Well, yesterday I spent the evening in a sleep study, which basically means I had plenty of time to lie in the dark and think. (For those new or not up-to-speed, a year-long issue with asthma got me sent to a respitory specialist, who suggested that a sleep study should be done - I have had problems with insomnia for much, much longer - as it might be related/would just be darn useful) The bad news is that it was possibly one of the most annoyingly non-natural ways to try to sleep in the world. The good news is that I have solved several problems with my upcoming new puppet products.

I received a little goodie in my email this week, which has spurred some action on the design side of things. You can actually preview it here. I will be updating the Puppets in Melbourne website with it once I finish working on a few things. However, it has meant that I could work on new business card designs; which leads me back to what I was thinking about last night. Instead of actually sleeping. Or maybe even while I was sleeping… I’m not really sure.

Anywho, one issue with the new products is in the packaging. As the aim is to get the products out to local craft/arts markets, I need proper packaging. What I’ve managed to come up with is pretty darn good. The idea is that the puppets/magnetics will need a decent way of being carried off; the puppet rods are separate to the puppet itself, so the packaging must allow all the pieces to be kept in one place. It’d also be nice to protect the whole thing from rain, etc. I liked the idea of using a folder with pockets (extending the theme of using recycled document folders to the packaging itself), so you just insert the pieces and hand it to the customer. The problem with that is that the rods won’t be very well secure and tend to be larger than A4-sized folders.

The solution: custom-made packaging more like a box. The front has the PIM logo, and inside the box the puppet and rods are secured down. There should be a special place for a business card to be inserted, and instructions for using the puppet may be printed somewhere on the inside or come as a separate piece of paper. Plus, the box can have a handle on it so the customer doesn’t need to have a bag in order to carry it away (how annoying is it to have to carry a box at a marketplace? I figure that if you’re going, it would be easier to carry it like a bag than a box). And hopefully the box will work for multiple puppets, and not just storing one - given the puppets themselves are flat and light, and the rods are very skinny but tall…

Image to the right: related to the stuff way down below…

Once I figured all this out, I realised it also solves one other problem: mailing the puppets has always been problematic. The post offices here have boxes that are long enough for the rods, but too wide/deep. This means the majority of the box is empty, and frankly, it always bugs me. And to just stick a bubble-wrapped puppet and set of rods in a plain PO package seems…. unprofessional. The great thing about this custom packaging is that since it’s a box, it can double as something that can be sent in the mail, securing the puppets inside, and being far better looking than the plain packaging available at the PO. - And because custom-packaging will be somewhat expensive (requiring special printing/making and all), it will be worth it since I won’t have to spend money on postal packaging and carry-home bags for when I’m at markets.

The fun about all of this is that it has a knock-on effect. Pre-designing everything down to the last detail means that the overall collection of products and they way I present them will seem more professional, as it all has a similar theme. Compare this with the current puppets which all looks a bit haphazard. Also, other products, like the Plushie, will need different dimensions for packaging, but I can use the same basic concept for its own custom box. It also fits with the business card and updated website designs. And the kits that I plan on selling. (So all in all, not really a wasted night’s sleep/insomnia, most of this being resolved within an hour in groggy-wires-everywhere-uncomfortable land)

… Speaking of kits, this brings me to the ’straws and skewers’ part of the blog title. - This also happens to be the last of the things I made and mentioned during the Kukcrafters challenge - I have the basic concept for the kit working fine, it will have patterns and the various materials needed to make the puppet, and the majority of work involved is to do with how I’ll package it (and that’s semi-solved now as explained above). But, I have been struggling with the rods. I don’t want to use the same ones I have for the puppet products, because they’re hard to ship with a kit. At the same time, I can’t stand the rods on offer as part of kits (or with shadow puppets) that are sold by other puppet makers. (The one I’m thinking of in particular doesn’t offer a rod, so much as a stick and a clip to attach it to the puppet) I’d like to have rods that are horizontal, instead of just sticks on the back of the puppets; I want kids or teachers to be able to use the puppets the way a professional puppeteer would. But also, it needs to be something that can easily be packaged and shipped, preferably something that can fit within the kit itself so all you have to do is open the box and take out the bits and start building (as compared to something outside of the kit, so it ends up being ‘kit and rods’).

The solution was a flash of brilliance. In fact, it’s so flash-like that I really can’t remember what made me think of it. … EDIT:  I remember now. I decided to ‘deconstruct’ the rod, in the sense that I thought about what makes a puppet rod do what it does. By thinking about each part of the rod, I came to the following concept… The basis of the idea is that in order to have a horizontal rod, you must have the tip (that attaches to the puppet) at a right angle to the rest of the rod. This is the brilliant bit: basically, it’s a hinge. All you need is something on the end of the rod that is flexible enough to be bent into shape, but isn’t necessarily separate - or even part of - the rod itself.

If you haven’t clued in yet, straws have bendy tips. And skewers can be inserted into the straws so you have something sturdy to hold on to. It’s kind of like a telescoping cable-control, minus the ability to retract the telescope. I know it doesn’t sound all that ‘professional’, given that anyone can go buy a pack of skewers and straws. But as a proof of concept, it pretty much works with no modifications required. The only problem I had with my test was that the choice of material for the puppet was wrong - nothing to do with the rods though. So I cut off the straw, with 2cm (about an inch) on the end being attached to the puppet, and the bend at that 2cm mark. I used masking tape to attach the 2cm tip to the puppet, and then inserted the skewer - without the pointy end - into the straw, but only up to the bend.

