Elissa and Troggg presented a talk at the highly acclaimed TEDx Brisbane on 14 October 2023.
The theme for TEDx Brisbane 2023 was ‘The Power of Intention’. What is our intention when it comes to the art of puppetry?
We are super proud of both the delivery and the content of our TEDx Talk. The professional video recording is available to watch on YouTube here.
A big thanks to Juanita, Rob and everyone at TEDx Brisbane for your support in rehearsing and producing our talk. It was an experience we’ll never forget!
Larrikin Puppets is excited to announce the launch of Lovelace, an enchanting puppet built of electronic waste. Believed to be the first professional puppet in the world to be made of ewaste, this is Larrikin Puppets’ first major puppet construction project.
We were wanting something spectacular to add to our Environmental Sustainability Puppet Show – something that would capture the hearts and minds of older children in the audience and their families.
Elissa is passionate about sustainability and is aware of some of the troubling facts around ewaste – including the fact that most ewaste lasts forever – so the idea of an ewaste puppet was born.
We have seen art sculptures made out of ewaste and puppets made out of other types of waste, but we believe this may just be the world’s first professional puppet made out of electronic waste.
Lovelace is named after the most famous woman in technology Ada Lovelace who, born in 1815, was the world’s first computer programmer.
The puppet’s special features:
Mouth plate mechanism is a curling iron with metal mouth plates made from a computer CPU and a red circuit board tongue.
Platted hair is the insides of blue ethernet cables.
Breast plate is a monitor stand and the detail is a fan (it spins!) with a circuit board.
One leg is a rotating monitor stand.
Other leg is a video remote control and speaker bracket.
Eyes are from a computer speaker.
Neck is a computer CPU fan.
Arms are ethernet cables with computer mouse for mitten hands and an RJ45 plug for thumbs.
Green, blue and red motherboards with circuit boards for body and face.
Computer keyboard keys for cheeks.
Gold coloured metal lips from an old video player.
Blue nose is a heat sink from a motherboard.
Design
We – Brett and Elissa – worked together to research what style of puppet would best suit ewaste materials. We decided a Bunraku style of puppet would be ideal, given the likely heavy weight of the materials.
While Larrikin Puppets is accustomed to performing Muppet-style, light-weight foam and fur/fleece hand puppets where the puppeteer is hidden, Bunraku puppeteers appear on stage with their puppet – with their half-life-size dolls. However, given our passion for performing hand puppetry, we were keen to also give our puppet a moving mouth, something Bunraku puppets don’t traditionally have.
Brett drew an illustration of the puppet to highlight how we expected the puppet would move its limbs and its mouth, and where the rods might be placed.
Materials
The electronic waste was donated by ewaste recycling facility Buyequip located in Brisbane’s north.
We decided that – as wonderful as it would be for the puppet to be made entirely out of ewaste – it may need some bones and these bones may need to be made of foam. While we didn’t end up needing to use as much foam for the bones as we thought we would, we did stay true to the nature of the project and, rather than buy new foam, we sourced the foam from unwanted pool noodles and op shop kickboards.
While at the op shop on Bribie Island buying foam, we also found a curling iron in the electricals section thinking it might be a perfect mechanism for a moving mouth. The curling iron is an example of e-upcycling rather than e-waste.
We have lots of favourites when it comes to the features of this puppet, but the moving mouth is high on the list. Rather than makeshift something else, Brett insisted on using the curling iron as it was the easiest way to build a mouth plate with a moving lower jaw – something important in the world of hand puppetry. His stubbornness paid off as it’s the perfect fit.
Tools
Tools we used included a saw (to saw through plastic and metal), an angle grinder (to cut through metal), a drill (to drill holes for screws), a box cutter (to cut foam) and a glue gun. Four different glues were used depending on the material.
Ewaste facts
According to ewaste expert Brett Hyde, when it comes to materials that make up IT equipment, they break down rather than decompose.
This means that, over time, the material just splits apart into smaller and smaller pieces. None of the components are “living things”, so they never actually become one with the dirt.
So the key is making sure e-waste doesn’t end up in the natural environment, including landfill, in the first place.
How long electronic waste takes to break down:
Glass: 1-2 million years
Hard plastics: 1 million years
Aluminium: 200-500 years
Tin: 50 years
Copper: It doesn’t break down
Gold: It doesn’t break down
Palladium: It doesn’t break down
Silver: It doesn’t break down
Iron: It doesn’t break down
Zinc: It doesn’t break down
Iridium: It doesn’t break down
Book an Environmental Sustainability Puppet Show featuring Lovelace
Keen to see Lovelace up close and personal? Book an Environmental Sustainability Puppet Show featuring Lovelace! This 45 minute puppet show is suitable for children aged 5 and up and their families. Alternatively book a special 20 minute visit from Lovelace for an educational presentation about ewaste suitable for children aged 10 and up including high school and adult audiences.
