Amazing Acroba-chicks!

With feats of never before seen agility among fowl,
Unraku presents to you
the Amazing Acroba-chicks!

Once again, Unraku brings you a charming YouTube video to enjoy. This time though, Unraku showcases the puppet troupe's puppetbuilding skills with Unraku's own Acroba-chicks.

The Acroba-chicks are lovely little rod puppets with large expressive eyes, luxurious chick yellow fluff and very detailed hand made legs (made from wire & wood dowelling then hand dipped in paint.)

For more information on Unraku, visit: www.unraku.ca

Canada Day Celebrations

Knoggin Knitting Presents "Canada Day Celebrations"

Scene: An azure sky, a vast expanse of lush grass, vendors, white tents full of prizes and bingo, a red & white splashed crowd bursting with snippets of praise, pride and chocolate dipped ice creams. Yes, in that order.

It's Canada Day with Unraku and we performed our first outdoor show to an ever expanding crowd of happy people. Our band shell was behind the umpire's plate in a baseball diamond and our audience came in from the outfield to shout encouragement and laugh out loud. With our last minute alterations to choreography and limited practice we dazzled them with our passion for puppetry. With their applause we knew they forgave us our folly for wearing all black on a cloudless 27 degree day. We did it!

Much encouraged for the larger shows to come, here we come Canada!
Happy 141st birthday! (Lookin' good ole Girl!)

It's a great day to make puppets.
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This is the video link on YouTube of the first performance of my puppet troupe, Unraku. Enjoy! Unraku on Youtube

Knoggin Knitting Presents "Awareness"

Scene: A dewy morning with soft sunlight shimmering down from a blue cloudless sky. A tendril of green slowly pokes a shy sprout from a sleepy winter bulb
through the faded red cedar mulch.

I step softly toward my sleepy garden, breathing in the quiet mildly crisp air of morning. The Allium leaves are spreading outward catching droplets of dew on shiny new greenery. The nodding heads of creamy daffodils look coyly up at the rising sun with earnest regard. A robin hops along the soft mat of lush grass hunting for breakfast.

It's a great day to make flowers!

Knoggin Knitting Presents "Bunnies Galore!"

Scene: A dimly lit room with a spotlight on a veritable pool of petal pink wool which is ominously surrounding small figures studiously bent over the eerie sight of many rabbit parts.

Monday: 10 pm - Unraku Troupe decide on number and colour of puppets required.
Tuesday: I search for lighter pink wool appropriate for a herd of girly rabbits. The knitting of tubes begins. Give up at 1 am.
Wednesday: I continue knitting of tubes for felting. Felting begins. Give up at 3:45 am.
Thursday: Early am - I make one more tube & felt it. Go to work. Head to one of the troupe's studios to finish collectively sewing, stuffing, pinning, hot gluing, ears, tutus. Midnight arrives. 6 bunnies are ready (or at least will hold together for one chaotic performance.)
Friday: Performance!
We did it! And barely in time for the 2nd performance.
Look in the upcoming weeks for a video of this performance on YouTube and perhaps you can get your own bunny replica puppet at KnogginKnitting.etsy.com

P'Nut and Alleyoop

New creations on Knoggin this week:
P'Nut

AlleyOop

Best of friends!

Roros Eclectic Sock Emporium

Come one, come all! To Roro's Eclectic Sock Emporium!
Roro makes the most unusual Sock creatures:
Sock Monkeys, Sock Donkeys, Sock Cats & Dogs & Bears & Beavers
& Lions & Lambs & all their Sock Friends. Oh My!
She even makes cool hand embellished t-shirts with
the different sock critters dancing on them.
Huggable, lovable art with a hundred year old history
- every kid needs their own to love.

Spring is coming. So are snails!

beetlegirldesign.etsy.com
There's this fun lil shop on Etsy that does soft sculpture designs.
What makes them stand out is that Becky makes
unusual subject matter
super cute and utterly fascinating.
For example:
A Snail
Or perhaps a Rhino Beetle?
You can read more about Becky and her creations on her blog:
beetlegirl

Fantiny-tastic!

