The bull puppet is absolutely gorgeous and although I helped skin a large portion of it with calico, I can’t take any credit for the main construction of this thing. At its full height the puppet stands at over 3 metres tall and 2 metres wide. Jane made the bull’s head almost entirely by herself, starting with a wire frame to provide some structure and covering it in cardboard and papier-mache to build some body and give it its form. The ears she has placed on springs that are embedded into the head so that they bounce when the head moves and there is a jaw that can open to help show some range of emotion. To give the height needed, the head is held on a long PVC tube that after testing, Jane uses an apron to help the bear the weight of it as it is heavy.
Though we all helped where we could, Katie, Lucy and Amelia are the three that took charge of building the frame for the puppet and devising how it can be separated/put together. Because it is so big when fully put together, it was important to think about how it can be dismantled to be put in transit so the girls have divided it into 7 key parts: back legs, front legs, bum, back body, front body, inside frame, head. The structure is built from willow bent into shape and the original plan was to have one person in the front of the bull and two people at the back, supporting the weight with the backpacks. We found that the backpacks were quite cumbersome though and didn’t help much so a separate internal structure was built to support the weight on the shoulders of two people (one front and back) while two other stood either side of the back person to puppeteer the legs.