Acknowledgements
Larrikin Puppets received an RADF Continue Creating 2021 Grant to help make this puppet project possible. The Regional Arts Development Fund is a partnership between the Queensland Government and Moreton Bay Regional Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.
Big thanks to:
Buyequip for donating the electronic waste.
Brett Hyde for always taking the time to educate Elissa and others about ewaste recycling.
Adrian Jenkins for lending us his workshop and tools.
We have another exciting music video collaboration announcement coming soon!
On Thursday, 29 October 2020 we had the great pleasure of meeting a group of very popular, award winning musicians and posing with our puppet characters for a photo shoot.
Our next meeting with these artists will be the filming of a crazy new music video for a song that will be a POP ANTHEM! Don’t be surprised if you start to see our characters Troggg, Flossy, Frazzamatazz and Freerange the Chicken all over the place very soon in photos and video clips associated with these VERY popular and talented acts.
Short trailer of a web series I recently had the pleasure of performing the puppet character on! Can’t wait to share the whole series with you! – Brett.
A sneaky glimpse of the brand new comedy series by Cheeky Moon, premiering in 2021.
Could this mysterious self-help organisation be a cult? Find out next year on IT’S A CULT!
Starring Christine Milo, Rhys McCane, Bronte Pearce and Sam Monaghan.
With Luisa Prosser, Daren King and Mark Grimes as the voice of Professor James Gilmour.
Written and directed by Claire Coe & Alastair Craig
Also appearing among the many splendid faces in this teaser: Amy Currie, Drew Lochrie, Rosa Sottile, Coen Gilbert, Dan Beeston, Tamara McLaughlin, Taylor Edwards and Jordan Schulte.
Directors of Photography in excerpts shown: Sean Smith / Dean Swindell / Owen Smith & David Aponas (Short Stack Productions)
Special guest puppetry by Brett Hansen of Larrikin Puppets.
Be kind to others who are different to you. Be kind to yourself if you are different from others. Share fun and food, not fear.
Out of concern for younger children’s understanding of other cultures in times of graphic news, Larrikin Puppets seeks community support to adapt Hijabi Girl into a musical theatre performance featuring newly created puppets.
Hijabi Girl is a children’s book for ages 7-9 co-authored by prolific Australian author Hazel Edwards OAM and children’s librarian Ozge Alkan, and illustrated by Serena Geddes. Written five years ago, and much reprinted, it is a refreshing look at the diverse cultures within most Australian schools.
Supporters can choose a reward or donate to Hijabi Girl: The Musical Puppet Show.
With themes around diversity, identity, anti-bullying and creative problem-solving that align with Australia’s national school curriculum, Hijabi Girl is a celebration of acceptance and coping successfully with being different.
‘Hijabi Girl’ Melek wants to start a girls’ footy team and write a book with a character in a hijab for Book Week Parade dressups. She’s so ‘over’ being Little Red Riding Hood. Larrikin Puppets’ Artistic Director Elissa Jenkins said creating a puppet show for a children’s audience based on a book full of cultural sensitivities required concerted research and development: new puppet builds, custom stage sets, converted scripts and original songs.
“While we are happy to invest our time into script development, songwriting and rehearsing, as we are neither puppet builders nor set designers, we need funding to support the creation of the puppets and the set, including materials,” she said.
Larrikin Puppets is calling on the generosity of the public to help fund the performance project via social cause crowdfunding platform Chuffed.
Supporters can choose a reward or donate to Hijabi Girl: The Musical Puppet Show.
With age relevant puppets, music and songs for 7-9 year olds, Larrikin Puppets will transform the Hijabi Girl storybook into a visual extravaganza using 21 spectacular human puppets, fish puppets, pencil puppets, a rice paper roll puppet and a kebab puppet in the style of The Muppets & Fraggle Rock. It will also be the company’s first foray into black light (UV) puppetry. Children’s librarian and co-author Ozge Alkan, a Muslim Australian who herself wears a hijab, said one of the reasons she wanted Hijabi Girl out there was because it tells the story of a girl who dresses differently to everyone else, and is totally fine with who she is.
“When the constant TV news message you hear is that different is bad and scary, it helps to have other messages that accept and celebrate being different,” Ozge said.
Best known for ‘There’s a Hippopotamus on our Roof eating Cake’, Hazel Edwards said they wanted Muslim students to read the ‘Hijabi Girl’ book and be reassured that there were characters like them in books.
