Feb 1, 2008

a month of puppets

Puppets1
Wooden marionettes, made in Prague

You never know what the January winds will bring. Here, in a mountainous, forgotten corner of Mexico, they blew in a puppeteer.

That's right - an Italian puppeteer, living the vie boheme, who dons a vest with an appliquéd sun and a healthy looking stock of corn.

He performed for my students this week, and we were all quite smitten.

Such an unexpected visitor and his puppet-entourage that travels the world by his side in a pink backpack-on-wheels can mean only one thing - February is now A Month of Puppets!

I hope you will join me as I explore the world of puppetry. Expect everything from historical anecdotes and little-known facts to suggestions and tutorials on how to make different kinds of puppets and marionettes - there's a lot of messy work going on behind-the-scenes in my puppet studio!

And just to get you in the mood and to introduce the Month of Puppets theme song, have a look at this clip from The Sound of Music:



Did I mention that I want to model my own children after the von Trapps? Minus the whistle, I mean ... which wouldn't be very Montessori. ;)

4 comments:

Christina Moran said...

Oh Yes! My girls have watched that segment set to repeat many many times!

The McAuleys said...

I love doing puppetry studies with kids. My fondest teaching memory is of a group of first graders proudly marching their homemade bunraku puppet around the room. I recently made up a tutorial for teachers about a simple no-paint papier mache puppet if you'd like to see it--there are comments for each photo to guide you through. Here's the link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22329515@N06/sets/72157603648198182/
You are going to have a fun month!
Kirstin

Nicki said...

Puppets - what fun! What an exciting visitor to have. Ah, i love that film!

Congrats on being a Tie One On pin-up, you deserve it - it is a gorgeous apron.

Lisa PN said...

Hello!
just by chance i came across your blog and found my puppet in your month of puppets post! I designed the marionette with the dark hair and the red shirt and my husband Dave carved it and took that photo. We went on to performing around Czech Republlic and Austria. It was a surprise to find us here, but a delight as well.