has officially closed, with the marionette tutorial a winner. Second and third places went to human puppet tutorials. Predictably. I actually prefer and enjoy making puppets that aren’t in the traditional domain - that is, human puppets bore me. That’s what everyone wants I suppose, but really, does the world need yet another puppet that everyone else is selling or making… I bet there’s fifty crocodile puppet designs out there, but there’s only one teddy bear marionette. … I’d much rather be unique than follow the path the supposed ‘target audience’ wants. But hey, the winning tutorial is more inline with my aims, so I’m happy. There’s a new poll in place of the old one 

In other news, checking my webstats, I came across yet another oddball - someone who wanted to know "how to make a puppet", and hit on my basics of puppet design article. Not content with that (I’m guessing they actually wanted step-by-step stuff), they then did an internal search for "school", "puppets" (and probably turned up every page on this site, some 200 posts), "what do u need to make a puppet" (I guess spelling doesn’t count anymore), and "puppet making design". Naturally, all of this lead to the puppet design article again, and the person viewed the finger puppet intro without figuring out, I suppose, the use of the rather large menu to the right, where the free patterns category appears at the top. This is before hitting the donations page three times in twenty seconds. In all, ten minutes was spent on my site… I’m hoping this is some school student.

It frustrates me because all the info is there, it’s just people don’t get that they actually have to be more specific. I guess to the general public, puppetry is all the same: but it’s like art or music, there are various genres and themes and styles, and they’re not the same. And searching for "puppet making design" is much like searching for "insects with legs", or "needle in haystack". … Or is it just that this site is incredibly difficult to navigate? Sometimes it’s hard to tell, but really, is there anything I can do to improve things short having one huge long list that shows every title of every article - but no, that would make things worse, because how would you find what you need in amongst the list? Hence the drop-down categories to the right. It’s easier to search for what you want, because it’s all categorised for you.

Oh well… sometimes, the customer isn’t right. Just blind.