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What is karagozis?
Karagozis is the name given to traditional Greek shadow puppetry. Technically speaking, Karagoz is the name of a particular popular character in this genre, and has ended up representing the whole of Greek shadow puppetry. Image gallery provided at the bottom of this post.
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What is wayang kulit?
Wayang kulit is the name given to Indonesian shadow puppetry (not to be confused with wayang golek), and is also often known as Javanese shadow puppetry. Java being an island within Indonesia. Wayang means ‘puppet’ - which is why it is often confused with wayang golek - and kulit means ‘leather’ and ‘flat’. Wayang kulit is therefore, flat leather puppets. Wayang kulit is distinctive due to its particular character designs: angular shoulders; long, skinny arms and legs; and extremely elaborate carvings. A slideshow of example puppets can be found at the bottom of this post.
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Free pattern: How to make shadow puppets, Redback spider
Grab the FREE pattern, use the instructions within AND/OR watch the video tutorial belowIn the spirit of halloween, I’m giving you a fun…ok, creepy… shadow puppet pattern. It’s an Australian redback spider. All the instructions, including materials and tools, are provided in the pattern and the video; and there’s another video in the set that shows you how the puppet turns out.
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What fabrics can I use to make a shadow puppet screen?
I’ve been getting a couple of emails lately about the different types of fabrics used in shadow puppet screens. As in my tutorial [link to be added], I discuss predominantly using silk (or bisilk, which is cheaper). So I thought I’d post my responses here for everyone else to read too. This is probably the beginning of a new category of articles: ‘your questions answered’. I’ll not go out of my way to seek questions, but if you do email me, I might just put the answer here (which isn’t to say I’ll not reply to your email of course). Names and personal info removed/changed and posted with permission of the author. Questions are in block quotes, my response is below.
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Australian puppetry - Richard Bradshaw
If you’re looking for a list of Australian puppeteers or companies, please visit this page instead.
To mark the new year, I thought it would be a good idea to do a series of posts about Australian puppetry, with a focus on notable performers or characters. And since Richard is a hot search engine topic, I thought I’d start with him. Video of his work is at the bottom of the post, along with a slideshow of photos.
@Amy, This depends all on what you mean by 'bunraku'. Technically speaking this refers to a style of Japanese puppet; but many Americans and other people use the word to refer to a totally different style of puppetry - table-top puppets.
... School of Puppetry on Basics of puppet design and buildingI recommend reading the following if you haven't already:
http://www.puppetsinmelbourne.com.au/faq.php/2009/03/11/how-to-make-a-bunraku-puppet
http://puppetsinmelbourne.com.au/index.php/faq/2009/03/18/how-to-make-a-table-top-puppet
http://www.puppetsinmelbourne.com.au/faq.php/2009/03/17/how-to-make-a-table-top-puppet-part-two
All of these posts will soon be moved to this site.
Sadly, there aren't many tutorials out there on either, but if you get stuck head to www.puppetsandstuff.com. It's a forum for puppet makers and many of the members are willing to help advise people on how to do things.
Lastly I will add that these types of puppets are tough to make, so if it's for a school project, you may want to start on something a little easer.
Good luck with it!