Are you being pursued by a bear?

Exit, pursued by a bear is one of the most famous stage directions in theatre history, from Shakespeare's Winter's Tale, Act II scene iii.

I wonder how it was done in the Elizabethan theatre. I have decided to celebrate it with letterpress and knitting.

I am rather proud of my mohair bear, with eyes and a nose - a nose most unusual for my knitting, but it had to be done.

And poor Antigonus, looking a little dejected, with mad crazy orange hair, and a motley body.
It's printed with a lovely big wooden font, with stylish buttons to loop the puppets into place.

I sometimes feel like there's a bear chasing after me with a list of thingsI have to do, brandishing deadlines and expectations and frantic stuff. Hmm. But I suppose if it's a mohair bear with no teeth then that's ok.
Exit pursued is in my Etsy shop, and is coming with me to the Dinefwr Festival this weekend. http://etsy.me/1yhxTxu

Shakespeare's Birthday. Letterpress. Poems While U Wait.

I thought I would celebrate Shakespeare's birthday with some letterpress and knitting. Of course - how else would I do it?! Here are some of my new cards, awaiting posh photos before being offered to a discerning public.

It seemed a shame to make a Richard III, when I could do a horse instead. The horse represents the absolute limit of my ability to knit. The font I used for the word 'horse' has a Wild West saloon poster look to it that I really like. 

The most famous stage direction of all, from Winter's Tale. I don't usually stitch noses on finger puppets, but thought the bear needed one.

I have a soft spot for Mark Antony, one of the sexiest of all flawed heroes. I hope I have done him justice, in his Senatorial toga.

 The Shakespeare puppets will be coming with me to the Big Skill Crafts Festival at Racquety Farm in Hay on Wye on 24th to 26th May. Here's a link to their Facebook Page, https://www.facebook.com/thebigskill
I will also be doing Poems While U Wait at the event. Very much looking forward to that. I hope William would have approved.

A shed full of print & Shakespeare

At last, I have surrendered and made my shed solely into a print studio.

Very proud of my shelves - strangely enough, Ikea didn't have shelves specifically for trays of type, but these are fine.

The proofing press is on the floor. It's so heavy I figured it would probably end up there anyway.  I quite like leaning down to print.

I have been in a Shakespeare frenzy, finding quotes and bits of quotes. It's amazing how much Shakespeare we know and say without realising. I am planning some less literary printing, but it's been just William so far.

And this card has sold to several parents with children doing course work and dissertations. The big O is fabulous.

I decided to sew the prints onto cards rather than stick them. I don't know how adhesive is done commercially, but I never manage to get a card completely flat, despite my book press (that's still in the sitting room, doubling as a sculpture). And I like the look of the stitching!

The machine complained a bit, but it's been with me a long time and used to make pantomime costumes, so it's used to some extreme sewing.

Some of the cards have finger puppets on, of course. Here's Hamlet.

The cards, with and without puppets, have already been out to a couple of craft fairs, and will go onto my Etsy shop, as soon as I have photographed them successfully. And then away from Shakespeare and into Bride & Groom, Congratulations, Happy Brithday, and You Know Nothing Jon Snow territory. The last phrase is a Game of Thrones thing!

Mari Lwyd. Finger puppet commission. Wassail!

 The Mari Lwyd, or Grey Mare, is part of an ancient Welsh tradition, taking place over Christmas and New Year. It's a ritual to bring luck and celebrate the turning of the year. A noisy group of people go from door to door, singing and bantering, hoping to gain admittance and a reward of food and drink. They accompany one of their number  disguised as a grey horse, holding a real horse's skull aloft and draped in white sheets. The jaw was often made to snap, and the Mari would dance and weave, chasing children and causing chaos.

My friend the artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins has a long and deeply emotional relationship with the Mari Lwyd, and last year saw him creating a remarkable work for chamber orchestra narrator and puppets,
The Mare's Tale. He describes it and the piece beautifully, and much better than I could, on his blog.

http://clivehicksjenkins.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/the-mare-steps-out-in-2014/

Clive commissioned me to make an edition of eight Mare's Tale finger puppet collage gift cards, celebrating The Mare's Tale, to give as gifts to his creative collaborators.  He sent me artwork to use as the collage for the cards. It was interesting working in black, white and grey, as my natural inclination is towards extreme colour!

