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FRANCES ØSTERFELT

Puppets and Art

Welcome to my website!

These pages are a story of child’s play – curiosity of what materials say and do and the stories they tell.

My puppets populate their imaginary universes and tell each their own story. Some of them together with others. Some on their own.

My “2½D” metallica paintings started as an idea for backdrops for my puppets and took on a life of their own. The use of colors applied in layers that interact with each other and the added dimension of depth of the underlying surface give extra life to the images they portray.

I’m searching for playmates – people who are looking for someone like me to help them create their universe – whether in a puppet theater, an animated film, or any other creative sphere where my talents can be expressed.

Will you play with me?

Join me on a journey in my crazy world. Let’s explore together.

PS: Besides my passion for puppets, I also have a passion for the written word. Language is the key to people and culture - the open sesamy and a bridge to the world. Since arriving in Denmark and "breaking the code" of the Danish language, I have had the fun of bringing Danish literature out to the rest of the world.

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One of life's great mysteries ...

Long ago, when I came to Denmark, one of the great mysteries for me was how cloth was made. A visit to a friend's home for the first time was the beginning of an exciting journey into the wonderful world of weaving. In the very center of her living room stood a beautiful Lervad loom. "Here I can find out!!!", I thought.

Later a visit to the city of Bergen, Norway, brought me closer - I was taken to the shop "Husflid", where I found everything necessary for weaving, among other things a cartoon for weaving a copy of one of Norway's famous church tapestries. I decided on the spot that that was what I would do. The sales woman and my friend warned me that it was a very difficult project to start with; but I stood firm. Bought the cartoon, yarn, a weaving frame and a book about weaving tapestries. The ladies were right: it WAS difficult. It took 3 years to complete. But I was bit with the weaving bug.

An add in the local newspaper described "a lovely old loom", which I drove out to see. It was lovely and I bought it. The woman who sold it was on her way to a nursing home and couldn't tell me more than that it had been in her family as long as she could remember.

It took some research to learn its story, but my loom is in fact one of the first Lervad looms ever made - from 1894. A lovely piece, but now disassembled in my attic. A sad fate for something that should be used.

So - if there is anyone reading this that wants to bring her back into function - PLEASE contact me. I would love it and she would, too.

Preben Østerfelt

e-mail: kavasa2@outlook.dk


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Geppetto’s Workshop

In the center of Copenhagen, on the street that was once the route Kierkegaard took when he wandered into the countryside, lies the oldest building built in stories outside the city walls.

This is my home and the site of my workshop.

If the walls of my flat could speak, they could tell amazing stories about the city and the people living there throughout the centuries. Perhaps it is in these walls that my muse resides …