Tag Archives: puppet making techniques

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.

My appearance in”Puppets and Puppet Theatre” by David Currell

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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I was delighted to receive my signed copy of the New Revised Second Edition of David Currell’s “Puppets & Puppet Theatre” on World Puppet Day. I was invited to share some images of my work for the book a while back now and I am thrilled to discover that these have been included on three separate pages of the book as well as a mention in the sound equipment section, the “Contributors” section and the Acknowledgements.

To be included in this book has special significance for me because it was books like my copy of “The Complete Book of Puppet Theatre” by David that helped me to make some of my first puppets when we first started out making things for Rough Magic Theatre‘s first production “The Tempest”.

To be included in a book like this after over 25 years doing puppetry and making puppets which may inspire a whole new generation of new puppeteers is amazing and wonderful.

I have not had time to read the whole thing in depth from cover to cover, but it is clear that it is an extraordinarily comprehensive and up to date guide to puppet making, performance techniques, staging and even touches on the business side of things.

This new edition includes such up to the minute making techniques and materials such as 3-D printed puppets (featuring Nik Palmer’s work), worbla, plastezote etc. as well as traditional materials such as wood and so on.

For anybody starting out this would be an excellent buy and indeed it could be useful for established practitioners to find out about new techniques and materials etc.

This is a fairly big book and every page is literally crammed with pictures, instructions and all sorts of practical information.

I shall do a follow up on the book after I have had time to read all of it, but I feel that this is almost like an encyclopedia of puppetry that you can consult when you have a specific issue or technique that you want to know more about.

If you want a copy of the book; it can be purchased online or from The Crowood Press for £25 + £3.99 postage (£28.99) or David says you can contact him for a signed copy for £25 including postage

Contact:                 davidcurrellauthor@gmail.com