Above is an image of a few of the paper puppets and dolls that will be on offer at Villianous Valentines this weekend at Eldritch Theatre in the Leslieville neighbourhood of Toronto. This arts & crafts show will run February 4-5 from 11 a.m.- 6 p.m. Papercut Puppets will have a puppet bundle available at a discounted price only at the show. Will also have a small number of my zoetropes for sale.
Firstly, I’d like to wish everyone a Happy & Healthy New Year!
I have a brand new paper puppet to share with you all:
This is Wilfred the Wizard, a magical marmalade cat. While other wizards may apply their art of alchemy towards transmuting base metals into gold, Wilfred prefers to focus his arcane knowledge towards conjuring catnip and other treats.
Final size of puppet once assembled: 9″ H x 6″ W
Available as a digital download, a DIY puppet kit, and as a pre-assembled puppet.
Available in my Online Shop or on Etsy.
[NOTE: I began crafting this little post on April 1st, but didn’t post it till the 10th].
What fresh Hell is this, gentle readers? As I sit and compose this post it’s April 1st, ordinarily a day of tricks and general tomfoolery. The universe, however, pulled the biggest prank on us humans ever and forced us all into seclusion, lest we contract the COVID-19 virus and overburden our healthcare systems (or worse). Not funny, Universe.
When not scrambling to place curriculum online so that the Winter term can finish, this art professor busies herself with drawing strange little paper puppets. Frivolous, you say? Perhaps. And yet, we all have our coping strategies for stress, and mine has always been drawing and various other creative pursuits. This creativity of mine won’t find a cure for the current pandemic, but it’s a tiny corner of control I can wield in an otherwise rudderless situation. Below are some recent creations, with a focus on the approach of Spring.
Brand new paper puppet in my Etsy shop: the Little Halloween Witch. Available pre-assembled with brads ($30) or as a downloadable paper craft ($6).
In addition to teaching and making art and animated films, I like to make and sell articulated paper puppets for my Etsy shop. Think I just enjoy the straightforward, playful simplicity of puppets and paper dolls.
I recently made this short stop-motion video “commercial” to promote my shop — but, honestly, I just wanted to get some of these puppets under camera to see what I could do with them. Their range of motion is limited (most of the heads don’t move), but I was up for the challenge.
The music is just some royalty free loop I downloaded from Soundsnap.
This is Mabel, a bright and happy tot with a parasitic twin named Myrtle. The two are inseparable, and they wouldn’t have it any other way.
Find her on my Etsy shop https://etsy.me/2w5Iz7u
Hi Darklings,
Quick update as to what’s happening in the world of all things papercut: Papercut Pictures and Papercut Puppets.
Firstly, my latest animated short Wunderkammer will screen May 11th at the Anifilm 2019 international animation festival in Třeboň, Czech Republic in the non-competitive programming block “Midnight Animation: Body”. This feels like a stylistic homecoming for this project, since it was inspired (in part) by Czech paper cutout animation, most notably the work of Jiří Trnka Studio in Prague (who created the feature-length cutout animation film Fantastic Planet).
In June, Wunderkammer screens on Thursday, June 6th at the granddaddy of North American underground film festivals, the Chicago Underground Film Festival.
Lastly, I continue to add to the paper puppets in my Etsy shop. Check in at regular intervals for the latest additions.
Over the Christmas/New Year’s break, I turned my attention towards the business side of my art practice. In the spirit of renewal for the New Year, I decided to resurrect my cobwebbed and long neglected Etsy shop and upload some new listings. Ultimately, I plan to add these to this web site/blog — with an option to purchase via PayPal button — once I figure how to actually do that.
The link to my Etsy shop is https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/jdlinton
Below are the listings on offer:
Lady Lazarus 