Will Krause » puppets

DISASTER!

willkrause — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 03:10:44 +0000

I designed this exhibit as a pop-up marketplace to be located on the site of the demolished Thunderbolt rollercoaster on Coney Island. It takes the shape of a giant squid attacking the mainland!

Nipple Robot – Silent Library

willkrause — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 09:57:08 +0000

Someday many years from now, my grandkids will ask me “Grandpa, were you ever a television robot star?” And I will be able to honestly tell them “Yes children, I was an EVIL television robot star.

I built this robot out of all sorts of odds-and-ends. A funnel, bucket, two mini plasma spheres to make a head, and two wheelbarrows to make a body. The legs are made from wiggle board and plywood, and then I attached a bunch of wires and junk circuit boards… with plenty of silver paint to make things look futuristic.

Courtland Premo made a remote control base for the robot by dissecting a remote-control golf bag carrier.

It gets very hot in a robot costume!

Motorized Cheek Pincher – Silent Library

willkrause — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 13:00:33 +0000

I cast these rubber hands and built them to pinch a contestant’s cheeks. A spring-powered clamp was modified to make the fingers pinch. Jason Singleton built the motors which moved the hands from side-to-side.

Puppet Stage for Miss Piggy!

willkrause — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 22:26:57 +0000

I built this puppet stage for Opening Ceremony’s event at Fashion’s Night Out. It was built over a long weekend out of plywood, MDF, yards of black and red velvet, and lots of Christmas lights! Andrew Bunch helped me with painting and assembly, and sewing magnets to the curtains so that they would close nicely, and Jessie Voris upholstered the chaise lounge – with buttons and everything!

Creature in a Jar – Silent Library

willkrause — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:00:43 +0000

This one was a challenge! I made this creature out of all sorts of materials: lobster claws, doll parts, shells from the beach, latex gloves, ping-pong balls, dust masks, shark jaws, lots of latex, and a toy octopus… a real potpourri of stuff.

Katie Akana thought of the pneumatic mechanism to suddenly open the creatures’ eyes, and Courtland Premo wired up a remote control device which used CO2 cartridge tire inflators and servos to operate the pneumatics.

Family Circus Art Show!

willkrause — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:00:08 +0000

I made this piece for a Family Circus-themed art show at the Guilty Pleasures Gallery (aka: curator Liz Zanis’s apartment.)

Billy runs when the large orange ring background rotates – the ground beneath his feet has offset bumps so that each foot is alternately set in motion. The faster the ring spins, the faster little Billy’s foam legs run.

It was made out of leftover materials destined for the trash: dented foamcore, faded construction paper, scraps of insulation foam, and almost-empty tubes of paint.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I fixed a Turkey!

willkrause — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 06:05:40 +0000

The Paul Taylor Dance Company contacted me to perform repairs on a prop stuffed turkey that was 44 years old! It was first used in a performance of “Orbs” in 1966. 44 is very old for an item made out of latex rubber, and I started my restoration by carefully trimming away all of the rubber that had hardened and become brittle. Quite a bit needed to be removed, since the turkey was left hanging in a window and the areas which were exposed to sunlight were especially deteriorated. One of the legs had broken away entirely, and the head had shattered and was missing a large chunk.

I rebuilt the head with polyurethane foam, and added new stuffing to bring the turkey back into turkey-shape. The body had become flattened and wrinkled over time, so I needed to cut away the worst of the wrinkles, and patch over these areas with bandages made out of gauze and liquid latex. I stitched together the holes in the old latex, and bandaged over the repairs to blend them in with the turkey’s skin.

Finally, I painted the turkey with a coat of tinted latex and the old bird was ready to take to the stage.

Stork Puppet

willkrause — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 18:20:54 +0000

I made this stork puppet for the recent season of Whitest Kids U’Know. It needed to be used as both a sock puppet when the head peeked through a window, and as a full-size flying puppet. The head is removable to serve as a sock puppet, and it fits back onto the body when the full bird needs to be used.

The framework of the stork is foam, wire, and corrugated cardboard, and the covering is a rough, stretchy wool-like material and lots of real feathers.

Stinky Gelatin Octopus!

willkrause — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 23:34:28 +0000

I’ve never had to cast an animal before, but there’s a first time for everything.

To keep the hot plaster from melting the octopus into a pile of reek, it was frozen. Its tentacles were flattened against a sheet of aluminum foil so that there wouldn’t be too many undercuts on the mold.

Katie Akana cast the octopus in gelatin (with some sort of secret ingredient to make the creature especially stinky!)

Electric Chicken

willkrause — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:37:57 +0000

This electric chicken mixer was made to scratch Silent Library contestants with its sharp talons!

I removed the guts from an ordinary hand mixer and modified them so that they would fit inside a rubber chicken; I’m very happy with how it came together, especially how the power cord comes out the chicken’s mouth.

Click here to view the embedded video.