Puppets of TV
The modelmaking team headed by Rod Campbell and team Rod Peel, Ronel Botha, Mike Olivier, Keith Johnson and Val Rowe. The unique internal rod control system was developed by Rod Campbell was called the micromation or MM system. Ronel Botha designed and modelled the characters in plasticine. Plaster moulds, latex castings and armatures were executed by Rod Campbell, Rod Peel and Mike Olivier. Sets and props were made by Ronel, Val Rowe and Keith Johnson. The tiny puppets were 22cm in size. The flexible latex faces could move, the eyes could blink and a special mechanism inserted into the Liewe Heksie puppet made her cry, and even her hat could move over her eyes when she was shy. A special separate marionette version of Liewe Heksie was used when she flew on her broom. Special sets were built for the puppets complete with little houses and flowers. Puppet manipulators sat under the set tables with puppets above and rod controls below. By watching a closed circuit monitor, they were able to manipulat the puppets using the rod control system. The first 26 episodes were manipulated by the above team of model makers. For the second series a team of private manipulators were hired Althea Oelofse. Due to the deterioration of the latex, very few, if any of these puppets exist today and sadly the original plasticine masters and moulds were damaged. For the purpose of recording this unique rod control system and casting process, Rod Campbell has made a replica Liewe Heksie puppet in December 2011.
Read more about this topic: Liewe Heksie