Making Worlds – The Creation Myth Puppets Handbook.
This is a practical guide to make simple accessible puppets brought to life by Charlie Narewski’s illustrations.In here you will find how to make over twenty different animal, bird, reptile and human puppets from simple materials; stories from around the world and explanations of how to bring the puppets to life. More than enough to make your own brilliant puppet theatre.Whether you are a teacher, workshop artist, puppeteer, storyteller or parent – Make Puppets! Make Stories!
~ Take a look at some samples from the book ~
For more than thirty years we have been guiding children to animate tales from around the world in large scale puppet theatre extravaganzas. This book is an illustrated compendium of those tales and a manual of how to make the puppets that bring the tales to life. The tales we have turned to most are creation myths.
Creation myths are root myths of cultures. This means that they are the root story from which the other stories in that culture sprout. Creation myths are also called myths of origin or emergence because they relate the essential mystery of how nothing becomes something. They are not myths because they are not true, they are myths because they are symbolic. They use a language of resonant image. This is no less exact than other abstract languages such as mathematics although it is more accessible to a wide population. Story is an inclusive language. This inclusivity is one reason why creation myths resonate with children.
Through the act of making and then animating puppets, children have an understanding and the joy of bringing something new to life.
Teacher: What are you making?
Girl 1 (age 8): Pigs.
Girl 2 (age 8): Actually, we’re creating life.
In this handbook we have sought to bring you some of those tales as told by children in many schools across many years; the puppets that they have made in their thousands and some techniques and ideas for making your own worlds come to life.
A simple tale, told at the right moment, transforms a person’s life with the order its pattern brings to incoherent energies. (Myth and Education)”
Ted Hughes, Winter Pollen: Occasional Prose
