Making a Marionette
Making a Marionette by Paula Briggs and Sheila Ceccarelli from AccessArt, as part of the Festival of Making 2012.
Understanding Marionettes
Marionettes are hanging puppets which are controlled by tilting the cross bar from which the strings hang. In this simplified version just the head and arms are attached to the cross bar – making it easier for children to control the puppets and less likely that the strings become knotted!
Each body part is made separately and joined to it’s neighbour by wire. There is then plenty of opportunity to decorate the marionettes by making clothes, modelling faces and making props.
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Hanna Cottrell
March 13, 2013 @ 1:47 pm
The marionette project is brilliant. I used it as part of a ks3 Surrealism project (merging animals and insects together for the design) and my aim was to try and engage more British, white boys with making. They all enjoyed the unit and the finished work was exhibited at school. Thanks for this brilliant website full of inspiration!
Paula Briggs
March 13, 2013 @ 1:50 pm
Wow hannah what a lovely image – thanks for sharing! Absolutely wonderful – makes me want to see the whole display!!!
Hanna Cottrell
March 13, 2013 @ 1:54 pm
This really did work for my group who are quite difficult and the finished exhibtion of two classes looked brilliant. Around 50 marionettes were hanging in mid air! Thanks for your inspiring tutorial:)