Tag Archives: art

More New Fairytale Shadow Puppets…

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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Here are more progress puppets for our upcoming show “Fairytales of Wit, Wisdom and Witchcraft” (CLICK HERE to find out more). I have overshot my initial estimate for how long it would take me to make all the puppets, but if a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well and taking a little more time, I feel.

We have here now the puppets for “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”, “The Three Billy Goats Gruff”, “Little Red Riding Hood” and a few puppets for “Chicken Licken” or “Chicken Little” as I believe it is better known in America.

As I said in my previous post, (CLICK HERE TO VIEW) I have been using cereal and pizza boxes for environmental reasons and to show how much is possible using recycled materials. The cutting out has been with a combination of scissors, craft knife and Indonesian Shadow Puppet Chisels for some of the cut out details.

Making an articulated Goldilocks puppet that will be able to sit down in chairs…
Starting a Baby/Little Bear Puppet…
Mother/Middle sized bear started…
Finished Little/Baby and Middle sized/Mother Bear
Starting Big/Father Bear…
3 finished Bears together
Big Billy Goat Gruff…
Finished Big Billy goat and starting Middle sized Goat…
Middle sized goat and Little Goat started
The body is good but the head is too small, so a larger one is made
3 Billy Goats Gruff
Middle sized Goat has finishing cut out touches added
Starting the Troll…
Trial of elasticated jaw mech.
Drawing a Granny to go with Wolf and Red Riding Hood already complete…
Wolf’s head blown up on photocopier to make large articulated wolf’s head for swallowing people whole/talking
finished head with Granny drawing and puppet making list…
Granny roughly cut out with wolf in bed drawing…
2nd Wolf Head with Granny’s cap and glasses created by drawing round the first one
Separate bed and Granny head and bloated snoozing wolf started…
Snoozing Wolf on bed
Snoozing wolf with articulated tummy
Top half of Woodcutter
Complete Woodcutter with axe and scissors
Woodcutter and snoozing wolf
Fox for Chicken Licken
Fox, Chicken Licken and Acorn

If you have a question or a comment about the puppets do please put it on the post, I always to try to reply 🙂

I am taking bookings for this show and accompanying workshops from August 2025 onwards. It is particularly suitable for schools and libraries and fits in nicely with the light and shadow and traditional tales (fairy tales) topic.

If you need a show or a workshop sooner than this, do get in touch as I have many existing shows and workshops that we can do to meet your needs. Just get in touch and I will be happy to supply quotes and talk to you about your needs/event. We have puppet shows and workshops for indoors and outdoors, festivals, community events, theatres, youth theatres etc. CLICK HERE to contact me 🙂

Theatres or theatre companies please get in touch for puppet commissions, training, residencies, collaborations etc.

To stay up to date with this project and all my news, please subscribe for the newsletter.

If you want to see Rough Magic Theatre live, our Mad Hatter’s Tea Party show will be coming to Congleton Food Festival again this coming Sunday. More details on the WHERE YOU CAN SEE ME page.

This coming Saturday a long awaited new “Al & Kai’s Faboo News” episode will be premiering on You Tube. Subscribe to channel so you don’t miss it (@faboonews). Visit FabooNews.com to find out more about this fantastic puppet based positive news show for families.

Horses, Toy Theatres and Automobiles….

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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Curiously enough, while working on a project called “My Last Car” I have been without the use of my poor faithful old van.  It has been languishing at the garage while the cause of its lack of power was agonised over and attributed to various eroneous causes.

How have I been managing?  Surprisingly well, though only, (in some cases) due to the generousity of other people lending their vehicles to ferry materials and bits of bike and mechanical horse etc. backward and forward.

We decided to actually go whole hog for the local shopping on foot and as our local magazine the Bentham News suggested some while back, the lack of cost to drive out of town to a supermarket means that any slight price increase is compensated for.

I have been extremely healthy/exhausted tramping backwards and forwards on foot, but I have always tried to keep my van for journeys that are absolutely necessary anyway.

After discovering the true cause of my old van’s decrepitude I was advised that I’d be better off with a new one, (a new old one anyway).

I now have a shiny little red van with which I am very pleased, and very relieved that I will be able to use for my work.  So, though I can see it is possible to manage without a car, it also has made me extremely aware of how very useful it is to have one.

So what with sorting this out I have not made as much progress with the horse as I had to show in the last post, but it is still coming along.

Also, excitingly, we have finished editing both a full length and trailer length versions of our Hansel & Gretel Toy Theatre film and I hope to have the trailer online at some point next week, so watch this space!

Click here to see earlier posts about My Last Carnival Horse Automaton.

Remember you can see the completed project on June 2nd in High Bentham Town Centre