Meet The Teaching Members

Vandy has a Masters of Education degree in Creative Arts in Learning, Curriculum and Instruction from Lesley University in Boston. She teaches students of all ages from pre-school through all of adulthood.  She has been certified to teach Art for grades K-12 in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. She is passionate about teaching pre-teens and teens. Vandy says, "Middle and High School students are the perfect art students.  They are curious and want to learn new things, but once they learn the "right way" they aren't afraid to push the limits and take their art to whole new levels."  Younger children always inspire me! They are often experiencing art mediums for the first time. They come up with new ideas because no one has told them "the right way." They teach me every day to continue to be flexible and think outside the box! In addition to visual arts, Vandy is a professional storyteller of 25 years, specializing in Spooky, Wisdom, Personal, and Folk tales. Vandy is a trained SoulCollage® facilitator and leads these magical workshops at Creative Community Space and out in the community. Vandy is the Creative Community Developer of Creative Community Space.

I am a teaching artist, puppet builder, & the owner of Homeslice Puppetry. My business specializes in building custom puppets and teaching puppetry classes and workshops to both children and adults alike. I teach a wide range of different puppet building classes in: foam puppets (carved & patterened), shadow puppets, rod puppets, hand or moving mouth puppets, and mechanisms. I am always looking for inspiration of new pupperty classes to add as well to my repitore. I also teach a wide variety of techniques from things as simple as how to create a character for a sock puppet to skills like creating a silicone skin for your foam puppet. My degree is from SUNY Buffalo and I have won an award in professional puppet building from BJ Guyer and the Stan Winston School of Character Arts in October of 2015. The majority of my experience as a teacher prior to my business, came from my 15 years of experience as a teacher and program coordinator for an outdoor and experiential education program called Nature’s Classroom. Although primarily self-taught in the field of puppetry, I have been building and teaching puppetry classes since 2006. I am an active member in the Connecticut Guild of Puppetry, founding member and current President of the Western Massachusetts Puppetry Guild, newly elected North East Regional Director for the Puppeteers of America, and an active member of the Puppeteers of America as well. Homeslice Puppetry began as a way to turn my craft and passion into a career, and as a way to bring this passion to a new audience who want to learn how to make puppets. I have been captivated by the creativity and innovation from Jim Henson and the "Muppets" ever since I was a child, and that has never left me. I love building puppets but my real passion is teaching, and nothing brings me as much joy as inspiring people to be creative in this world. In an effort to spread this knowledge and inspiration, pre-pandemic I took my business on the road teaching in various schools, maker spaces, camps, and art studios throughout most of New England, but recently pivoted my business into the virtual teaching world which has brought me here. The thing that I love the most about puppetry is how it is an art that draws from almost every other art form and thus inspires boundless amounts of creativity.