“All children deserve that reassurance,” said Hazel.
“Also, once you have an understanding of another’s customs, there is no need to fear the unknown,” she said.
Hijabi Girl is now in its fourth reprint and is being read and enjoyed by students of all ages and backgrounds.
“The fan mail has been inspiring,” said Hazel.
Larrikin Puppets hopes to raise $8000 in 90 days to create the show and $20,000 to tour it nationally. They recently received a $4000 anonymous donation which has certainly inspired them to make it to the finish line!
Support is already coming in strongly, but the project is not without its naysayers.
“We thought most objections would come in from loud minorities who actively preach hate and intolerance, but we’ve also received a few objections from otherwise progressive individuals, specifically atheists and feminists, which has baffled me a bit,” said Elissa, herself a feminist.
“However, as a first generation Australian – a child of migrants – and a long-time and public advocate of secular schooling and secular government, I am passionate about this project because I don’t want any child in any Australian school, nor their families in local communities, who follow a particular religion to be discriminated against in schools or society at large,” she said.
“At the moment the religion copping the brunt of hatred and vilification are Muslim Australians.
“Hijabi Girl the book and Hijabi Girl: The Musical Puppet Show is not evangelising a particular religion. It’s not actually that profound and complex. It’s a fun story showing acceptance and kindness to children and people of different faiths.
“It’s not about changing the secular laws of our country nor the secular teachings in our schools. It’s about saying no to hate and yes to kindness.
“Be kind to others who are different to you. Be kind to yourself if you are different from others. Share fun and food, not fear.”
We can’t wait to add puppets, colour and music to the mix,” said Elissa.
Supporters can choose a reward or donate to Hijabi Girl: The Musical Puppet Show.
Join the NEW LARRIKIN PUPPETS FUZZY CLUB from just $1/month. NOT. EVEN. KIDDING. Here you’ll enjoy access to our Patreon-only Facebook members group where everything we’re doing gets talked about in detail. You’ll also get some bonus content for kids available only to Patreons.
Become a Patreon now:
Would you love to see quality, original puppetry performance art that supports child development? Become a Larrikin Puppets patron now at www.patreon.com/larrikinpuppets
Larrikin Puppets has experienced growth and success beyond its wildest dreams and, for that, we will be forever grateful. We love the impact we’ve made so far on children of all ages all over South-East Queensland through our live puppet shows and puppetry performance workshops.
A sustainable puppetry arts business is almost unheard of in this day and age. We get that. We also get that we’re lucky to have a thriving arts business. In fact, the harder we work at the art of puppetry, the luckier we get. 😉
But the current cast of cute, colourful characters are starting to get a bit antsy. They long for something more. They desperately want to talk, dance, sing and interact with more children – children in Australia and all over the world. They also yearn for some artistic freedom!
Making quality original puppetry performance art – puppet building, scripting, songwriting and dance choreography – that supports child development is super expensive. But with plenty of public support, we know we can do it!
Why? Because learning through reading, talking, dancing and singing is where it’s at. In fact, 90% of a child’s brain development happens in the first 5 years and, in the first few years of life, more than 1 million new neural connections are formed every second.
The experts at Harvard University say:
“…providing young children with a healthy environment in which to learn and grow is not only good for their development—economists have also shown that high-quality early childhood programs bring impressive returns on investment to the public.”
This means supporting Larrikin Puppets is not only wonderful for parents or carers with children, but for anyone who wants to see children across Australia and around the world experience high learning, behaviour and health outcomes.
Your support will give Larrikin Puppets the artistic freedom to:
– create original live shows for children with themes around multiculturalism, social inclusion, the environment and kindness/anti-bullying.
– write, film and produce an original TV series for children focusing on joy, play, love, kindness, compassion and empathy.
– write a CD of original children’s music.
– build new original puppets, sets and props.
Supporting Larrikin Puppets on Patreon will bring you and your kids joy, laughter and learning PLUS you’ll receive behind the scenes inside scoops into this crazy, colourful world of fuzzy puppets.
Together let’s talk, play, sing, dance and interact with fast paced puppet fun!
For more info about what we do, visit the Larrikin Puppets website or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Larrikin Puppets’ Artistic Director Elissa Jenkins said creating a puppet show for a children’s audience based on a book full of cultural sensitivities required concerted research and development: new puppet builds, custom stage sets, converted scripts and original songs.
Children’s librarian and co-author Ozge Alkan, a Muslim Australian who herself wears a hijab, said one of the reasons she wanted Hijabi Girl out there was because it tells the story of a girl who dresses differently to everyone else, and is totally fine with who she is.
