A great (and rare) look at the men who build traditional water puppets in a small village in Northern Vietnam. This is from a documentary that Italian film student Alessandra Grassi is currently working on. She spent two months in Vietnam in 2011 and if this footage is any indication, her film is going to be really fascinating.

You can learn more about Vietnamese Watter Puppetry and follow along with the progress of her film on her blog Vietnam, Water and Puppets.

Tough Pigs recently sat down for an exclusive interview with Bonnie Erickson. If you don’t already know Bonnie’s name, you should; she headed the Muppet Workshop for many years during the Muppet Show era (she is credited as as the designer and builder of Miss Piggy, the Muppet Newsman, Statler and Waldorf among many, many other famous characters) and is currently the Executive Director of the Jim Henson Legacy.

Here are links to all four parts of the interview:

• Interview with Bonnie Erickson, part one
• Interview with Bonnie Erickson, part two
• Interview with Bonnie Erickson, part three
• Interview with Bonnie Erickson, part four

It’s a great interview and a must-read for Muppet fans and anyone els curious about what it was like to work in the Muppet workshop in the heyday of the `70s and `80s.

Todd the Puppet Master (see previous post) demonstrates proper glue gun technique. You can watch all of the Puppet Master’s videos on YouTube.

How To Train Your Dragon Live is a new $20 million arena show that opens next March in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. It looks pretty incredible; all of the dragons in the show were created by the Creature Technology Company, which was previously responsible for the internationally touring arena show Walking With Dinosaurs (see previous post).

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how the animatronic dragons in the show are being created:

Videos via Kari and Cartoon Brew (lots more can be seen in CTC’s Vimeo profile).

I’ve been lucky enough to collaborate with Mathieu René (see previous post) – better known online as “Creaturiste” – off and on for past few years thanks to our mutual association with Unraku. He’s one of the most knowledgeable and innovative puppet and mask makers working in papier mache anywhere in the world. You can see some of his papier mache work in his incredible online portfolio, but photos don’t really do his work justice. It’s simply beautiful.

Mathieu is now offering online courses in papier-mâché mask making; he’s also willing to custom tailor the workshop to your specifics needs and interests. If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to work in this medium you should sign up for one of his online workshops (or in person, if you live in or near Montreal).

To learn more or sign up for a workshop, contact him directly at creaturiste@gmail.com. You won’t regret it.

Over the past few years Etsy has been producing a lot of videos, ranging from craft tutorials and “how-to” videos to really beautifully shot mini-documentaries about prominent Etsy members. I think my personal favourites are their Process series, which profile artists at work and their creative process. One of the best of these features the work of Geahk Burchill, who is the founder of The Cast Iron Carousel Marionette Troupe and sells his beautiful work on Etsy. Not only does Geahk do great work, but this is a really inspiring video to watch.

You can watch all of the Etsy videos online for free. I previously mentioned their profile of my friend and fellow Unraku-er Stacey Gordon back in 2009.

Just some absolutely incredible animatronics by John Nolan.

Hat tip to Dangerous Minds via Sons of Punch.

If you haven’t already watched this – it’s been spreading around the internet like crazy for the past couple days – you need to. It’s an inspiring TED Talk with Handspring Puppet Company co-founders Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones explaining the evolution of their puppets, which culminated in the incredible horses of Warhorse (see previous post). Over the course of this 18 minute long video Adrian and Basil explain how their style of animal puppets have evolved over the years and demonstrate the innerworkings of “Joey” the star of Warhorse.

I had the chance to see Warhorse in London last year and it’s an amazing piece of theatre. The horse puppetry is absolutely stunning; watching it you really believe that you’re watching horses. Warhorse recently opened in New York and a new production is planned here in Toronto next year. If you have the chance to see this show, please do. You won’t regret it. If you’d like to learn more about Handspring, their history and their process I highly recommend the excellent Handspring Puppet Company book, which you can order online from David Krut Publishing.

Special thanks to all the readers who took the time to write in with this!

I don’t generally post puppet making videos here, but since it’s Chinese New Year I thought that this look at the process of making a Chinese Lion Head was appropriate. Lions are a form of Chinese full body costume puppet worn by two puppeteers, usually martial artists or acrobats, and Lion Dancing is traditionally performed at homes, shops and public festivals throughout China at this time of year.

Here’s some video of an incredible Lion Dance demonstration in Hong Kong:

Although Lion Dance is primarily a Chinese tradition,  they’re popular in other parts of Asia like Malaysia and the Philippines as well as in Chinese communities throughout North America and elsewhere. There are also interesting variants of Lion Dancing in Korea and Japan.

Gung hay fat choy everyone!

A look at more of the work of Norman Schneider, who was responsible for the frog in last week’s German music video Küssen kann man nicht alleine.

Via Puppet News.