November 8, 2023 | Puppet Building Workshop | Mary Nagler | San Francisco, CA
There is something humbling and deeply satisfying about sitting down in a room full of people and just making a puppet. No performance pressure, no deadlines, no camera. Just materials, tools, and the slow satisfying process of building something from nothing.
The two-day puppet construction and fabrication workshop with Mary Nagler was exactly that kind of experience and I came away from it a better builder.
Mary Nagler is a wonderfully skilled and generous teacher. Over two intensive days she guided the group through puppet construction and fabrication techniques with the kind of depth and precision that only comes from years of genuine craft knowledge.
Working with someone at that level in a small workshop setting is a rare opportunity. You get to ask the questions you cannot find answers to online, see the techniques demonstrated in real time, and make the mistakes in a safe environment where someone experienced can help you understand what went wrong and why.
For me the workshop was both a chance to refine techniques I was already using and to pick up entirely new approaches to fabrication that I had not encountered before. Foam fabrication and fleece skinning are central to how I build but there is always more to learn about how to get the best out of your materials. How to cut foam cleanly, how to get fleece to sit right, how to solve the structural problems that every build throws at you differently.
I left with new skills, new ideas, and a notebook full of things to try on the next build. If you ever get the chance to attend a workshop with Mary Nagler, Take it.
