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Well, at the moment it’s just ‘one of’ the next series of puppets. I’ve been thinking about doing these for ages, and last week I had a particularly awful time (that thing that I can’t mention, which involved criminal action) I just had to sit down and do some building. I’m really glad I did, because not only did the puppet turn out 10 times better than expected (which is a first!), but the whole process of making it was extremely relaxing.

My idea was to make some puppets in the style of the Chinese shadow puppetry, which has a lot of details; and anyway, I really love the culture and designs of Asia, in particular China. But of course, I wanted to do it in my own particular style. I knew it would have to be a design I could handle - I’m not a fan of lots of really tiny details, and anyone who’s seen a Chinese shadow puppet will know it’s ridiculously detailed - but also painted, since that’s how they get the translucent colours.

Click on the pic to see her in all her glory! See the rest of the pics here. Buy her here. Video is at the bottom of this post.

I first attempted a test of my idea using some cardboard and watercolours, and worked out that watercolours are an ideal medium for what I wanted to achieve. My recent custom order allowed me to really test the idea, even though I was working with neon paints. As it happened, I picked up a slightly thinner cardboard for the order than I normally use, which turned out to be ideal; the thinner the cardboard, the better the colours show through.

So, I present to you the Goddess, the first of my “Flying Dragon” series. She’s handpainted on both sides (yes, seriously, no matter which way you turn her, she looks, well, as close to exactly the same as possible), with a combination of colours; red, yellow, flesh-toned (amazingly enough the flesh tone is her skirt colour, not her actual flesh colour), brown, black, and pink highlights to create ’shadow’ on her arms and face. As with all of my translucent puppets, she’s got string joints to complement the colourings. … Just in case you’re wondering: no, I didn’t draw her from scratch (thank god, she would have turned out horrible otherwise, as I’m bad at drawing humans) but used a photo as the basis of the design.

Best of all, she’s the first of my puppets to get my new improved rod attachment system - something I tested also in the custom order - using clear plastic loops. Watch the video below and see why it’s new and improved…. Yes, that’s right: these shadow puppets have the ability to reverse completely! Before, with my other shadow puppets, you have to physically remove and re-attach the rods in order to reverse the puppet - now, all you have to do is bring the puppet away from the screen, give a gentle flick of the wrist, and the rods rotate within the loop and allow the puppet to reverse. (See the vid for a glimpse of how it works)

This is pretty neat, not only because I have been wanting to do this for a while, but because I only have a cursory (that is, I’ve seen it in photos for all of a minute or so) rememberance of how it’s been done on Chinese and other shadow puppets. This is literally an idea that appeared to me during my trip to Atlanta earlier in the year, and it’s really gratifying to know that it works as planned.

… But the puppet itself, even though it required a lot of work, is nothing compared to trying to film it. No matter what I tried - zooming the camera, placing it further away, moving it closer, trying three (three) different screens, using different lights at different brightnesses - the video never came out clearly enough. There’s something weird going on between getting the video, to putting it onto the computer, to putting it on Youtube. It seems every step I take, it reduces the quality. In the end, I had to go with doing some video editing to get the details visible enough. She really does look amazing on screen at home; the second I try to film it, she is hard to see. Luckily, some refilming and gentle editing got things looking good.

The only other thing is that I’ve cut out the forearm piece from the laminating pouch in my ‘usual’ way (that is, by following the curve of the cardboard), and sadly it gets caught on the joint of the hip - something which won’t happen in future builds… Anyway, I particularly like this puppet, especially as how the two series (the “Aquaria"/underwater theme, and this one) look so dissimilar and yet represent my own style of puppet making… See her in detail… Now!