I used white tissue paper stuck over the skulls to give an impression of material. And strips of a textured black paper to give a little shine.

I printed the word mari on each card using grey ink, a wooden titling font and my Adana letterpress machine. I didn't want it too obvious, the word emerging as you look at the card.

Then to create the finger puppets! The man with the Mari was straightforward. I used black yarn with a tiny sparkle in it, and Clive told me brown eyes. The Mari was more tricky. I needed to get the idea of a skull, which I made by looking very carefully at Clive's design and then interpreting it in wool!

The body needed to look fluid and above all not solid. I knitted it in an eyelet stitch which gives a loose holey effect. I did try fabric draped round the head, but it looked like a headscarf, not suitable at all. So I stitched random and varied lengths of wool to the top of the head, and fastened them loosely to the body, which I hope gave the impression of movement and fluidity.  Here's the entire herd;

The finished cards looked  detailed and dense, with the word mari letterpressed on the back.

The Mari placed above her companion, and really quite menacing.

 Each card was different.  Then printing on the back of the presentation box for each,

which was backed inside with crumpled purple tissue paper, and tied with gold thread. I didn't photograph any finished cards in their boxes, but they looked very good!
My thanks to Clive for this great commission.

Happy New Year!

Santa & the Three Scrooges

I have been preparing seasonal finger puppet gift cards for Crickhowell Craft Fair, Caemawr Studio in Hay on Wye, and The Print Shed, Madley.

 

Here is Santa, happily taking the money, on his own colourful collage Christmas card.

He is joined by three Scrooges, each one with its own Christmas ghost.

Here's the ethereal ghost of Christmas Past. I found a tiny old edition of A Christmas Carol, and have put little pieces of the text onto each card.

Here's the jovial Ghost of Christmas Present,

and finally the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come who does, I admit, look a little like an enraged tea bag. I've had such fun devising these cards - I hope they find new homes over the festive season!
 

Crickhowell Craft Fair, 23rd November, Clarence Hall, Crickhowell.

Caemawr Studio Hay on Wye, open Thursday to Sunday until 21st December.

The Print Shed Madley open weekend, 29th November to 2nd December.

3 knitted Santas in a boat

I have been knitting Santa finger puppets to feature on collage finger puppet Christmas cards.
The collage is going to have Santa happily agreeing to endorse Coke while still wearing his favourite clothes - the modern image of Santa is often thought to be the invention of artist Haddon Sundblom in his Christmas soft drink adverts, starting in 1931.

In fact, Santa as we know him was created and standardised in the 1860s, when artist Thomas Nast made a series of pictures for Harper Magazine. Santa was protrayed as a jovial chap in red and white, with a toy workshop. The idea for writing to Santa also came from Thomas Nast. Until then, Santa had appeared in a number of different guises.
Anyway, I knitted three Santas and stood them in my open glasses case, and it immediately changed into a rather lovely boat.

I saw three Santas come sailing in...
Photos of the finished Santa collage cards to follow.

Art Exhibition. Caemawr Studio. I'm in it!

I am very excited to be exhibiting in the opening of a new Studio in Hay on Wye. Caemawr Studio is off Oxford Road in Hay, at the top of the Offa's Dyke Path, and is a really beautiful space, overlooking fields and the mountains beyond. The Studio opens this Saturday, 26th October, at 11am.

There's Gaynor and Georgina Funnell, Sarah Putt, Tracey Thursfield, Cassie Pendle - and me!

I am presenting poetry in seed packets, poetry wall installations, and some literary finger puppets. Photos of the new Scrooge finger puppets cards to follow - at the moment the collages are in the book press.

Sitting and knitting. Helped by my cat.

A day at home today, knitting finger puppets. I knit in the sitting room, so here is the arm of my chair near the end of the day,

You can see some Scrooges in black, Ghosts of Christmas Present in green, and ghosts of Christmas Past in grey with white eyes. Two Jonathan Harkers are perched in the little box of wool.
I was helped today by my cat,

who seemed to think that standing on my shoulders was of use. It was very kind of him!

Celebrating Wordsworth's Daffodils

I have been celebrating 'Daffodils' by William Wordsworth with a new knitted finger puppet collage.

 the caption reads

a host of what? William pondered

It's a much simpler card than most, and I have used the loose pages from a lovely old book about flowers that was in pieces and not fit for anything except using for collage.

I like the rustic colour of William as well.

