No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on December 11, 2018

I do not know many artists that are totally satisfied with the amount of work they get done in a year. I think we always have in the back of our heads what we could have done in that amount of time.

However I read a study the other day that was for some psychology conference a friend attended about how humans tend of over estimate what they can get done within a certain time period. Apparently we need to add about 30-40% to the time estimate to get the actually amount of time a task will take. There were exceptions including repetitive activities where the subject has done it so many times, they know how long it takes.

There is also a tendency to forget how much one has done with in a time period.

This year found me making some pretty complicated costumes for puppets. I pushed my skills and learned a few new techniques along the way.

I also gave away a number of puppets to very interesting people this year and some of the puppets I had given showed up in unexpected places on the Internet.

I finally gave a puppet to its Doctor after about six years of trying to get the puppet to Colin Baker. He loved it very much. So that’s six puppets to the six actors who have played the Doctor. For those of you scoring at home, that’s 5,6,7,8,10, and 12. I am hoping that I can get 11 to his actor sometime within the next year or so. 3 is going to the son of the actor at some point. 4 isn’t happening unless I run across a friend of who can get it to him. 2 might go to the son of the actor. 9 might be a bad idea but I still might give it to him. 13 is in the works and I figure at some point I will get it to her.

I have lost track of the number of companions that have either puppets of their characters or other roles they have played. I could probably figure it out given some time. I do know that both Catherine Tate and Pearl Mackie loved theirs.

Peter got my John Constantine puppet to Matt Ryan which he loved. I was looking at the puppets they did for Legends of Tomorrow and I have to say, probably for the first time, his puppet was better than the ones on the show.

I got Wong to Wong and Dr. Strange to Dr. Strange so both Benedicts have their puppet avatars. Now I need to find a way to get Mordo to Mordo.

I am stating here for all to read (OK a few of you who still read) I am going to put some of my done puppets up for sale next year.

I am also going to be putting more of them into Art Shows. I did zero this year and last year so 2019 is back into that venue.

Also I planned on getting back into doll making. I have a couple of ideas that won’t translate to puppet/soft doll. I need to brush off the skills that I learned from Wendy Froud.

Did I get as much done as I wanted to get done? No, not at all. And that’s on me.

Did I get anything done? Yes, but I have got to stop doing last minute projects unless something comes up out of the blue. I know what I want to get done. I know when it has to be done so I should just get things in order and do them. Procrastination, thy name is Kathleen.

I did discover that my puppets are getting known outside the fandom sphere, which is really neat and an ego boost that propels me to do more. I actually had some people find me on the Internet after some of the puppets went viral on Social Media in certain circles.

So overall I am not feeling bad about this year creatively. I took a bit of a pause but that’s over now and I plan to make 2019 the year of the creative journey for me.

I am grateful for what I did get done and the adventures I had with my art.

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