MINIATURE
CARVED
"FOAMIES"
WORKSHOP

Hobey Ford’s “Animalia” includes a magnified look at butterfly and frog metamorphosis, the world of birds and a classic undersea ballet of whales, frolicking dolphins, and otters. Each of the beautiful, animated, carved-foam puppets—or “Foamies”—is hand-crafted by Hobey.

Hobey is considered both an innovator in puppetry craft and a master storyteller. He has created both the Foamies and the clever hand puppet known as “Peepers”. The Foamies are large animal puppets carved from blocks of foam. After studying each animal’s characteristic movements, Hobey designs various control mechanisms to make the puppets themselves move in a life-like manner. The Foamies are presented using both stage and house performance space.

In this workshop Hobey Ford will guide participants in carving small foam rubber puppets of animals. Using an electric meat knife we will cut out the side and front profiles in foam. Then participants will learn to carve their cut-outs with scissors. These small “Foamies” are then colored with pastel chalks and bamboo skewer rods will be attached to manipulate them.

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Hobey Ford is the winner of puppetry’s highest honor, the UNIMA Citation of Excellence, and recipient of three Jim Henson Foundation grants. He is known for excellence in puppetry performance and craft.

Hobey’s performances incorporate a variety of puppetry styles including Bunraku, rod, marionettes, Foamies, and shadow puppetry. He uses his own voice to create characters and sound effects, tell stories, and sing, adapting folk tales from various cultures for many of his performances, and always adding a special “Golden Rod” twist.

Hobey utilizes his artistic study at The State University of New York at Purchase and the University of North Carolina at Asheville to design and construct all of his Golden Rod Puppets and the beautiful sets that surround them. Hobey also draws on his early experiences growing up in coastal Connecticut or living in a Nevada Native American community in writing the scripts for some of his performances such as “Whale Walker” and “Turtle Island Tales”.

Run Time: Approximately 90 minutes