Big Spaces, Small Animals
As most of you know, I’m one of the co-founders of Unraku, a puppetry studio in Toronto that combines the talents of several puppeteers and puppet builders who work in diverse styles of puppetry. All of us there adore the work of Kelly Kirkham (see previous post) – another one of Unraku’s co-founders – who makes beautiful hand puppets and marionettes through her studio Run Rabbit Run.
Kelly builds traditional hand puppets and marionettes using papier mache that have a lovely old fashioned aesthetic to them. She’s recently started to explore filmmaking and I think this video – created earlier this year for an art exhibit here in Ontario called Big Spaces, Small Animals – is her first piece. It’s very quiet, thoughtful and contemplative. It’s very different from much of what usually gets mentioned here on PuppetVision, and that’s precisely why I like it so much.
Kelly is teaching two puppet building workshops later this year, one on hand puppet construction at Open Door Designs and another on marionette making at Unraku (details for the second workshop haven’t been announced yet). If you’re in or near Toronto you should sign up and check them out!


