puppetmaker | Crafty Tuesday: Purpose

This past week I did an interview for a documentary film about women in fandom entitled “Squee: The Fangirl documentary project” which is being done by the amazing Hansi Oppenheimer. Her questions got me to thinking about puppets, fandom and me.

There is a song in Avenue Q where Princeton sings about Purpose and finding one’s purpose in life.

I honestly think one of mine is to educate and entertain through puppetry. And I had done so over the years in various venues including fandom. I have done panels on puppetry and workshops on how to operate a hand and rod puppet. I have talked about puppet building and how I do what I do.

A lot of my work is fandom related. I enjoy creating puppets that look like various characters in fandom. The first one I did was a Captain Picard puppet and it kind of snowballed from there.

Since then I have made probably over 200 puppets that were fandom related. Some were challenges (the first Dr. Who set) and others because I love the characters so.

I have dozens of story that start with the phrase “I made this puppet of”. Because I made the Klingon puppets, I met Peter who is now my husband. Because I made a Sandman puppet , I met Neil Gaiman and we have been friends ever since. Because I made an eighth doctor puppet, I got to talk theater with Paul McGann. I have made a lot of friends over the years through the puppets.

I have had a lot of interesting conversation with people just because there is a puppet on my arm.

I have noticed that there are more fannish puppeteers doing the same thing that I have been doing for over 25 years now. And I am very happy to see it.

The more we get our art form out there, the better for all of us.

I am grateful for all the adventures I have had with my puppets.