The next card in the series has William thinking 

when all at once I saw a cow

but since my attempts to knit a cow finger puppet have resulted in what looks like a mutant dalmatian dog, I may have resort to the pages of the Farmer's Weekly magazine and use images instead.

William is coming with me to Free Verse:The Poetry Book  Fair in London on 7th September, and is already in place at The Print Shed in Madley for the h Art exhibition.

www.theprintshed.net

poetrybookfair.com

Courgette canoes.

I hollowed out some courgettes to fill with a savoury stuffing, and realised they would make good canoes for my finger puppets.

Paddling like mad with a silver spoon on a rough sea.

This is the rather shaky view taken as if from the rescue helicopter.

 Two intrepid travellers set out together, 

but they too need rescuing from the perfect storm.

I am looking forward to more maritime squash activity when the monstrous pumpkins in the veg garden get to full size. 

Seven Deadly Zines.

Here is a photo of my latest project - The Seven Deadly Zines. I don't know if zines usually feature knitted finger puppets, but these will!

from top left;

Envy, Avarice, Anger, Gluttony, Sloth, Pride, Lust.

I have started writing the text for each little book, and am having an interesting time looking behind the strong Christian interpretations to older, more elemental ideas.

How many of them have you experienced? I've only managed three!

Finger puppets leaving home

I am delighted that my Shakespeare finger puppet gift cards are on display in the wonderful book shop 

Book-ish in Crickhowell. www.book-ish.co.uk 

 

AND more excitement, as my Operatic finger puppets and a selection of letterpress composer cards can now be found in the excellent Abergavenny Music shop, in Abergavenny.  abermusic.com

I am thrilled that these two great shops have taken some of my work. Thank you, Emma and James!

You can see lots more of my work, including seed packet poetry, in my Etsy shop  http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/quarto17

Wagner birthday artefacts

Celebrating Wagner's significant birthday with knitting, collage, and letterpress. Photographed in front of my beloved Adana 8x5 letterpress machine you can see Brunhilde looking for a horse, Lohengrin looking for suitable transport, and the Flying Dutchman looking for love. The birthday cards have music from Lohengrin, birthday gift wrap and a letterpress printed name.

 I am taking them and lots of others to the Diffusion Festival Publishing Weekend at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff, 25th and 26th May. www.diffusionfestival.org

Here are the cards, with Brunhilde, who as you can see, has been looking in the Horse and Hound magazine for a new steed.

Knitted Literary Cohort ready for Diffusion Fair

Here are a few of the cohort of Literary and Operatic finger puppet collage cards, ready to travel from Hay on Wye to the Diffusion Festival Publishing Weekend in Cardiff.

Celebrating some of the great characters and stories of opera and literature, the idea for them came to me in a vision as I awoke at the end of Act 2 of a concert performance of Parsifal.

The cards have knitted finger puppets, text either handwritten or typed on my ancient typewriter, and collage. Here are King Lear and his Fool,

and Caliban and Ariel,

My current favourite is Don Giovanni, who you can see with the Commendatore on the bottom left of the first photograph.

I am really looking forward to bringing the cohort to Diffusion at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff at the weekend, 25th and 26th May.
www.diffusionfestival.org

Be careful. I think the puppets come alive at night.

Flying Dutchman. Lovelorn. Film.

 Here is a link to a very short film about the Flying Dutchman, and his search for love.  Made with a fingerpuppet Dutchman, and various artefacts. Musical director is Peter Reynolds, who is actually a rather serious composer!

   http://youtu.be/jdyD7yOiLdk

                             The photo shows the Dutchman, stranded on a collage.

Papageno. Papagena. Romance.

     Here is a short film, about Papageno and his search for love.  

    I am not sure I have downloaded it correctly, so here's the link if not. 

http://youtu.be/_xH3DnsZWQU

 It's the first of  a series, made with Peter Reynolds, who is actually a rather serious composer - ha!

More finger puppets to look at and buy on my website www.francescakay.co.uk 

Shakespeare. Calphurnia. Dreams of Doom.

Here is Caesar's wife Calphurnia, awaking from dreams where she foresees Caesar's death in Act III.

DO NOT GO FORTH TODAY, she says, but he goes forth and - well you know what happens. Perhaps going forth after a Dream of Doom isn't a good idea.








You can see more gift cards featuring finger puppet characters on my website;
www.francescakay.co.uk