Making Simple Marionettes

Marionettes are loved by puppeteers and audiences for what they can do on stage, but they can be challenging to design, make and perform. This beautiful book clearly explains the process from making the puppets to putting them on strings and bringing them alive. Detailed step-by-step instructions are given to make three marionettes - a walking bird, a dancer and a wooden man - each using different tools and materials, with progressively trickier techniques. Written by a leading puppeteer, it celebrates the art of the marionette. This book includes a showcase of marionettes from around the world to illustrate the variety, and richness of this ancient art which are superbly illustrated by 247 colour images with step-by-step instructions.

Making and Manipulating Marionettes is a superb guide to a craft and performance art that has fascinated audiences for over 2,000 years. Handsomely illustrated throughout, it presents precise instructions for the making of marionettes, both for plays and for acts in the variety tradition. All aspects of marionette design, construction, and control are covered, and there are rare insights into specialized designs and stringing techniques. Contents include an introduction to the marionette tradition and the principles and practicalities of marionette design; advice on materials and methods for carving, modeling, and casting puppet parts; detailed explanations for marionette control, stringing, and manipulation; step-by-step instructions for the construction and jointing of human and animal marionettes; and professional secrets for achieving a wide range of special effects.

DIVHow to construct and manipulate puppets, build little theaters, set up and furnish a stage, light scenes, and more. Over 200 illustrations. /div

More than 400 illustrations supplement easy-to-follow directions for making puppet heads and bodies, stringing marionettes on one- and two-hand controls, operating the puppets, and putting on your own show.

Turn an empty cereal box into a friendly hippopotamus, a paper plate into a dancing dandelion, a sock into a snake, a glove into an entire family. Each of the more than twenty types of puppet in this colorful cast of characters can be made with materials easily found around the house. Use toilet-paper rolls and paper-towel tubes, empty cardboard juice cans and juice boxes, wooden spoons and thread spools, old socks and fabric scraps, paper bags, Popsicle sticks, egg cartons, drinking straws, construction paper, yarn, magazines, and much more. Make hand puppets, finger puppets, marionettes, jumping puppets, papier-mache puppets and other fun friends. Decorate a puppet stage and put on a show. Easy-to-follow instructions, helpful tips, and imaginative suggestions encourage kids to explore their creativity. Any type of creature can be made: a wiggly caterpillar or ferocious dragon, silly two-faced tube heads, jiggling gymnasts, a wacky carrot critter or banana buddy-the possibilities are endless. The perfect activity for a rainy day, a leisurely weekend, or any time, puppet-making offers hours of laughter and plenty of fun-and it's a great way to recycle, too! Sterling/Tamos 80 pages (all in color), 8 1/2 x 10.

Puppets & Puppet Theatre is essential reading for everyone interested in making and performing with puppets. It concentrates on designing, making and performing with the main types of puppet, and is extensively illustrated in full colour throughout.Topics covered include: nature and heritage of puppet theatre; the anatomy of a puppet, its design and structure; materials and methods for sculpting, modelling and casting; step-by-step instructions for making glove, hand, rod and shadow puppets & marionettes; puppet control and manipulation; staging principles, stage and scenery design; principles of sound & lighting and finally, organisation of a show.