Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs Alton.

I'm really happy that you could be here today to share my lesson in "Curious Art of Puppetry." And this is from the unit "All About Craft." So let's get started.

By the end of today's lesson, I hope that you can create an imaginative puppet that uses shape and pattern to tell a story.

Let's look at some key words for today's lesson.

Puppet is a handmade figure, human, animal or abstract form that is controlled by a person.

Geometric are regular mathematical shapes like circles, squares and triangles with clear defined edges.

Organic can refer to free-flowing, irregular and natural curves.

Our lesson today is broken down into three parts.

The first part is identifying types of puppet.

The second is designing an imaginative puppet and the third is decorating puppets.

So let's look at section one, identifying types of puppets.

Take a look at this image.

This is an example of a marionette.

Would you consider these puppets art, craft or design? Think back to our previous learning on what a craft object is.

So a craft object is handmade.

Do you think that these puppets have been handmade? Maybe think about why.

A puppet is a crafted object designed to be animated and often used to tell stories or express ideas.

Puppets can be considered art craft or design depending on their purpose and context.

So think about what the puppet might be used for.

Is it a toy or is it for a performance or play? And that can really help us to think about the context in which it's made.

These students are discussing whether they've seen puppets or maybe some they might own themselves.

Aisha says, "I've seen giant puppets at street festivals move with rods." Alex comments, "I have a hand puppet." and Laura says, "I've seen a show where puppets were controlled with strings." She's even made a shadow puppet before.

Maybe you can describe a puppet you've seen before or maybe even one that you may have made in the past.

The word puppetry has two stems. Puppet is the actual puppet itself, so it can be a figure, an animal, a human or an object representing a character.

And the word puppetry means the action, the movement, the performance.

Puppetry is a job in the creative industries that brings puppets to life to tell stories, express emotion or convey ideas.

There are many different types of puppets.

The design and features of puppets are often specific to different cultures.

Let's look at the common elements of puppets.

They're made to tell a story by representing characters and ideas.

They can express emotions and actions.

And we'll think about some of those emotions in a moment.

They can be made from a variety of materials.

Again, we'll be looking at materials in this section of the lesson.

Their designs are often specific to different cultures.

So, we'll be thinking about how the puppets vary from culture to culture and maybe why that is as well.

And they can be 2D, so if you think of flat puppets, or 3D objects and they can come in a variety of different sizes.

Hand operated Taiwanese glove puppets are made from fabric and wood with clay or resin faces.

And they have beautifully decorated elaborate outfits as well, very colorful.

They tell traditional Taiwanese stories from mythology or folklore, so they might involve adventurous stories of heroes and heroines.

Laura says, "Their faces look very realistic with fine painted detail." And if we look at the materials that they're made from, the faces are made from clay or resin, which allows this fine detail to be created.

And they're also hand puppets, so we're thinking about these on a smaller scale.

They can be larger in some shows but generally they're quite small.

What does Laura notice about the Taiwanese glove puppets? Is it A, they are operated by strings.

B, they have realistic painted faces.

Or C, they have flat 2D faces? Have a think.

Well done if you remembered, it's B.

They have realistic painted faces.

Marionette puppets are puppets operated by strings from above.

So if you can imagine, you might have a control at the top that you can manipulate and create this movement with the hands and the legs.

Marionette puppets are made all around the world and have different characteristics specific to the culture that they come from.

One artist you may want to look at is Sophie Taeuber-Arp.

And she was a Swiss artist.

She designed marionette puppets for Italian theater.

And she was a bit different from what came before because she was really interested in this idea of abstraction, so taking things back really to their base.

She wasn't interested in making realistic puppets.

She wanted to go back to this idea of mathematical shapes, this geometry, and really create clear, precise lines in her puppets.

So quite the opposite to the Taiwanese style we've just looked at.

Over to you for a check for understanding.

Which of the following are ways to control a puppet? Is it A, through using rods.

B, through using strings.

Or C, through using your fingers? Have a think.

Well done, if you noticed, actually all three are ways to control a puppet.

Javanese Wayang Kulit puppets are carved and painted 2D leather puppets.

So we're thinking about materials again here.

