I try to attend art fairs whenever possible. Taking along a few friends and tying in lunch make for a fun day of art awareness and shopping. Being a Fine Artist myself, I can also consider it "professional development" as I like to see how various peers set up their wares and displays. During one of my more recent outings I discovered a local Alpaca Farm had a tent that was selling some of the most beautiful wraps, scarves, and sweaters. The Alpaca wool is buttery soft and warm. Off to the side of the collection of colorful scarves was a box of small knitted items made to look like animals, characters and insects. They were finger puppets.
I laughed and giggled as I looked through the animated faces on these small works of art. After slipping a few of the puppets on my fingers I immediately thought "What a neat story challenge to write about each of these characters and then act them out with the puppets." A few months later, I challenged the East Beach Writers Guild to write at least one paragraph of a children's story that included each of these characters...
1) An Old Woman
3) An Alpaca
4) A bee
5) A squirrel
As a Christmas surprise, I presented all of the submitted stories (compiled into a notebook) to the guild at our December meeting. The stories are incredibly creative and interesting. The diversity of the characters forces a whimsy that each author embraced eagerly. The puppets are in a small bag in the back of the notebook. And I added a page that educates the reader about Alpacas. Later, we discussed taking the "book" a step or two farther, perhaps self-publishing and even adding some illustrations. I have always wanted to illustrate a children's book. And, after completion, we will donate the books to local schools and reading programs for children.
Keep in mind that inspiration is all around us. A small, cardboard box held a collection of puppets and sparked an idea. Now we all share in the rewarding and satisfying feeling of knowing that someone's woven creations were then used to weave a few stories and create an entire book that will educate and entertain young minds.
About the author: Gina Warren Buzby is the author of “Plein Mysterious” in By the Bay: East Beach Stories. Her next story, “Plein Blackmail” will appear in By The Bay II: More East Beach Stories, to be launched in spring, 2017. Gina is also one of three writers that collaborated on a story in the upcoming anthology. The story is titled “The Proposal”. Gina is (and writes about) a professional fine artist, working out of her Norfolk, VA studio. Her website is www.GinaWarrenBuzby.com.
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