Ikenga Head Piece Construction

 The basic structure of the head piece is built straight onto the shoulder piece and T Joint. The basic material used to create the structure is bamboo uprights and center cane rounds, center cane worked better than willow as the cane is cut to a uniform thickness rather than narrowing towards the end as willow does. The cane and bamboo are also very light weight as well as being a strong  sculpting material. The cane does need to soak for 20mins in water before being fully flexible however when strapped in place and dried the shape is maintained.

The facial features again were made from cane and bamboo, using bamboo for the stronger supports and the cane to create curved shapes with in the face. The horns of the puppet will be attached to the top T bar, the base of the horn being blue foam allowing the horn to be be slotted onto the bar and then fastened with cable ties. Blue foam is a very useful material for solid block sculpting and carving into. making it a very strong base to any structural piece. 

When covering the face i was very conscious in how to include both past and present materials as this was a main design feature of the ikenga puppet. I feel this is achieved in the use of modern carnival materials such as plastazote and using natural yarns to lash them to the willow creating a very traditional look. Using this technique to attach the decoration to the frame work also allows a lot of air to pass through the head piece as there is big gaps between the pieces of plastazote. I also felt it was very important to make the head piece look playful and fun, the scale of the puppet could be rather intimidating to the children and with the horns i feel the Ikenga could be mistaken for some form of devil or demand which would be very disheartening. By using Very bright blocks of colour and shape  i think the head piece works well for a childrens carnival.