They tell Hindu epic stories, entertaining and teaching moral lessons.

So these lessons might be what it is to be human with all the tragedy and successes of life.

They also use really exaggerated shapes to express the characters in the stories and these puppets would be used with a shining light behind to project the silhouette onto a screen.

How do you think these angular, or sometimes they're very organic as well, exaggerated body shapes could change the feel of a puppet? Why do you think puppets are operated in different ways? And how do you think this might change the storytelling of the character? So again we're thinking of those characteristics and how they come across to the audience.

So think about how this might depend on maybe even the size or scale of the puppet as well.

Aisha says, "I think puppets are operated in different ways to match the story, the character, or the cultural tradition." And Lucas says, "Hand puppets are expressive, string puppets move smoothly," so we're thinking about the controls from above here, and shadow puppets, like we've just been discussing with the Wayang Kulit, it create these dramatic silhouettes.

Some puppets are small and can be controlled using fingers or hands.

So you may even had little finger puppets when you were small.

However puppets can be any size and scale and this can really affect the visual impact.

Some puppets are actually so large that they're controlled with many people inside or even a crane, so you can imagine if you're at a street festival and you saw this huge puppet maybe what impact that would have on you as the viewer.

And they're not only for children's entertainment.

Puppets as we've seen from the Wayang Kulit.

can be used to teach as well.

They can be used to address social and political issues and they're a really important part of that cultural history and tradition.

Giant puppets might include a puppet such as Little Amal.

This puppet traveled across many many countries and it drew a huge crowd wherever it went.

It was operated by three puppeteers.

The puppet itself actually looked like a young refugee girl.

And this was really to make people connect with the stories and struggles that refugees face on a daily basis.

The puppet would be able to maneuver itself through the crowds, wave at the crowds and interact on a personal level.

And really brought home that this was a human story.

There was a person inside operating all of the movements as well.

These pupils are discussing the impact of using a large-scale puppet.

Alex says, "The puppet's large scale makes people stop and think about the story because it's unusual and it's powerful." And Aisha says, "Touching a large-scale puppet is a way for people to feel direct connection to that puppet and the story that it's telling." How do you think the scale of a puppet affects its impact? Maybe you've got experience of seeing one at the theater or a street festival.

Maybe that's something you could discuss with the person next to you.

Let's have a true or false question.

The design of a puppet affects how the audience interacts.

Is that true or is that false? Well done if you said true.

A large-scale puppet can affect the way the audience interacts because it encourages that idea of participation and connection.

Each puppet serves a unique cultural purpose as we've said.

And that can be telling important stories that connect beyond words.

So why puppets are different from just reading a book.

They create magic through their movement and expressions.

There's lots of types of puppetry.

Here are just a few more.

You may have seen Uzbek hand puppets, or maybe Mexican Marotte string puppets.

There's rod operated Indian Yampuri puppets, Turkish Karagoz shadow puppets, so a different type of shadow puppetry, Brazilian Boneco giant puppets and Mali Bamana giant body puppets.

So puppets that come in all different shapes and sizes.

Now it's over to you for a task.

You're going to choose a puppet to investigate, maybe one of the ones we haven't talked about today.

And answer the following questions.

What is the puppets form? So is it human, animal or abstract? How does it move? So again thinking about those methods of movement, is it string, is it rod, is it hand operated? And is it flat 2D or a 3D object? What materials are used? So the materials can have a lot to do with the type of puppet that the puppeteer wanted to create.

So maybe think about how those materials are manipulated to create that outcome.

So like with the resin faces of the Taiwanese puppets, faces need to be really realistic so the materials had a big impact on that.

What shapes are used? Thinking about our key words here, geometric being those very mathematical shapes and organic being those very free-flowing lines.

Maybe there's a combination of both, depending on what types of puppets you're looking at.

Does your puppet tell a story or communicate a message? So, thinking about the characteristics of the puppet and how that might impact the story it was made to tell.

So, have a good look at your puppets, go through the questions and I look forward to hearing what you've got to say.

How did you find that? I hope you had fun discussing the qualities of the puppets that you found.

Alex says, "About the Uzbek puppets he looked at, that they are realistic with 3D painted wooden heads.

