The puppet challenge – the beginning

A new year and time for a new challenge! Just before Christmas I saw the call for participants in the puppet challenge over on Clive Hicks-Jenkins artlog, a puppet challenge being curated by Peter Slight, the theme of the challenge is fairy tales, folk tales & myths. I was thinking I might come across inspiration in my new book of fairy tales but actually inspiration came from my stereo in the form of the tale of Bold Sir Rylas (I’m going off the Spiers and Boden version). Here we go…

Now, Bold Sir Rylas a-hunting went,
All along and down a lea.
And Bold Sir Rylas a-hunting went,
Down by the riverside.
Bold Sir Rylas a-hunting went
To catch some game was his intent,
Down in the grove where the wildflowers grow,
And the green leaves fall all around.

Well, he spied a wild woman sitting in a tree,
All along and down a lea.
“Good lord, what brings you here?” Said she,
Down by the riverside.
“Oh, there’s a wild boar in the wood,
He’ll eat your flesh and he’ll drink your blood.”
Down in the grove where the wildflowers grow,
And the green leaves fall all around.

Well, he put his horn unto his mouth,
All along and down a lea.
And he blew it east, north, west and south,
Down by the riverside.
And the wild boar came out of his den,
Bringing his children, nine or ten of them,
Down in the grove where the wildflowers grow,
And the green leaves fall all around.

Then Bold Sir Rylas the wild boar fell on,
All along and down a lea.
And Bold Sir Rylas the wild boar fell on,
Down by the riverside.
And he fought him three hours all the day,
Until the boar would have run away,
Down in the grove where the wildflowers grow,
And the green leaves fall all around.

“Oh, now you have killed my spotted pig,”
All along and down a lea.
“Oh, now you have killed my spotted pig,”
Down by the riverside.
“Oh, there are three things I would have of thee,
Your horse and your hound and your fair lady,”
Down in the grove where the wildflowers grow,
And the green leaves fall all around.

“Oh, now I have killed your spotted pig,”
All along and down a lea.
“Oh, now I have killed your spotted pig,”
Down by the riverside.
“Oh, there’s not one thing you’ll have of me,
My horse nor my hound nor my fair lady,”
Down in the grove where the wildflowers grow,
And the green leaves fall all around.

Then Bold Sir Rylas the wild woman fell on,
All along and down a lea.
And Bold Sir Rylas the wild woman fell on,
Down by the riverside.
And he split her head down to her chin,
You should have seen her kick and grin.
Down in the grove where the wildflowers grow,
And the green leaves fall all around.

When I was looking for inspiration I came across a potter who had already interpreted this tale in her work, you can see her fabulous plates here.

So we need a the boar, a wild woman and Bold Sir Rylas, first sketches are looking like this

In the song it seems to alternate between a spotted pig (which I kind of think of like this)

and a wild boar which generally look like this,

I decided to spilt the difference and go for a piggyish boar (I’ll get onto the nine or ten children at some point thought maybe not in this challenge!). Next onto the wild woman. In the song Sir Rylas splits her head into two so that’s what the puppet has to do, have a split down the middle of her head (could be tough to execute, no pun intended!) she’ll be mostly green with her costume mimicking the woods around her (in my head the back of her cloak will be covered with leaves, but we’ll see).

And finally the ‘hero’ of the tale, even though he seems to be a knight I didn’t want Rylas to be in a suit of armour so instead he’s rather more old style, with just a sword to do the vital deed.

I’m planning on making them all as marionettes the two people being carved from wood and the boar being needle felted. As I’ve never carved anything similar I’m hoping this book will come in very useful (I’m on chapter 2 so far, very interesting giving the history of marionettes and lot of illustrations of the different characters and mechanisms). By the end of the next chapter I’m hoping to know what wood to order and then its carving time!

In the meantime I’ve got to scale up these drawings to full size, time to decide what size the finished puppets should be then. Onwards ever onwards & forwards into the challenge!