This marionette, created by the Slover family, is named Mary Lou the transformer who changes from a singer to a hot air balloon. Mary Lou who resembles a doll rather than a puppet, is made using a hard plastic molded head and arms and her torso is stuffed with muslin. Mary Lou's face, arms and hands have been hand painted and she wears a voluminous pink satin dress with a matching cap that covers ringlets of blond human hair.
Worked with a three bar control and thirteen strings 3-bar control; 13 strings; the skirt, when pulled by strings, converts into a bright pink hot air balloon with metallic gold yarns in a diamond pattern and has a blue foil paper basket ccontaigning a celluloid kewpie doll. In the Slover's production, Zubby Hagg the Witch (2004.0005.05) turns Mary Lou into a baby who floats away in a hot air baloon.
Floloral wire appears to have been used for inner support of balloon.T
SLOVER HISOTRY INFO
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