And they are made with geometric," that keyword again, "patterned clothes." Aisha comments on the Uzbek puppets that they are hand operated and they're usually human but they're sometimes animals as well like birds or sheep.

Their performances tell moral and funny tales from Uzbek folklore.

Let's take a look at our second part of the lesson, designing an imaginative puppet.

A stereotype is an oversimplified or unfair belief about a group of people.

Sometimes puppets can be designed to reinforce, which means they can support these often quite harmful views of stereotypes and may use exaggerated features to communicate a stereotype as well.

Features such as glasses for a wise character or large round eyes for a child character are examples of these stereotypes.

And I'm sure you could think of a lot more.

These features simplify real people, often putting them into groups or these categories, and can reinforce these false ideas that we can sometimes take for granted about people.

Take a look at this image here.

Maybe you can recognize what show this comes from.

Maybe you've even seen this similar type of puppet before.

They can sometimes be designed to show these negative stereotypes.

So in traditional British "Punch and Judy," shows, the men are often shown as overly aggressive and they often will have big noses as well.

You can probably tell that from this image here.

And the women can often be as well very passive, so very quiet or overly dramatic.

And these stereotypes can reinforce negative views of gender.

So why are stereotypes often unhelpful? Is it A, because they can reinforce negative views of gender.

B, because they can help everyone to understand each other better.

Or C, because they celebrate difference? Well done if you said A, because they reinforce negative views of gender.

Chila Kamari Berman created a life-size artwork called "Singing the Blues," and this artwork looks very similar to the Wayang Kulit style of shadow puppetry.

The puppet has multiple arms and legs to show that no one is just one thing, everyone has many sides to their identity.

And it also resembles the shape of the Hindu god Shiva who has many arms to perform many different actions at once.

These pupils are made puppets and discussing how the shape of a puppet can show aspects of the puppets character.

So have a look at this puppet here maybe it's body position and what it's doing Sam comments that body shapes and positions like being upright and kicking might symbolize joy, or maybe even a whole range of emotions or actions.

Take a look at this one here, maybe notice how many legs it might have, or arms, or the position of its head.

Do you think it reminds you of an animal or a human, or maybe even a combination of the two? Aisha says the body position of her puppet can show a lot about how someone's feeling.

She likes the effect of mixing up the shapes and the sizes of limbs.

So in imaginary puppet, they don't have to be realistic.

They can be any shape and size that you want.

True or false? The shape of a puppet has no impact on how the puppet's character is communicated.

What do you think? Well done if you said false.

Like we've just said, the shape of the puppet can help communicate different elements of its character.

So over to you for our second task.

Design an imaginative 2D puppet that represents you.

So you might want to think what is it that I want to show about myself? Maybe you could even make some notes or sketch out some ideas.

So the first thing that you need to do after you've decided what it is that you want your puppet to show, is to think about creating some shapes.

So you want to draw and cut out different body parts and really think about considering using geometric or organic shapes.

So you might want to do a whole selection of arms in different shapes and sizes.

Legs, again you could have four of each and then you can pick and choose or use multiple limbs on your puppet.

You also want to think about a body shape, so you might have an organic body shape or a more mathematical shape and it's really nice if you want to cut out some animal characteristics as well for your puppet.

So this is a bit like a mix and match puppet of all the different shapes and sizes.

For the head or for the limbs, you could also try folding a piece of paper in half, cutting some shapes out and then opening it up.

And that might be a really unexpected shape you could use somewhere on your puppet design.

So once you've got all of your shapes for your puppet maybe take some darker paper and lay out all of the different, the body the head the different limbs where you think you would like them.

So, we're thinking about the position of the shapes as well and how that might show the character that you're aiming for, like in the examples we've just seen.

So, that experimenting with the posture.

Pause the video here while you design an imaginative puppet.

So let's take a look at what your work may have looked like.

And we're thinking about these arrangements of the different body parts onto the black paper.

And you can see here the body's been made with a geometric, more angular shape, and other parts have been much more organic and flowing and of different sizes as well.

And then maybe thinking about one or two or maybe more positions and which one you prefer and why.

Okay let's move on to our last learning cycle, decorating puppets.

