Grade 9 Marionette Puppet - Max's Soccor World Cup Supporter Vusi Vuvuzela

Being twins, Max got the same brief as Connor regarding the creation of a puppet (see other post).  He decided on a marionette rather than a rod puppet due to his puppet needing to be more moveable.

We used a polystyrene ball as the base for the head and then used paper mache' and paper pulp to create the features. You need to make a whole through the middle of the head and push through a piece of string.

Once dry, the head was painted and features added. The hair was created in the same way as Connor's puppet, only using black paint rather than grey.  We made a short neck in the same way we created the arms.  Be sure to glue the top of the neck onto the bottom of the head though or it will spin independently which is annoying.

Max made the legs and arms using string and rolled up strips of newspaper.  You need two 'cigars' per arm and two per leg.  These will be tied together at the end.  The arms will be shorter 'cigars' than the legs. Paint them in your desired colour.

To make the body we used scrunched up newspaper and packaging tape.  Make sure to tape in pieces of strings in areas where the legs, arms and head can be attached later.

We made the clothing out of scraps of material.  The black shorts were attached using straight pins stuck into the body.  It's easier to dress the body first and then attach the arms and legs by tying the strings together.

We made the hands from brown felt.  Again you need to tie string to these in order to attach them.  If you cut four hands and glue the string inside two stuck together, it seems to work. His vuvuzela is a cotton reel from overlocking machine thread.  His hat or macaraba was a toy hat that we painted and added a South African flag to. We drilled a hole through it so the string from the head can fit through.

The boots were cut out from egg boxes following the shape we thought looked good. We painted these black and then attached them to the legs using black electrical tape.  Quick and easy.

The marionette driving mechanism is made from dowel rods. One down the center and two diagonally across.  The front one is slightly shorter than the back one.  Hopefully you can see from the first picture how we did it.  We then attached strings from the different areas of the body to the driving rods. In hindsight we should have attached the leg strings on the thighs rather than the shin area, but you live and learn.

Grade 9 Puppet Project - Connor's Madiba aka Nelson Mandela look-a-like

The brief said to make a puppet with an ethnic background.  You could make either a rod puppet or marionette.  Connor chose to make a rod puppet as it suited the style of puppet he wanted to create. He chose to honor the legacy of South Africa's beloved Madiba (Nelson Mandela) who died at the end of 2013.

The head was made up of paper mache'   The quickest way to create the head was using a toilet roll inner as a neck and then using twists of dry newspaper and masking tape to form the basic shape.  Paper mache' was then applied on top of this.  Place the toilet tube over the neck of a bottle, makes life much easier when working with the paper mache' application. The lips, ears, eyebrows etc. were all created using a paper mache' pulp.  It took about 3 days for the paper mache' to dry properly.  Then Connor could paint it.  He painted it solid brown first and then added in the shading and features afterwards.

Connor used batting (cushion stuffing) to make the hair.  We pulled it apart and then using his hands, Connor massaged in the grey paint.

The shoulder board which the head fits into and holds the clothing up was made out of an empty cardboard tube that my calendar came in.  We cut it to the right length and cut it in half.  We made a hole in the middle.

The clothing or kaftan type outfit was a straight strip of material sewn down the sides.  We sewed it slightly rounded on the shoulders too. The hands were made out of brown felt.  One hand is glued to a dowel rod which will act as the arm (cut dowel to appropriate size).  This needs to be secured to the shoulder board using a piece of string. We made a sleeve for this 'arm' out of the same material as the kaftan  A small slit on either side also needs to be cut in the clothing so the arm can go through it.  You need to put the arm through the slits in the material first before securing it to the shoulder board with the string on the inside of the clothing.  A bit fiddly!

Madiba's second arm is false and simply made from material and glued to the clothing.  We cut a hole in the top of the clothing big enough to match the hole in the shoulder board to insert the neck. We glued the neck into place. 

To finish, we wrapped the end of a another dowel rod in newspaper and tape (to fit snuggly inside the neck).  This is your 'driving' dowel.  We cut the dowel to the desired length and inserted up inside the clothing and into the neck.

The Twin Experiment

Although not confirmed by DNA tests, we have always thought of our twin boys as fraternal as to us they look entirely different from one another, although there are most definitely some physical similarities.  Being that a strange phenomenon exists whereby the word “Twins” seems to instill a mental block in a person’s brain, I have always supposed that was the reasoning behind so many peoples’ inability to tell Max and Connor apart. 

Recently many of the twins groups on Facebook have seen members posting pictures of their twins, whereby they have taken photographs of each of their twin sets, split the faces down the middle and joined them to create a single picture. It has been a rather interesting exercise in that the similarities in fraternal twins especially, have really been highlighted.

Fascinated by the outcome of these twin experiments, I decided to follow suite with my boys, the results of which have led me to believe that maybe other people are not so crazy in their inability to see the many differences in our boys that we do. 

The first picture is Connor, the second Max and the third, half and half.  Connor on the left and Max on the right.

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Garfield Naidoo - Cat Extraordinaire

This gorgeous cat used to belong to my neighbour, who has since moved away.  He just decided one day that he preferred our house to hers and so began the process of him 'moving in'.  It started with the odd visit, which then escalated to daily visits..... and somewhere along the line the boys began to feed him lunch, with my neighbours permission of course. One thing led to another and soon he was a permanent resident in our home, much to the boys' delight.  While my neighbour was rather sad that her most handsome cat had moved on, she was happy that he had the company of children, which is what he had apparently been craving since her daughter left home.  Garfield is not only a people cat, he is infact a people!

Rhino Awareness Posters - Grade 8

The Criteria:   Create a colourful poster that makes people aware of the plight of the Rhinos. 

Thank goodness I have a rather large craft collection which the boys got stuck into.

Connor's Poster

Max's Poster

Connor's Grade 8 Tech Project - Soma Cube

Connor chose to make a Soma Cube which is a kind of puzzle made up of smaller cubes, which when put together create one large cube.  There are apparently 240 different solutions for putting the puzzle together.

First Connor had to create 27 individual cubes which he made using a cube template and coloured cardboard I had lurking in my craft cupboard. He then glued cubes together to make up the 7 puzzle pieces.

When I gave the solution a go, I had to use the instructions we found on the internet, yet Connor managed to put it all together in a matter of seconds.  He did it differently everytime without a moments hesitation.  Clearly I'm not as logical as I thought.

Soma Cube:

http://www.mathematische-basteleien.de/somacube.htm 

Cube Template:

www.rovingbandofmisfits.com  

Max's Grade 8 Tech Project

The projects for term 3 continue.  The boys had to create a 3D model of something.  They also had to submit an isometric drawing of it.  Our beautiful cat, Garfield Naidoo was Max's inspiration to make a piece of cat furniture. We found easy instructions for this at  http://www.evilmadscientist.com/2008/cardboard-cat-chaise/

Max used an old TV box to create his couch and then dug in my material stash to add some style to his creation.