7 Deadly Sins (The Beginning)

As I began to jump into this project I had this idea that I would try and communicate the 7 deadly sins by using shadow puppets on my rough, dirty basement wall. I chose this approach because sins is evil, and evil is said to lurk in the shadows.

I began the process by looking around online for tips on how to make really good shadow puppets. I came across a site that offered many. I decided on an animal theme for my puppets (Pig for sloth, mean dog for wrath, etc.).

I went to Target and bought a desk lamp for $10 that would serve as my projector. I got home and anxiously setup the stage that my puppet show would take place. I jumped right in and attempted to recreate the puppets that I had printed out from the internet only to find out that I suck at puppets. Not only do I suck at puppets, but I believe you might have to be double jointed, or have extra fingers to pull off some of the animals I thought were going to be easy.

Not only did my hands and fingers begin to ache, but I got this feeling like I wanted to smash something. This feeling usually comes about when I become stressed. I tried a few other puppets, but this time the failure was too much. I backed off.

I decided that my idea wasn't going to work and it was time to come up with a new one. I did have a plan from the start to do something with all these plastic flies that I had from a Typography I project last semester. I began to sketch out ideas for how I would communicate the 7 sins with the flies.

I began to hang the little flies with fishing line from the ceiling and tossing ideas around in my head. The sketches were helpful in giving me a direction for each of the sins, but most of the ideas I captured came on the fly (huh huh...).

Here are my initial images. I will not title them, hopefully I did a good enough job for now that you can figure out which ones go with which sin. In case you didn't know, the 7 deadly sins are: Glutton, Sloth, Pride, Greed, Wrath, Lust, Envy.

Comments appreciated.