I was meandering through the whimsical world of Etsy and I stumbled into a fantastic shop of felted fabulousness! It's called Fantiny and it's lovely. Featured are the tiniest most sweet creatures needlefelted with wool.
I couldn't decide which animal picture was the cutest but since I will be seeing a Sock Monkey specialist this evening -
I decided to go with the tiniest sock monkey I've ever seen and it's a kit!
It comes with all the materials, the pattern and online support!
How wonderful!

Lovable Felted Hand Puppet from Knoggin

This is Zoe's first Knoggin Knitting puppet. I think she likes it!
(I'll let you know what she calls it.)

One of A Kind Show... and a new puppet acquisition

I naively went to the One of A Kind Spring Show in Toronto thinking I would have a lovely browse on my day off. I quickly realized a large chunk of the population did too as it was Good Friday. Oops! I somehow found my friends that were scattered in various ends of the building and we valiantly fought our way through the crowds to see my friend Roro of RoroArt Eclectic Sock Emporium. Once we said our hellos and I promised to bring back a bottle of water, we swam upstream through the milling crowds to peruse hand crafted unusual fare.
There were the usual suspects, the Quebec fashionistas in the Fashion District, our friend Kari Lynn Bianchi of the fabulous chunky jewelery, and my personal magnet: Diabolo puppets.

I couldn't go by without trying on at least 20 different hand puppets. My friend Kat was enamoured of the Bunny (she fancies bunnies of all types). But I am drawn to the weird. I settled on the Space Monkey, who is still without a name. My particular Space monkey is all red with a yellow face and ears. He appears to be quite demented because his right eye is askew. Somehow it is endearing in a puckish way and I love it! The girls seemed to think his name should start with an 'H' but I am thinking that an old Norse name would be better.

SINDRI

Gender: Masculine Usage: Norse Mythology, Icelandic

Possibly means either "small, trivial" or else "sparkling" in Old Norse. In Norse legend this was the name of a dwarf who, with his brother Brokk, made many magical items for the gods.

What do you think?! 'Sparkling' and 'small' seems right to me!

A slice of Puppet Pie

Let's savour the flavourful world of
Stacey Rebecca (now Stacey Gordon).
Both her finger and hand puppets are absolutely DELICIOUS!
You can check out her shop on Etsy here: staceyrebecca.etsy.com
There are more pictures of her work here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/staceyrebecca
And read her literary stylings here: http://puppetpie.blogspot.com

I love how she creates such lovable facial expressions with her puppets through thoughtful eye placement. It takes a lot of care and a solid knowledge of your craft to get the "vision" of the puppet right. Not all puppets have the correct line of vision which makes them seem less lively and sometimes quite cross-eyed (when you don't intend it.) Important stuff if you are trying to puppeteer!

She has been showing her work in galleries & art spaces for a while now. Her charming finger puppets have been invited to hang out at The Trunk Space Art Gallery in Phoenix.

Stacey not only makes puppets,
she performs with them in a improv group called
'Die Puppet Die'.

Truly an inspiring woman to me!

Unraku, the first performance

I am part of the Toronto puppetry troupe, Unraku, which is loosely based on the traditional Japanese Bunraku puppetry style. We began meeting for workshops this January on Mondays (or when we could) and through our enthusiasm it has formed into a troupe. Unraku boasts a couple puppeteers, several puppetbuilders and a talented voice actress. Through Andrew's leadership, ingenuity and patience, we managed to play our very first workshop performance to a small audience at The Art Within on Friday March14/08. The troupe proudly performed Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, a favourite among puppeteers across the Sphere.

The star of the show was our Diabolo puppet named Onzola (he's a Gorg)

and appearing as back-up were several Popcorn Puppets from Toronto based Banjo puppets (from the left in the video: Pedro {pink}, OhNo {blue}, OhMy {orange}, and Bernard {blue}.)

This is the video link on YouTube of that performance. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGsYoJCpd5c

Knoggin Knitting Presents "Knut meets Moo"

Scene: White post box on tiny white house glistening with anticipation of the day that the box of Mini Moo cards arrive! Today must be the day! I peer into the dark silvery recesses of the post box, heart in my throat. It's there! I gleefully scurry inside with the shiny bubble package grasped tightly in my mitt. I carefully peel back the fold of the envelope to reveal a tiny white box with a cheery hot pink sleeve. Moo Cards! And Minis at that! I lift the lid and gasp with sheer joy. So cute and I haven't even see the pictures yet! I pull out the first one and it's Knut the Troll's coy smile grinning back at me. Next it's Boo Clay, my favourite YarnSnarler. Then Squiggy and then finally the hot pink of a felted rose. All shots came out beautifully crisp and in full colour. I adore it! Which moo is my favourite.......??? Yay Moo! I loves'm! This means collector cards, Knoggin Fans!!

