I shot my first game over 200

[puppetmaker]

Last night during our summer bowling league I shot a 172, a 192, and a 201 for a 589 scratch series. My average is a 138 which is up from the 128 I had at the end of the Women's league. This was my first 200 game ever. So that is my new personal best. Before that I had 3 games at 193 and 2 at 197. I won the average pot for the second game and had a pretty good shot at the third. All in all, it was a good night for bowling for me. Our team won all 11 points which we really needed to keep ourselves in the hunt.

I come home to open my e-mail to find a rather heated debate (for lack of a better word) where one person is belittling everyone who makes fleece and foam puppets. They admit they don't get the appeal of the Muppets and apparently have problems with the relationship between Kermit and Piggy which is strange to me since they are just puppets. Their puppets remind me very much of Bil Baird's style of marionettes so the stone throwing is probably breaking some windows in their glass house.

I think I am most disappointed with some of the other puppeteers who have made this sort of puppet jumping in with a you are so right there are so many foam and fleece puppets that are reminiscent and thank you for pointing this out to this person. There is one puppeteer I am particularly saddened by considering how his exploration into new materials has given me insight in to some rather clever ways to doing things. He is better than this and now I think a little less of him which is sad.

So I put myself in the line of fire by writing the following.

I'm going to put my foot in this one being one of those who builds puppets for fun and profit out of foam and other materials. I am sorry you are so disappointed by my art which by the way has given me a lot of joy and some great memories.

Yes, there is more to puppets than those materials. Now ask me how many of those sorts of puppets I have sold to the general public as apposed to the foam and fleece ones......9.

That's right I can count on the fingers of my two hands the number of rod and marionette puppets.

6 of the 9 were rod versions of Oberon and Titania for a couple of different productions of "Midsummer Night's Dream".

2 string puppets were custom jobs for a commercial in Atlanta that I got some serious money for since they needed them in less than 24 hours.

And 1 was a string puppet I sold in an Artshow called LunaCon.

And that is not for a lack of trying to sell them either. I have built all kinds of puppets but I find that my bread and butter lay in fleece and foam.

I do charactures puppets for people. Grandparents get puppets made for their grandkids of themselves. Parents have me make puppets of their children for them. It is not a bad sideline business.

I have build science fiction and fantasy based puppets that I have sold to people all over the world. I met Neil Gaiman because of a foam and fleece Sandman puppet I made.

If I hadn't built in this style I would not have met my husband since we met over a foam and fleece creation he bought for something he was working on.

I have found something that I do well in this industry and I am rather proud of the smiles and the laughter my puppets have generated.

It may not be high art or ground breaking but it works for me and I will thank you not to spit on it.

I know you are walking in here with an agenda but belittling what many of us do and informing us that we are not creative is rather crass.

There are few of us out here as it is. Why should we stop making a certain type of puppet because you (as you have admitted) don't get it?

Normally I would have left this alone as a disgruntled puppeteer whose art form is not that popular right now. But I have been reading a series of web logs that Kate Orman, the author, has been writing about cyber bulling within fandom. And when the string artist rather savaged one of the younger members of our group, I could not let it stand without comment. I am tired of cyber bullies and how we tend to just let them go off and hurt other people's feelings because we don't want to stir the pot and possibly get them to go after us. I'm tired of keeping quiet while people take potshots at my friends and family and then get their knickers in a twist when they are called on it. So this time I spoke up and await for the condescending reply that I know is forth coming.

I am grateful for Kate's recent exploration of cyber bullying.

Comments

[drewshi.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on breaking 200. My best has been 181 so far with an average around 150.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

This has been after 4 years of bowling in various leagues.

My starting average was 97 so I am happy that I have gotten better.

[chazari.livejournal.com]

I'm jealous of your 201 game. My highest is 179 and that was years ago when I was on the high school bowling team and very inconsistent. Now I don't get that high but consistently reach 120-140. I would kill to get over 200.

[imrygels-ho.livejournal.com]

i think you expressed yourself quite well without being insulting or condescending. i like a wide variety of puppets myself and despite my henson obsession, my favorite types are the wayang styles. i don't see why people feel the need to belittle another branch of their shared artform. just because you don't like something doesn't mean it has no merit or intrinsic artistic value.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

Good for you! Stand up for yourself and your craft! Bullying in any form is crap that no one should put up with, and if we stand up to it whenever we encounter it there'd be a lot less of it--most bullies are cowards and back down the minute someone actually takes them to task. This person may not, since you said he/she clearly has an agenda--sounds a lot to me like trying to convince him-/herself that non-fleece puppets are still worthwhile and that he/she isn't obsolete--but regardless I think it's great that you stood up and supported your work.

And congrats on your game!

[wide_worlds_joy]

Good stand hon. I agree. If no one else has mentioned it, there was a website up for some time about bullying and intimidation among pagans. It was an interesting read.

On another note, I didn't know you did sidelines in making puppets for people. Could you quote me a price to make a puppet of this:
http://s230.photobucket.com/albums/ee117/davensjournal/?action=view¤t=DavenAviArt.jpg
without the whips? Plastic on the face, somewhat fuzzy where skin would be, yarnish hair, velour ears and tails?

[lanofaylin.livejournal.com]

Do you have a website with you puppets on it? I don't think I have ever seen your work.

[amarafox.livejournal.com]

There is a LOT of cyber bullying. My favourite is when people call art theft when the two pieces aren't even vaguely similar. Oh no! You drew a blue dragon flying through a snowstorm, it looks nothing like this other piece of a blue dragon skiing with penguins, but it MUST BE A COPY.

[jenny_evergreen]

Go, you! *despises bullies*

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

Go you and Go 200!!!

[paigemom.livejournal.com]

I have never broken 100 in my life.

Baird did the marionettes for Sound of Music, yes?

Good for you, for standing up to the bullies!

[narniadear.livejournal.com]

Go you!!! I am always terrified of standing up for myself in cyberspace and have only recently started to do it. You are inspiring and your reply was extremely adult and articulate. *high fives*

I'm a muppet feind. I don't know anything about puppet making, but I'd love to see some of yours. Do you have a web-site?

[geekgrl64.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the game! Way to go you!

I think your comments about the puppet building are on point. I get the foam and fleece. I get the rod and marionette puppets. It is just a shame that there are those cyber bullies out there to belittle ones craft.

[wickedsin.livejournal.com]

CONGRATS ON YOUR FIRST >200 GAME!!

Man I have been down on myself about bowling the last couple of weeks.

I'm glad you stood up for your art.

[wherdafux-d-cat.livejournal.com]

Beautifully stated. I get mad and my brain cells start firing off too fast for my fingers (or mouth) to keep up with so I just get incoherent and even more frustrated.

And congrats on the 200 game, from someone whose goal is to bowl her weight (on the rare occasions in which she bowls, at least). Or rather, that was my goal before I put on this layer of 'middle age'.... *g*

[welfy.livejournal.com]

Dude, I love foam and fleece puppets and have used them all through my puppeteering days. More power to you. :^)

[thetripper]

You *shot* 201? I have this image of you leaning over "Sudden Death" with a slow match in your hand waiting for the pins to come up on the rise.

And as far as your bully, my answer is two fold:

1. Jim Henson (Family now) is loved the planet over and is far, far, richer than you because he made a frog puppet out of foam and his mothers old coat.

2. Say that again to my face, coward.

[dandelion-diva.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you said something. Also, this is very interesting and well written.

Doesn't get the Muppets? What's to get? I guess I could understand not getting the humor, but the Muppets themselves are kind of self-explanatory.