I have been asked many times recently about my present work: I am working on a Berry and Dolly puppet-book.

I have started to write and illustrate Berry and Dolly series just about ten years ago, had my heart in working on this series.

To create a puppet-book was my desire from the beginning. I wanted to create a book, whereby I illustrate with puppets, instead of drawings, and finally a photo is made of the scenes. I am accomplishing this now.

The story will be simple: a tale of the friendship and love of the two main characters. I have worked so much on the script, on the layout of the pages, long preparation work was needed, as it is not possible to correct the finished photos, it is not like a drawing that can be modified at the very last moment as well.

I create the scenes one by one: I sew the characters, I form the sets and locations, I prepare the tiny houses and the forest. It is a joyful, spectacular work, showing the fairyland spatially for the children, which was known from the drawings before.

There will be close-up shots, distant landscapes and internal areas: room, kitchen, etc. I have sewn several different Dolly puppets: a small one, a big one, a sad one, a happy one ... I prepared the houses in different sizes as well, obviously small houses are needed for the distant landscape, bigger houses are needed for the close-up shots and where the inner area is visible, the house will be even bigger.

I use so many different materials. There are things that are made of paper; other things are made of polymer clay due to their shape. There are things which I sew, because this is how they look the best, and there are things made out of wood.

This is an especially time consuming book, but I am happy to work on every detail.

Click on the photo to enlarge!