You can get YOUR own Moo Cards here: www.moo.com

Puppet Underground Goodness

The Puppet Underground

I recently discovered on Etsy another fellow puppetmaker under the guise of PuppetUnderground. (Of course I "favourited" him right away.) I think his stuff is fantastic - whimsical, funny, emotive - everything a good puppet should be. I especially love the names he gives his puppets..... "Morp" for instance! Perfection!

PuppetUnderground.etsy.com
He's got some great videos posted on YouTube that I'd like to share:

http://ca.youtube.com/user/puppetunderground

Stitch: an a cappella opera for 3 women & 3 sewing machines

Please join us for the world premiere of...

STITCH: an a cappella opera for 3 women & 3 sewing machines

Juliet Palmer music
Anna Chatterton text
Ruth Madoc-Jones direction
Sarah Armstrong set & costume
Kimberly Purtell lighting
Shauna Japp production stage manager
Marie-Josée Chartier movement
Jim Ruxton special effects design

Hemmed in by the language of sewing and the inexorable rhythm of the machine, Stitch gives voice to the unseen women who clothe us. Performed by Christine Duncan “…smooth as honey throughout her five-octave range” (Globe and Mail) Patricia O’Callaghan “the most promising cabaret performer of her generation” (Billboard) and Neema Bickersteth “amazing control of her vocal palette…warm and sensual” (Opera Canada).

A co-production by urbanvessel and The Theatre Centre presented by The FreeFall Festival in partnership with
Harbourfront’s World Stage:
March 12-16 at The Lennox Contemporary, 12 Ossington Ave. TORONTO, ONTARIO CANADA
Tickets: $10 matinee, $20

Burtonwood's Spiny Norman

Since this IS a blog called Knoggin Knitting, today I want to show you a quick glimpse into the wonderful knitted forest of Burtonwood. The creator of Burtonwood has brought us this whimsical hedgehog in all its glory to play in the land of Etsy. Check out more of her lovely nature inspired creations here: burtonwood.etsy.com

Banjo Popcorn Puppets

I am featuring a very clever little "Popcorn" puppet from Banjo Puppets in Toronto today.
My puppet troupe will be performing with several in our first show/skit on March 14th.

banjopuppets.etsy.com

Inside the puppet is an over sized clothes peg of sorts that works as the mouth mechanism. In order to maintain eye contact, one must move the lower portion of the mouth only when the puppet is speaking. This means that you must hold the fabric at the top of the peg and squeeze the bottom portion upward. If you attempt to just close the peg regularly, the eyes tilt upward losing contact with the audience. A small trick but important for believability!

Meet Gruf the Goat

Known worldwide as being the lead in a fairytale, Gruf has let it go to his fuzzy head. Now he tends to get a bit out of hand by showing off. He was feeling so rambunctious one day, he completely ignored the Troll under the bridge, trotted right across to the Tattoo Parlour & got his ear pierced! And then he skipped back over the bridge with a slushy and didn't even share with Knut the Troll. What a kid!

Gruf is 10 inches tall but you swear he's taller with that attitude of his. He is 7 inches from ear tip to pierced ear tip. He is made completely of wool, his safety pin is the only dangerous thing about him. His body was hand knitted then felted. Then his facial features & ears were needle felted. The safety pin, like all piercings, is removable.

You can see more views of Gruf here: Gruf on Etsy

Knut the Troll

Meet Knut the Troll. He is a cuddly version of a Norwegian troll, this hand puppet is felted in 100% wool with needle felted facial features. He is a spry creature with a penchant for moldy cheese and a sentimental affinity for the sound of a drip from a faulty tap. He prefers hanging out solitary under the northern side of wooden bridge, preferably with a mossy place to catch a nap. It's considered lucky in Norway, the land of the Midnight Sun to have a troll in your homestead.

See more views of Knut here: Knut on Etsy