mannequin?

A headlamp can really set a stage

A few years ago I took a crack at simple puppet making. It was a fun little clay project where I made all of the various bits, drilled a few holes, and with a handful of wire loops, made several articulated limbs.

up we go

When the limp little thing was done, I drilled some new holes, superglued some string to into said holes, and attached them to a popsicle-stick armature. It wasn't perfect, but it was surprisingly *not* awful.

I am not, however, a puppeteer and I had little to do with the thing after I made it, which is why it hung in my studio for several years. And then, just about two years ago, my wife and I got a kitten. To prevent our long standing cat-in-residence from hurting the new sweetheart, we stowed the kitten in my studio for the first week, to let them acclimate to one another's scent. Suffice to say, loose, dangling things strewn around a working studio were a joy for a young kitten, springing in every direction until exhaustion. The puppet came crashing to the ground, and dashed into many pieces.

I scooped up the pieces and set them aside, saying I would fix it up right as rain in a few days. But as anyone with any form of chronic mental debilitation can tell you, such a simple thing felt impossible for months, and then somehow, years.

Yesterday, in the midst of other small crafts and projects, I came across the remains of my puppet, still in shattered stasis. I resolved to fix it up, finally.

It sits!

It took just shy of an hour, although the last nearly thirty minutes were spent fiddling with the same stupid loop for too long. Nevertheless, the limbs have all be repaired and reattached. I chose to cut the strings and leave the puppet as a loose mannequin instead.

Now, it may have a touch of the dramatic to it, but it is less likely to fall from a dangling perch, so here's hoping it is safe for awhile.

Don't worry, the two have made up