HANDCRAFTING FRIENDS\Puppet maker creates self-contentment.Byline: Alicia Doyle Daily News Staff Writer With friends like Rosemary Clowney, Devil the Geek and Clara Voyant, Peggy Paola is never starving for unusual company. "They come to life when you pick them up," said Paola, a puppet maker who believes her handmade dolls reflect the personality of whoever plays with them. "Every person should have one to hide behind. It is easier for people to talk through a puppet." Tucked deep within the hills of the Santa Susana Santa Susana can refer to several places:
Martiano, with his silver spaceship and Cyclops eye, sits smiling across the room from Princess Jasmine, a young lady in a royal gown "who never loses her temper." The witch, with her hooked nose and blackheads, sits next to Devil the Geek, a demon with green teeth who wears horn-rimmed glasses
Unlike common hand puppets, Paola's creations are modeled after rod puppets often seen in Europe and Japan. Otherwise known as a marotte, the unique puppet is made with a head mounted on a stick. Some marottes have movable arms attached. At first glance, Paola's intricate, one-of-a-kind creations appear too delicate to touch, much less play with. But Paola insists that's what they're for. "They're puppets," said Paola, 44. "You're supposed to play with them." Each of Paola's puppets has been carefully crafted by her fingertips "Fingertips" is a 1963 number-one hit single recorded live by "Little" Stevie Wonder for Motown's Tamla label. Wonder's first hit single, "Fingertips" was the first live, non-studio recording to reach number-one on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the United States. - all molded with painstaking detail. Their outfits have been cut, sewn, buttoned and clipped from old pieces of fabric that Paola found around the house. Other details, like necklaces and rings, are actual pieces of jewelry jewelry, personal adornments worn for ornament or utility, to show rank or wealth, or to follow superstitious custom or fashion. The most universal forms of jewelry are the necklace, bracelet, ring, pin, and earring. Paola once wore and decided to break up to adorn her puppets' outfits. She has been known to spend two days to two weeks on a puppet, depending on its detail. For instance, the witch, with her black cape and pointy hat Pointy hats have been a distinctive item of headgear of a wide range of cultures throughout history, in particular suggesting an ancient Indo-European tradition, but they were also traditionally worn by women of Lapland, the Japanese, the Mi'kmaq people of Atlantic Canada, and the , took roughly two days to make. "I scare little kids with this one," Paola said. "It's so life-like, they run behind their parents and hide." Russ and Blaze - a cowboy and his horse - took two weeks to craft. Blaze, with his yarn mane mane the region of long coarse hair at the dorsal border of the neck and terminating at the poll in the forelock. Present in the horse and other Equidae. Similar gatherings of coarse hairs are present in the giraffe, gnu, various antelope, cheetah and lion. Called also juba. and tail, demanded the most attention. Russ, wearing a suede fringe jacket Paola cut from an antique coat that belonged to her mother, also took extra time. "I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. why I'm driven," said Paola, who couldn't explain the inspiration behind each puppet. "One day I was making one and thinking, 'Why am I making these weird puppets?' My sister thinks they're possessed." Paola made her first puppet two years ago, after buying a Little Red Riding Hood Noun 1. Little Red Riding Hood - a girl in a fairy tale who meets a wolf while going to visit her grandmother rod puppet for her niece, Elizabeth. "I hadn't seen one for years," said Paola, who saw her first rod puppet years ago when her daughter, Sarah, was given one by her grandmother. Paola was attracted to the unusual doll for the way it moved, and how she was able to make it come to life when she picked it up. "I thought, 'I'm gonna make one of those,' " she said. The first puppet she ever attempted to make was a witch. "It ended up looking like Howard Stern in drag," said Paola, who ended up giving the doll away to a friend in San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden . Since then, Paola has made nearly 20 puppets, five of which she has sold. The most money she ever made was $500 for a doll she created for someone to give as a gift. Others she has given away to friends or her family. Paola keeps eight favorites inside her home for her niece and nephew to play with. While Paola has an obvious knack for making puppets, she doesn't consider her craft a hobby. "I've just always been creative," she said. The former full-time waitress has enjoyed drawing, sewing and painting since she was 7 years old, when she remembers painting on cardboard from her father's laundry shirts and drawing on her sheets with a ball point pen. "My mom used to buy me lined paper to draw on, and I hated that," she said. "I loved drawing on my sheets." Paola quit her waitress job at La Frite in Woodland Hills in June, when her husband, Aichele, unexpectedly died from an aneurysm aneurysm (ăn`y  rĭzəm), localized dilatation of a blood vessel, particularly an artery, or the heart. in one of his main arteries. Aichele, a horror filmmaker for Blue Rider Blue Rider: see Blaue Reiter, der. Pictures, often employed his wife to make production set designs, scenic work and other props. Her puppets, too, have appeared in several films, including Phantasm phantasm /phan·tasm/ (fan´tazm) an impression or image not evoked by actual stimuli, and usually recognized as false by the observer. phan·tasm n. 1. and Leprechaun leprechaun (lĕp`rəkŏn), Irish fairy represented as a tiny old man. Leprechauns are mischievous and elusive creatures, said to possess buried crocks of gold, the location of which they will reveal if forced. Three. In the past several months, Paola has worked on a handful of films while putting together a portfolio to attract major clients with her artwork. She decided months ago she would not go back to waitressing but pursue what makes her truly happy. "I'm not going back. If I starve, I starve," Paola said. While she could not pick which puppet is her favorite, Paola said she can identify the puppet which best reflects her personality. "The Martian is me," Paola said. "Definitely, the Martian." CAPTION(S): PHOTO Photo (1--color in CONEJO and SIMI SIMI Sea Ice Mechanics Initiative SIMI Search for Intelligent Monkeys on the Internet SIMI Students Islamic Movement in India SIMI Society of Irish Motor Industry SIMI Smallholder Irrigation Markets Initiative editions only) Peggy Paola looks at some of her favorite puppets. She has made about 20 for friends, relatives, herself and buyers of five of her creations. (2--ran in CONEJO and SAC editions only) Cowboy Russ was crafted from materials in Peggy Paola's home. (3--ran in SAC edition only) Devil the Geek, made by Peggy Paola, wears horn-rimmed glasses. Andy Holzman/Special to the Daily News |
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