The Circus is in Town!

Thanks to everyone for making this a really special performance....To the kids for performing their hearts out on a hot afternoon, never stopping or showing fatigue...To the parents who became puppeteers, and smoke machine technician's, and for their willingness to dress up....To all our families and friends for turning out to support us on the day...To our hair and make up technician; you provided the missing link on the day...to 'Queen Ebay' for all your 'shopping' and encouragement; what a shame you couldn't parade on the day... and to all at 'Walk the Plank' for believing in us and helping us make steam.

This bit of the story is best told in pictures......

Diamond Days

This is how my family spent the Bank Holiday, making 21st century slaves of our children who are responsible for the excellent dials and the oil can. ' Little Plum' designed the lettering, and models Lol's goggles. The 'men' took charge of the elephants head. They have exceeded the designers brief; and I'm loving it.

Putting in the steam

It's all about jaw drop moments for me, and this is it....real steam.....

We are all beginning to get very excited now.

We take to the streets

This is the 'Great Elephant of Technological Advancement' enjoying its first walk on the streets of Manchester.

The 'engineers' are learning to love their charge, which behaves very nicely indeed. It needs considerable dressing up at this stage...you won't recognise it on the parade.

Big noise

These bassoons have been attracting a lot of interest. No wonder.

Thanks to M. for a great design and making workshop on these, and thanks also to Bombshell Boom Boom (find them on Youtube) for the inspiration.

Breaking down and dressing up

dyeing and cogs

Working in heat this weekend and the puppet seems a bit harder to assemble when M. comes around to see it for the first time....does bamboo expand in warm weather? We work the puppet using the head, which is now fixed correctly. and Db. experiments with movements. We find we have a whole range of very expressive things this beast can do.  (There is now the film footage of the puppet in action on the updated 'elphant skeleton' post, from the first time we got it walking.)

The sunshine is very welcome because I have some dyeing to do, and things won't dry in the cool we have been used to. I notice the purple dye tones with my newly opened roses, but you can't see the roses in the image, because I have framed the photograph to avoid the junk mountain on the patio....Was I really wearing my woollen hat this time last week?

And finally, we transfer the making to the communal gardens at the rear of our home, where there is some dappled shade ( it is really too hot on the tarmac at  the front). It's cogs all the way now as we fashion the quintessential components of a steampunk elephant.

A big headache

Saturday was an extremely cold and miserable day for working outside in the street. No sun, and a chill in the wind. Undeterred Db. and I set to work on the puppet...well, we have a deadline...

So we trundle the pieces of puppet out of the garage, and assemble them once again on the road...This time we make things unnecessarily complicated by raising the main spine of the beast to it's actual height, before adding the shoulders and ribcage...so now we have the interesting phenomenon of working at height. Hmm.

At this stage some elderly neighbours, on their daily constitutional, walk by, stop, and ask what on earth we are making. Very kindly they offer any help, saying we need only ask  'you know where we are.'. I am speechless, because I seriously doubt they could do anything of practical help, but I am touched by the offer all the same.

Once again it's a day of feeling mostly like little progress is being made. I think this is largely because with gaps between actual workdays, you have to reacquaint yourself with the job, and find yourself doubting things you have done, and rethinking, only to arrive back at the same place again. 

The fabric on the ribs proves problematic, and we tweak this for much of the morning....and I then spend the early evening back in the warm sewing alterations.

The street is partciularly busy today, and a group of young men in a car gawp, and pull up to ask what we are making; they seem impressed. This is great news since I can only see a load of bamboo, and a huge amount of work before it looks remotely like the thing I have designed. And to be honest I am beginning to doubt it ever will look like the thing I designed....It is that stage in the process, and it is very cold.

But with a bit more effort, and a few more neighbourly exchanges, the day resolves quite nicely at around 3pm. We have a working head, with one ear. Db. and I try the puppet out to see how the operation of the head works. Apart from the fact that the bamboo I am operating the head with is too thin, and bends, making me lose control of it, (it swings down and plants itself in Db's groin)...this goes better than expected. 

To our delight more neighbours appear at this point to see the puppet in action; they can actually see what it is, and congratulate us...'it's really coming on,' they smile.

The little boy opposite has a friend to visit, and the friend asks us what it is...the neighbours boy answers for us, 'it's an elephant'. He says this in a matter of fact way, and his friend looks on in awe, 'that's ace' he says (or perhaps he says something more contemporary?). I am astonished, for we are dismantling the beast, and it has no head at this stage, and to me it looks like an ugly bamboo frame.


Nothing a hot bath can't cure.

I am slightly sad that the neighbours won't see the finished item, since next weekend we move it to the WOW to dress, paint and rehearse with it.

gaiter heaven

...possibly a slight exaggeration, but actually it is extremely satisfying to have spent the afternoon perfecting the 'gaiter'. Really it is.

Gaiters modelled for me here by my youngest, 'little plum', who is so thrilled with them he is keeping them on until his dad gets home....to see if he notices...?

the team comes together

It's been a great week for bringing together the group in various ways.

We've had the first rehearsal at the WOW, which was great to establish the fact that we are engaging in a piece of street theatre with roles and a story....M. was in full flow as director, her cat movements are particularly memorable....and the arrival of a big bass drum took the potential for our band to new levels whilst proving to be the perfect cure for one teenagers headache....

We've also had the first of what I hope will be many informal making sessions, with developments in props and costume, oh, and the elephant now has 'sails'....

Highlights include watching 'Queen ebay' at the sewing machine...surely a first? And a great mother/son partnership pattern cutting and sewing together. In between construction the kids run around and play. This is surely what it's all about?