Which of these decorative patterns is henna art? Take a good look.

Well done if you said A.

This is an example of henna art that's been intricately painted onto the hands.

Let's take a look at some examples of different cultures that use decorative elements in their designs.

So, Otomi from Mexico uses colorful animals and plants.

Tartan from Scotland, which you might be familiar with, uses checkered geometric patterns.

Mud cloth from Mali uses these bold very geometric symbols in their design.

Mehndi from India uses these intricate, and again another key word, the organic vines and flowers so we can start to see this is just a sprinkle of examples but how these cultures are using very different approaches to the decorative elements for their traditional arts and craft work.

Ndebele from South Africa uses very bold geometric shapes, again one of our keyword.

And Wycinanki from Poland uses very symmetrical floral and animal cutouts, so these are made from paper.

So we're really thinking about here how patterns connect the storytelling with the culture and the symbolism.

Quick check for understanding.

Patterns can be decorative and hold cultural or symbolic meaning.

Well done if you answered true.

Patterns are often both decorative and carry cultural or symbolic meanings.

And they can represent people's identity, tradition and history.

These pupils are discussing how they might use this idea of global patterns to decorate their puppets.

Jun says, "I want to use pattern to represent parts of my identity, like the Chinese Shou symbol." And Alex says, "His puppet looks strong." So he's going to think about how is he going to use these patterns to show strength in his work.

And Sophia says, "I'll mix free-flowing nature inspired shapes with geometric patterns." So how could you use pattern to enhance your puppet design and communicate elements that represent you? And there's a couple of examples of images here that show different approaches to pattern.

Now over to you for our next task.

Experiment with decorating your puppet from task B.

Here's an example of decorating the puppet using a fluid background.

And here you can see I'm dabbing ink on the wet paper to create organic patterns.

This is a really nice way of creating a pattern where you don't have much control about the outcome, but it's beautiful to see how the ink spreads onto the paper.

If you do this technique you may want to just be careful to leave some white sections of paper coming through as this creates a really nice contrast in your work.

And this technique can be done using watercolor or ink and it can be done in any color.

It might even represent something about your personality.

Another way of creating pattern is by creating a controlled background.

So here you can see that I'm printing that idea of a geometric shape, a circle, onto the paper.

And you can use any objects to do this.

You could even try combining the two patterns if you're interested in what effect that might make.

So then thinking about these global patterns or patterns that inspire you or might show aspects of your personality.

And you could research some or you could use some of these examples as inspiration.

And these will add another layer of visual interest to the decoration of your puppet.

So the materials you might want to use for this may be pen or pencil, so waiting for the background to dry a bit first.

Pause the video here and I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

So next we're going to assemble, so we're going to stick down and reflect on the work that you've produced today.

So think about how are you going to secure your puppet.

Is it going to be glue onto the black paper? Or maybe if you want a movable puppet, you might think about using mat pins or string, depending on how you want to control it.

Is it going to be for a performance, or is it going to be displayed like "Child of Berman," as an artwork on the wall.

Have a quick think about the successes of your puppet as well what did you enjoy the most or maybe you can think about is there anything you would change if you did it again or anything you would develop and why.

Take a moment here to assemble and reflect on your puppet.

Let's take a look at what your puppet may look like.

So in this example, you can see there's lots of animal characteristics.

You may have noticed the beak and also the spikes and the monkey's tail.

And Laura says, "That she used the ink background with flowing nature inspired patterns." If you look really closely you can see the pen added over the top.

And she added the beak to make her puppet look like it's singing like a bird and also running, the two things she love.

In this example Jacob says, "I used organic shapes for my puppets body to make it look like it's a monkey with lots of energy.

I arranged it to appear like it's dancing, because that's my favorite hobby." So I wonder how you found this task.

I hope you had a good time making your puppet.

Let's look at a summary for today's lesson.

Puppets come in different forms and they can be 2D or 3D.

They can be made from different materials and come in various sizes.

Puppets can tell stories, challenge ideas and promote political change.

Puppet designs can reflect cultural heritage, identity and belonging.

Some puppets reinforce stereotypes based on appearance, culture or behavior.

Thank you for learning with me today and I look forward to seeing you soon.