Ingrid Hurren

Finding myself at a loose end when I retired as an English teacher in Kent (UK) I rediscovered my penchant and ability as an adolescent in Germany to make puppets. Then I had wanted to go to art school, but in my family this was impossible and a university education was the only option.

After the war I moved to Britain where I married Eric Hurren, a painter I had met in Germany at the end of the war. We settled in Canterbury, where Eric led for 25 years what the Guardian newspaper called "one of the UK's finest foundation courses in art and design" at Kent Institute of Art and Design.

Artist's statement:

I started to become interested in jesters. “Till Eulenspiegel”, the vivid jester in German culture, was an important influence on me, together with my degree in English and American Literature and establishing a permanent Punch and Judy theatre in my classroom. I also discovered Enid Welsford’s "The Fool: His Social and Literary History". Together with a book of anatomical diagrams I had all the material I needed to further inspire me.

Each of my puppets is entirely unique – a one-off creation made from various materials, but mainly formed from calico stuffed with filling to give them substance. As the photographs show, all sorts of other materials add to their personalities which they gain as their form develops. Picking up a piece of cloth or lace immediately starts ideas flowing about a new figure or character I could create. Originally I was interested only in the faces and just left the bodies in the calico shade.

I work from dawn to dusk until a puppet is completely finished, and I don’t show anyone what I am doing until I have the end result.