Our show, “The Singing Clock” (the title we finally decided on), calls for three bird puppets and three bat puppets. I was inspired when I saw the movement of the crow marionette used in Sea Beast Puppet Company’s, “Mefiez-Vous de la Vache Garou (Beware the Werecow!)”. I really liked the delicate head movements and resolved to have independent movement of the heads for the birds and bats that I needed to make. Below is a picture of some of the birds and bats I am working on – they are each about 2 inches long.
Unfortunately I did not get a good look at the SeaBeast Puppet Company crow marionette controller, so I started from scratch in designing my controllers. I developed several different potential designs but I wasn’t completely satisfied with any of them.
On Labor Day weekend I visited the best inventor/engineer I know (my father, Gino Venturi) and asked his advice on the controller. He had a couple of simple and elegant solutions for my bird and bat engineering problems which I have now incorporated into the design. I will be building the new controllers this week and am excited to test the results.
-Naia
-Naia