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Building the Czech puppets, for the Community Gate Project In the summer of 2004, the West End neighborhoods of the High Bridge Park, The West 7th Fort Road Federation, and SOKOL Minnesota joined to create two giant, 15-foot Czech puppets for the dedication of the Community Gate Project. Here the puppets were the hit of the 20th annual Dozinky Days parade in New Prague, Minnesota September 23.How do you make a giant puppet? First, prepare youself for hundreds of hours by a dedicated group! Then: |
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Here I am wrapping newspaper in masking tape that will form the foundation for the heads. We approximate the shape of the heads, and the same procedure is used for the right and left hands. |
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Next we strart to form clay over this foundation to form the face and head |
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piling and shaping it into a layer |
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and ready for sculpting. Here we have already shaped the nose! |
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Doreen has used me as a model for Jarda, the boy puppet (but she left off the mustache!) |
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Here Laurie and Joan work on Jitka, the girl puppet. Laurie was our guiding expert, having worked many years with the Heart of the Beast Theater who put on an annual May Day Parade, as well as school programs. |
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The face is shaped, and now ready for alternating layers of brown paper from shopping bags, and newspaper. But first, a layer of plastic wrap covers the clay so that the paper can be lifted off when dry. |
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Here Dayle (he's from St. Kits) and Marta (she's Moravian!) alternate the layers. Each strip is wet with a solution of cornstarch and water cooked to dissolve it. Each layer of brown paper is alternated with newspaper and can be built up while still wet. |
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Here Jarda is completely covered in paper, and Jitka in the background has one of its first newspaper layers. |
