Cilidh na Mara Puppet Making for Animation

Taking inspiration from life in the waters along Argylls coast, in this workshop Helen will lead you in designing and creating puppets full of character, using wire, card, and collected natural materials. These can then be animated to make your own stop motion masterpieces! Basing our creations on observations of underwater beings, well think about the kind of movement we want to create, and incorporate that into the design process. We will discuss some tips, tricks and clever approaches that can be fed into the making stage, which eases the animation process. The resulting puppet can be used to experiment with movement in under-the-camera animation. There will be a camera set up during the workshop to test your beings in motion. All practical materials are provided, participants are asked to bring a smartphone/device with them which they can use to download a free stop motion animation app, so that you and your puppet can keep on animating at home! Helen Woolston is an animation filmmaker with a focus on hands-on and experimental techniques. She holds an MA in Animation Filmmaking from the Estonian Academy of Arts, and is based on the Morvern Peninsula, Lochaber. She is currently venturing into multi-disciplinary work incorporating animation, visual theatre and puppetry, and was awarded the Manipulate Arts Creative Fund in 2024 to explore this area of work. She also works part-time in habitat restoration and takes inspiration from this to feed her art projects, and vice versa. She facilitates community workshops in animation, puppet and natural ink-making, and enjoys using found or natural materials. She is passionate about encouraging others to engage in creative artwork in non-intimidating ways, and linking community and environment together with fun creative expression (www.instagram.com/helenwoolston [//www.instagram.com/helenwoolston ]) Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Tickets on sale 12/08/26 at 6pm.