What I’m doing for RadCon 2009

So last year I was on a kimono panel where I found myself dressing (kitsuke) some of my friends in kimonos much to the amusement of their boyfriends. The other folks on the “panel” were Japanese clothes collectors and though they had nice collections they deferred to me for kimono kitsuke. That’s okay, because I love doing demos. I must’ve done too bad a job either for they asked me back this year. I said yes at which point the ask-er turned me over to the program chair…who happens to be in Greenwood with me…who knows I do puppets. Well one brainstorm lead to another and now I’m giving a workshop on Papier-mâché and its uses for costuming…masks, anime props, Girl Genius Clanks etc.
This is overwhelming if you think about it…sure I do lots of papier-mâché puppets and I’ve done the occasional mask or head piece. The process is the same in all…but how does one teach in 3 hours something that will demonstrate the possibilities without over tasking the students with deciding what they want to make. The answer I’ve come to is: you can’t. If you are going to teach the process, it works the same in all subjects, the first thing that happens after presentation is a highly structured practice. Once a student has practiced it a few times…then they are ready to move into production. I don’t have time to get them that far. So they must make some prop that has some element of mask to it and some element of anime prop as well as something I’m not to bad at myself.
You keeping up so far?
Okay, so I bounced a few ideas off my favorite victim for such an assault (Frank) and we came up with a practice subject that I think just might fill the bill…a head on a stick. Huh? What do I mean? Think jester stick. Think about all those walking stick props you see with snake heads or skulls. Think Card Captor Sakura and her moon-topped staff. Think Inu Yasha and Jaken’s staff. Think a king’s scepter. Think José Jalapeño on a stick. Plus you get to make a smaller version of what could be a mask. Also…it’s a puppet, is it not? Sí, señora!
Now…what do you think of that plan?