Fab Foam Puppet and
Mask Making Workshops
 Puppet Making only Workshop.
All day Puppet
Making Workshop from
£280.
Puppet Makes available include. Tiger, Lion, Wolf, Elephant, Shark,
Dolphin and
Clamshell.
All Materials supplied.
The TV Puppets and Masks that you make in my Workshops have been
uniquely designed by me and to be made by almost any age.
Land Animal Puppets can be used as either a Hand Puppet capable
of Lipsinc or as a Mask for 'Acting out'.
Sea Life Creatures are Lipsinc
capable Puppets.
 Patterns are available in advance of workshops or in some cases for
your own use
for free. At
your own risk!
See Shark Pattern 1 2 3 4 5 6
Shark on the right was made by a Florida
2nd Grader and his Father using these patterns and instructions.
See Tiger Pattern's here 1 2 3 4 5 6
with
instructional and 'how to make'
videos on line at you tube.
see. Videos
 Adults,
Youth and Scouting groups welcome.
Please contact above to book.
Puppet Patterns are also suitable for
printing on Cardboard Packaging. For Humanitarian Relief etc.
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The Fab
Foam Workshop grew out of the Ocean Life project.
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OCEAN LlFE PROJECT STORY
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Contact
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  The Project in brief
Ocean Life Project Stage 1
Puppet designs are created by me, Marcus Clarke for a variety of young
people to make with varied difficulty in my Puppet Making
Workshops.
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Marcus_Clarke
F.R.S.A.
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What Happened?
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As I began this project in January 2010 I also began working with
Creative Partnerships.
Teaching Puppetry for the Screen in two East Midlands Secondary Schools.
An early requirement from the Schools was for me to create a Puppet
that the Kids could make quickly and easily. Sessionally. In less that
2 hours. I devised these simple yet very performable Sock Puppets.
These Puppets immediately set the Benchmark for ease of construction
and use for my Ocean Life Puppets. This was dificult to achieve though
with the clean and shear foam card look. Though I persevered with my
pre planned route for the development of the Ocean Life Puppets. It was
inevitable that the project would be informed by my development of the
Sock Puppets.
By what I was learning from Teaching local young people with them.
Over time it became clear that the Ocean Life project would need to
change to take on board this learning.
When it did change I was able to greatly improve the outcome of the
Ocean Life project.
I renamed the project to mark this change, 'Jungle Life' project. in my
head anyway. The only difference being that I created Jungle characters
from then on.
A positive development from my Creative Partnership work.
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  I began the Ocean Life project by
experimenting with different sized and shaped Origami style
mouths and soon realised that the scale and shape would be mostly
governed by the size of my hand and the need to get it inside the
Puppet. Some trials with remote, mechanical and animatronic devices
showed promise but would prove needlessly difficult for students with a
low craft base
to make. I decided around the hand it would have to be.
  I designed some Clam Puppets. Learning that I
could score and shape by using the Hot glue to distort the Foam.
I got positive feedback from an NTU student and so proceeded with an
evaluation Workshop of the Clam Shell Puppets at Rufford.
The attendees made these Clams at Rufford.
Next came some extensive work to create a Turtle Puppet.
    The need to hide the hand in the Puppet led
to a lot of scale issues. I had hoped to combine a Sock for the neck
joint but it confused the look. The Puppet then became more and more
complex as I tried to solve joint flexing issues by design. It became more and more like a suit of
armour.
I
eventually called this Puppet Design 'Armoured Turtle' It was   obviously going to be to
complicated and take too long to make so I abandoned it.
I experimented with creating the simpler Turtle design above and
decided to evaluate them in a Rufford Workshop.
The attendee's made them quite easily and enjoyed doing so. As well as
performing them on Camera.
These are some of the Turtles they made.
My sock Puppet work with creative partnerships had come to an end and
evaluated well. The Children enjoyed making and performing these simple
Puppets. As I moved on to creating an Octopus it became clear that
again I was going to be boxing in the hand and restricting movement and
performance. I also had issues creating a small mouth with my large
hand in the head. There was only one way really for the arm to come out
and that was the bottom.
I thought and thought about a way forward. Considering how and why the
Sock PUppets were so successful.
 How
I could combine this with the clean look of the Ocean Life Foam
Puppets. I was becoming moribund so I decided to re-invent the project.
I would make Ocean Life Puppet Tops and put them on top of Sock Puppet
Mouths where the eyeballs normally go.
I decided to mark this juncture by renaming the project 'Jungle Life'..
I made two prototype 'Tops' as Jungle creatures. A lion and an Elephant
and gained very positive feedback.
  
I then considered that they could also be used as Masks. Tried them and
they worked fine. After a trip to Yorkshire Sculpture Park I hit upon
the idea of ditching the sock puppet bottom part for lipsing and
instead creating a drop down mouth for them. Tested it and it worked.
    I worked up the Elephant design and
'Puppet ,Make Workshop' for it.
As I was returning to the Lion I thought of Jungle Book and considered
making a Tiger. A Shere Khan with the same drop down mouth. Easier said
than done.
     
And on the way came up with a Wolf Design. A discarded Tiger Pattern
that could be re-purposed.
I made another of the eventual Tiger Puppet design and Filmed myself
doing so and then put this instructional Video on YouTube. I then
contacted a retailer/manufacturer about putting the Patterns on
otherwise discarded cardboard packaging so that Scouts and other
interested young people could get free copies of the Elephant, Tiger
and Wolf Puppet Pattern. I got
feedback from TV Broadcasters too.
 For the Projects evaluation in West
Bridgford the consensus was to make the Tiger. Which all made
successfully. 
Result.
Well all of the Make Puppets would take a day's Workshop to make
realistically.
But they're all good, solid original and inspiring makes.
I have my Sock Puppets that can be made in a variety of times from an
hour to four. Depending on how complex we want to make them.
This Project has given me the Original 'Puppet Makes. A Clamshell
and a Turtle. Ocean Life.
Also combined Puppet and Mask Making Workshops for Schools, Kids and
Adults in the form of the Tiger, Elephant and Wolf. Jungle life.
And of course much more besides to build on.
If your interested in me holding a Puppet Making Workshop for you
then please contact me
Marcus Clarke
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Previous projects include.
Puppets 4 Learning Project information
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