About Us
Little Gem Puppets was founded by me, Carmel Balfe in 2010. My background is in Fine Art. I spent three years in the Crawford College of Art studying Printmaking and one year studying Craft. That was the point when I plunged into the sea of uncertainty they call being self-employed, the only option in 1980s if you wanted to work in the arts in Ireland.
In 1991 I went to Prague, the city of puppets, and fell in love with puppetry. I also spent some time in San Francisco around this time where I was introduced to the world of film and a size able puppetry community. Thence came the idea to make puppet films. I went back to college and studied Model Making and Special Effects in Dun Laoghaire IADT. Following that I hot-footed over to New York and got great experience working as a puppet maker for companies like Disney, Pokemon and Universal Studios, to name a few. During this time I also produced two films - one of which won the Best Childrens Film Award at the New York Film and Video Festival.
The call of my roots brought me back to Ireland. I got involved with community arts giving workshops in puppetry and producing shows and films with community groups. When I had found my feet back in Ireland I made a Punch and Judy style puppet booth and started performing shows with it. I suppose you could say after years of making puppets I had to make them come to life.
I am now living in Kilkelly, East Mayo with my husband Tom Meskell who is also an artist www.tommeskell.com and my two greatest creations to date - my two shiny children.
In 1991 I went to Prague, the city of puppets, and fell in love with puppetry. I also spent some time in San Francisco around this time where I was introduced to the world of film and a size able puppetry community. Thence came the idea to make puppet films. I went back to college and studied Model Making and Special Effects in Dun Laoghaire IADT. Following that I hot-footed over to New York and got great experience working as a puppet maker for companies like Disney, Pokemon and Universal Studios, to name a few. During this time I also produced two films - one of which won the Best Childrens Film Award at the New York Film and Video Festival.
The call of my roots brought me back to Ireland. I got involved with community arts giving workshops in puppetry and producing shows and films with community groups. When I had found my feet back in Ireland I made a Punch and Judy style puppet booth and started performing shows with it. I suppose you could say after years of making puppets I had to make them come to life.
I am now living in Kilkelly, East Mayo with my husband Tom Meskell who is also an artist www.tommeskell.com and my two greatest creations to date - my two shiny children.
