Portable Puppet Theatre #2 This folding hand-puppet theatre is designed to unfold and bolt with wing-nuts onto a custom-made wooden folding table.  It has draw-string curtains and a plain black back-drop.  The whole assembly folds flat for storage and transportation. Lionel made the "hamburger" puppet from a plastic pet's squeaky toy purchased at a discount store and cut in two, and then added a body, a tongue and ping-pong-ball eyes.  Backing tracks were pre-recorded with sound effects and narrated scripts written by and read by Lionel and others. Photos and description courtesy of Lionel Hartley. Posted with Lionel's permission by The Friends of Lionel Hartley . 

Miniature Piano for Marionette  This miniature mock grand piano, that Lionel made for the string puppet "Bert", has a speaker inside to play pre-recorded piano music from an external device so that it sounds and looks like the puppet is playing.  It has painted keys and  a matching piano stool.  The music pages were photo-reduced so that their size is appropriate in relation to that of the piano.    This last photo shows the puppeteer, David, playing it in a public street in Murwillumbah NSW, to give you an idea of its relative size. Photos and descriptions courtesy of Lionel Hartley.  Posted with Lionel's permission by The Friends of Lionel Hartley . 

Sleigh Stage Prop The two sides of this sleigh (built as a stage prop) were each cut out of a square sheet of 5-ply plywood. Lionel planned it so that the sides of the seat shape and inner curve on he frontsides could be cut with a single sweeping arc to elimaste wasting material. The curved front is from three layers of 3-ply, steam laminated into a curve using a temporary shaped form made from scrap timber and the layers adhered together with hot glue.  The runners are simply painted onto a wooden strip as the whole thing rides on a set of hidden casters. The rail at the front is from a discarded broom-handle. The seat is upholstered with red corduroy stretched over upholstery foam and finished with a piece of white lace.  Photo and description courtesy of Lionel Hartley. Posted with Lionel's permission by The Friends of Lionel Hartley .

Sideshow Booths These sideshow booths are a few of many designed and made by Lionel with original artwork as fundraisers for the Glen Innes (NSW) Pathfinder club. Out of fairness to all, they all are games of skill and not games of chance.  They were first used at a weekly market at Red Range, NSW.  These photos were taken at a fête day at the Glen Innes SDA Church.  These photos include "Bop My Nose" (Throwing a ball so that it goes through the clown's nose and drops into a bucket below), Horseshoe pitching, a fishing game with child-sized fishing rods with wire hooks on the line to 'catch' plastic fish, each labelled with a specific prize, a coconut shy with painted coconuts, each with a hole to throw a ball through and claim a real coconut as a prize.  A number of others were used but it is not known if these other ones were photographed. Displays were made to easily fold-up for transport and storage. Photos and descriptions courtesy of Lionel Hartley.  Post...

  Clown Car Petkof the Clown squeezed into this tiny clown car at a staged event on Brighton Beach (New Zealand) in the late 1960s. Lionel modified it from a 1930s sheet metal pedal car and anything else he could find that would add lunacy and humour to its appearance. One wheel was originally from a baby's pram, another was a square lid from a discarded metal toolbox, another was made with wooden spokes and a piece of garden hose for a tyre and the fourth was a saucepan lid. These spring-mounted wheels dramatically fell off at the shift of a lever but the clown car still kept moving because of another small set of proper wheels hidden underneath. An opening under the floor allowed the "driver" to move it along with his or her feet. The headlight was hinged with a wire connecting it to the steering wheel so it nodded when the wheel was moved. It had a very loud claxon (klaxon) horn and a brass bell hidden under the bonnet. Pressing the foot against a water-filled rubber h...

 Fairground Train Unfinished project (see below) Take a mini motorcar, remove the doors and bonnet and build a metal surround to resemble a steam train. Make three colourful closed-in 4-wheeled trailers resembling carriages to be pulled behind. This is what Lionel was doing before a shed fire at Eraring, NSW destroyed the lot. Photo and description courtesy of Lionel Hartley. Published with Lionel's permission by the Friends of Lionel Hartley .