My hands are covered in little cuts and are cramping up, claw like. Over the last week or so I have been learning how to carve, and whenever I close my eyes I see a little chisel cutting a spiral of smooth wood. Extremely satisfying, like pealing paint. In the workshop at the Little Angel Theatre, puppets are coming to life for their Christmas show, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, a collaboration with Kneehigh Theatre.
Part of the set is to include a fishing net with crabs caught up in it, and it is my task to carve these crabs... 40 of them! Its a fairly simple shape (bit like a pasty), repeated again and again, so its quite a good starting point for me to work out some techniques.
This is an incredible and inspirational film about a puppet maker from the Cast Iron Marionette Troup,
based in Portland, Oregon. Just simply fascinating.