The result: a puppet that was easy to use, but will still need some improvements so that the skewer doesn’t fall out of the straw if you hold it at the wrong angle. You can see me testing it out against a wall in the below video. What I’ll be doing from here to make improvements I don’t know, but I’m suitably happy with the underlying concept: using a hinged rod, instead of a wire bent into shape. It makes finding something - or even having a rod you have to put together yourself - much easier. And as something that could work for kids, it’s especially satisfying, because it requires very little instruction or skill in order to make and use. It’s what I like to think of as ‘instant rods’, it maybe took me 30 seconds to make and attach.

I mentioned in my Kukcrafters June challenge that I had attempted making something truly crafty. It also happens this will be something I hope to have on sale for my new improved collection of puppets/products for Puppets in Melbourne as discussed here. Having been totally turned off by the difficulty of making jewellery, I took a look at my character design that I will be using as my ’signature’ character, and decided it would make the most excellent plushie.

So here is my second prototype (the first having been binned as mentioned in the first link, because I sewed it incorrectly). The images are shown at the bottom of the post in a slideshow (PS. on my blog the pics are small, so if you want to view the slideshow full screen and see more detail, head to Flickr.). - Also, I do have one more prototype to present, that of the kit I hope to create, but as it’s fairly late in the day and I have other things to get on with, I’ll post it later. I will also be presenting something I received just this week, and it’s very cool.

Firstly, the plushie too small. You can see that the ends of the hands and feet aren’t stuffed very well, and I will probably resize about 10-15% just to make things easier. I intended on sewing the majority on my machine, but because of the size it was difficult to get the detailed curves - hence the binned first try. Hand-sewing managed to make things better, but if I plan to sell these, I need to cut down on the time spent making them. For the most part, I hope to upcycle/recycle old fabrics from op shops and decorate with beads and stuff - making one of a kind plushies of the same pattern - but in this case I just used some leftover chocolate fleece from a puppet project.

The original idea was to have two versions of the plushies: one plain (or rather, as decorated below), and the other would be a message board. I like the idea of the empty space in the head being a place to add custom messages, so I could insert a piece of plastic - the leftovers from cutting away the circle from the puppet design, shown in the third link above - and use a felt-tipped pen to write on it. I could easily attach a hook to the back of the head to hang it on the wall. The other idea is to custom-embroider a piece of fabric inside the head’s hole, with a person’s name or message. So far, embroidery is off the menu. I have self-taught myself a technique used with a tambour hook, without the actual tambour (a very thin metal crochet hook can be exchanged). However, I’ve discovered that the proper hook really would be better and the fabrics that I have don’t seem suitable. I still like the idea, and perhaps when I have more time I could try again.

The last thing is that as I was carrying the plushie to ask for opinions from my family, it occurred to me that as it is, the item could work just as well as a door-hanging decoration (the hole in the head makes for a perfect hook) or even a half-decent handbag with some modification (again the hole makes for a good handle). Honestly, I’m not sure I’m keen on the latter, given it’s a heck of a lot more work to make.

Whatever happens, the prototype has been enjoyable to make and I’m pretty pleased with the results. Frankly, this idea suits my new look and the type of things that I make than jewellery (particularly as I haven’t worn the latter myself for several years). And they’re different enough to be of interest to the local crafts/arts market audience here in Oz. … I hope…

Yeah, I know it’s July already, but I wanted to post a recap anyway. Where I left off last, I was experiencing some minor () problems with the activity of actually breathing. Happily, the meds I am now on have improved things considerably, to the point where I do indeed remember what it’s like to breath like a normal person. No coughing, no wheezing, no back pain, and no feeling like I’m going to die. (This would be a good point to mention that apparently the inhalers that I’d been given previously had been for pediatric doses; which explains why I never actually felt any better!)

In order to keep working, but having a bit of the shakes due to the new meds, I spent the remainder of the Kukcrafters challenge powering through the new website design for School of Puppetry. The whole thing was completed at about 4am yesterday. I’m very happy with the new look, and can see the benefits paying off already: I’ve increased the amount of ad space available, which means I can seek more advertisers in the long run. My stats show a slight decrease in visitors (which I account half of to the 4th of July celebrations in the US, the country which represents most of my visitor count on any given day; the other half to the mess whilst migrating to the new template). Indeed the following stat represents a good example of the benefits:

What the above shows is that one visitor googled ‘puppet terms’ and found SOP. They then saw the ‘featured pattern’ at the top of the page, wanted to know more, and clicked on the link. (This ‘featured pattern’ advert for myself is a new addition and one of those benefits mentioned above) They decided they weren’t interested, and went back to the puppet terms article, continuing to read until they got to the related posts section and clicked on one of the related items: what is water puppetry. I’m also seeing that having a randomly selected bunch of posts on the home page encouraging exploration, and though I have no definite way of knowing, I suspect that the menu navigation implemented has made things easier for further browsing.  And a small increase in ‘likes’ for the SOP facebook page, which is now easily found at the top of every page under the ’subscribe’  tab - And this is all from half a day’s stats since checking them at 5pm today.

… This brings me to the end of the Kukcrafters challenge, whereby June was supposed to be spent making things. Although I spent very little of it making anything crafty, KUK is all about being creative, not about craft itself. So I guess in the end I achieved that: I succeeded in solving a few problems with shadow puppets; developed a lot of my ideas for my new product line; and hunkered down and created a new web design for SOP. I’d say that this challenge has been a good thing, forcing me to sit down and focus on getting stuff done, instead of waffling around it as I tend to be doing these days.

What’s next? Well, I will continue on as usual: migrating content from Puppets in Melbourne to School of Puppetry; a Kukcrafters day on Sunday which will allow me to work on the next pattern for SOP; and continued development of characters for the PIM product line. I will also be posting a couple of those completed prototypes that I’ve been promising - I’m still finishing off one of them and would like to solve a problem before posting further news.