The Prade

Saturday and Sunday consisted of a lot of running about organising and getting things ready for 1:30.

I helped rig the pirate ship, and sort the pyrotechnics without falling off the bow of the ship or blowing myself up. 

We laid out the puppets on tarps as the grass was wet through from rain. The weather wasn't amazing on Saturday or Sunday but the rain kept off for the duration of the parade.

There was a great turn out both days, and I scared lots of children. 

result

pyros

Laid out puppets

Face paint

The wind meant that, in the name of streamlining, the highest allegorical women on the trikes were  left off

My little dragons

Me as the green dragon

My green man looking awesome

It ain't easy being green.

Midsummer Watch Prep

 Friday's job was to get the puppets and floats into a van, and the larger floats into the market carpark. 

 Vicky and I also organised the rehearsal room, putting out face paints, brushes and water for the people joining in with the parade to use, and taking over the hats for the devil band and jesters. 

This mirror was brilliant

Order of procession

It was bastarding down with rain, the ceiling was leaky

New Website

In a bid for professionalism.
I done a website.
Have a look here why don't you?

7 Rules of Achievement: From Vision to Action The Complete Guide to Programming Your Internal Success Mechanism!!!

7 Rules of Achievement: From Vision to Action The Complete Guide to Programming Your Internal Success Mechanism!!!  2012 

willow, latex, stockinette,  pillows, card, paint, found objects

Faye Scott-Farrington & Sophie Daniel

Foamy Bathsoak is not your average maggot. He's a maggot with ambition, a maggot with a plan. Where his peers may be content and happy to live out their days in squalor and poverty, Foamy dreams of more. A career, a house, car, dishwasher, broadband connection…. some legs, perhaps?

Why should he merely live up to the expectations society has for a pupa? Why, when he has so much more to offer, should he be confined to a life in his subterranean bedsit like everyone else?He's read complicated books, he's working on gaining more qualifications, aiming higher. 2012 will be his year the year of the maggot. Foamy Bathsoak is determined to be different, he understands the job market is saturated but with his level 2 spoken French and O level in Mathematics this bug thinks he can go far. If he can survive in a box of soil, he has what it takes to survive the cut and thrust of the world today, Foamy wants to rise above the surface, break down the walls of his box and take on new challenges. Foamy Bathsoak is going to be living proof that change is possible for anyone.

We would like to show you around Mr. Bathsoak's home, to witness the changes that are taking place, see how he is making things happen and building himself a brighter future. One day you will be able to say “I knew Foamy Bathsoak before his success, before he became a living-legend”. His bedsit is small, but he won't be there much longer once his career kicks off, so there isn't much time... try and make yourself at home.

Come and witness his exceptional metamorphosis!

The work will be on show until June 5th 2012 at Saint Andrew's Court Shopping Arcade in Bolton

Foamy's Head

I tasked myself with making Foamy's head whilst Sophie stuffed the body

I used the same technique as with the body frame and the green man I've made for Midsummer Watch Parade

Building Foamy's Body

Sophie's plan...

I constructed a withy, paper and latex frame onto which stuffing could be attached, this was then covered in stockinette. 

I think the technique was flawed, Sophie struggled with stuffing the body and getting the latex to stick to the stockinette, which was thicker than the stuff I had used on the rat head I'd made for Manchester Day Parade. 

The overall shape of the body doesn't work in my opinion, it needs more podge around the bottom...

Foamy Bathsoak's Kitchen unit

possibly my finest work. 

Midsummer Watch - School Workshop

Hey Russell, which is your hou....oh never mind...

On Monday I got the chance to work with the lovely children at Newton School in Chester. Each year, different schools participate in the Midsummer Watch Parade by making work on sticks around the themes of the larger puppets which they walk with during the parade. Newton School, this year, were producing ravens.

The interesting thing about these ravens is that despite their relatively simple construction, each one is very individual and striking, no two are the same at all. It was good to work at troubleshooting and problem solving with the kids, I helped a little with the initial cutting out but after that I didn't really help any more with the construction. When asked if I would cut something out by individual children I encouraged them to do it on their own by suggesting how they might go about it. Some of the kids were much more responsive than others, but that is the nature of small humans. Nobody had a tantrum and the finished ravens looked really great, so in all it was a great success.