Hand and Body Puppets

The style of puppets are influenced by the large puppets of the Japanese Bunraku tradition and the grotesque masks of Commedia dell’Arte. Handmade by Nicola Baylis, they are entirely original in that the making processes combine a mixture of modern sculptural art techniques with those used in the ancient craft of Italian mask making.

The heads are sculpted in clay, and moulds of the sculptures are made from plaster. The faces are then created with paper mâché. These are sanded down, painted and decorated. Bodies are carved out of upholstery foam and wood, and costumes are hand sewn.

2D puppets for The Nose were hand-drawn using pen and ink by artist Mark Stafford, and then printed up onto large boards. Animations were created especially for the production by Charlotte Caetano. The animations integrate multiple animation techniques, such as film frames created with paper collage overlaid with her own hand drawings and paintings, as well as using Nicky Baylis’s puppets and Mark Stafford’s artwork with stop motion film and 2D computer animation.