Finches

Swee Waxbill
Zebra Finch

For all of you that weren't here today. This is what we decided. The main materials we need for Thursday are: newspaper, scissors, flour, a pot, water, hot plate (or have pre- made papier mache paste), some type of tape or thin wire. If we all bring in 1 item we should be set. Let us all know what you can bring.

I am SOOO EXCITED. Yesterday I found a brand new computer monitor at the dumpster. It's widescreen and bigger than my TV! The weird thing is that it even works!!! The only thing is that everything on the monitor has a slight red hue. I'm not taking this one apart.

I found an interesting way to make an "amusing bird puppet" here:
http://www.gis.net/~puppetco/page48.htm

and I liked the black raven electronic puppet here:
http://www.anatomorphex.com/commercials.html

One involves a costume- like covering for one of us to wear and the other is more technical. I'd like to try something involving electronics (I've never done anything like that). I found a ceiling fan at my regular dumpster today-- haha... yeah ok. Well I figured we could use it for something. It probably still works.

Hooray for farmer's tans!!!! And this one was rightfully earned by flying kites for 2 hours in our plentiful Floridian sun. I'm almost positive that my kite photograph won't represent the hours of work I put into making the camera cartridge, but I can't really say until I get the roll developed... lets just call this one a hunch.

I've been searching dumpsters for parts to use on our birds and I haven't found much. I found a huge TV, but I had to dump it off on a friends front lawn-it's probably still there if anyone knows of parts inside we could use I could still get them.

Today's ideas: we want shadow puppets or projection elements... so maybe our group can come up with some interesting ways to incorporate that into the performance. I really want the main character(s) to stand out and look interesting. I think we should go beyond feathers and design with plaster and other materials.

I contacted Scott Radke about his puppets and I was going to ask him for any tips he had to give us... but I was too shy. Instead, I gave him a link to our blog and he checked it out. He seems like a busy guy, but he'll respond if you talk to him on his live journal... the only problem is you have to have a live journal to post on his site (I had to sign up for a free one). Anyone who is less shy who likes his work should ask him about it... yeah.

This is my favorite part of my cat Diego. His paws are too big for his body and his legs stick out straight behind him when he lays down. It would be cool to make a squirrel puppet that he could play with. He'd probably attack it though. It would have to be really sturdy.

Above is a picture of my finished camera cartridge.

Today we continued making kite camera cartridges. This project has really made me see the importance of planning. I tried to stick a metal rod in one of my long hardwood blocks and jammed it in so hard that the wood bent. Apparently I didn't go all the way through with my drill. Even the most minute detail counts! Even sanding some holes made parts fit more easily.

I looked up puppetry today. I think my favorite would have to be japanese bunraku. It comes off as a dance between person and object with the object getting all the glory and the skilled person being completely overlooked by the audience. I also saw some marionettes scott radke http://www.scottradke.com/art.htm. He seems like a pretty morbid guy. Marionettes are controlled by strings above and rod puppets are held in one hand while manipulated rods move different parts of the body.

Inside the blender I found a powerful spinning motor that was connected to a keypad that changes the speed of the spin.