Classes
In fall of this year I will be teaching two classes, on campus, at the Marc Adams School for Woodworking in Franklin, Indiana. September 26th-October3th
Contact
Phone: 317-535-4013
Email: info@marcadams.com
Address
5504 East 500 North
Franklin, Indiana 46131-7993
Character Design for Art Dolls & Puppets with Geahk Burchill
September 27-28, 2025
Marc Adams School for Woodworking
Franklin, IN
Key Points
Design puppet characters
Finding character personality
Harmonizing front and side view
Puppet anatomy and parts
Creating a pattern
Joint rotation and limits
Translating a pattern onto wood
About This Workshop
Dolls, marionette puppets, and automata, all have one point in common; they represent a character, conveyed through personality. This class will teach students the elements that visually convey character traits. Their expression, their body posture, and their hands. Geahk will cover anatomy, shape language, and audience assumptions. Students will then learn how to deconstruct a character to craft the individual parts by making a pattern. Through patterning participants will learn joint rotation and limits. By the end of this class, students should have a solid foundation to create unlimited characters and patterns for any wooden doll or puppet.
Complete Woodcarving & Joint Making for Marionettes & Dolls
SEPTEMBER 29-OCTOBER 3, 2025
Marc Adams School for Woodworking
Franklin, IN
Key Points
Learn to make puppet joints
Safe knife carving
How to round body forms
Translating anatomy to wood
Carving detailed hands & feet
How to carve faces and hair
Making a puppet with balance
Stringing to the controller
About This Workshop
Marionettes are wooden puppets with strings! That may sound obvious but there are vanishingly few marionette puppeteers—and even fewer classes on how to build them available in North America. So few that many Americans have never seen one up close and, if thinking about building one, have no earthly idea where to start. This class will teach students everything! These skills also translate to doll-making and automata. Geahk will teach participants a complete overview of building puppets in this five-day intensive. The material fee provides a knife handle and replaceable blade by Geahk’s favorite knife maker, along with a complete kit of materials for a puppet and controller, plus patterns to help direct the making and completing a marionette in only a week! Despite how ambitious this class is, most people, even those with little experience, can achieve more than they ever imagined. This is primarily a hand-carving class but a rotary tool, like a Dremel, and wood carving bits will also be used. Spares will be on hand as well as most other tools.