Craft Metal Shadow Puppets
A fun project for middle faculty students is making shadow puppets from craft sheet metal. Shadow puppets are a conventional art kind in Indonesia (especially Bali and Java) where they’re referred to as “Wayang Kulit”, and are used to enact plays based mostly upon Hindu spiritual themes. Students are often shown slides of Indonesian Wayang Kulit, and videos of Wayang Kulit performances, so they’re going to perceive the chances during this style of puppet performance. Within the Balinese and Javanese versions, one man during a trance state manipulates all the puppets and also the performances maintain all night long to the accompaniment of hypnotic bell and gong gamelan music. Within the faculty project the puppets are manipulated by the scholars during a “theater” made of an outsizes cardboard box (such as appliances are shipped in) with a cut-out window coated by a cloth screen that is illuminated from behind by a powerful light-weight. The scholars duck beneath the amount of the screen to control the puppets, and also the light-weight throws the shadows of the puppets onto the screen.
To make shadow puppets, 1st draw the separate body items on cardboard – body and trunk, arms and hands, and legs and feet; and then cut them out. The arm and leg items are fixed to the body piece with eyelets therefore the body, arms, and legs are often manipulated separately with skinny sticks or rods. Trace round the pattern items onto craft metal sheets with a stylus, and cut them out. Whole punches are often used to create holes for eyes, nose, mouth and alternative options. Indonesian Wayang Kulit are typically embellished with terribly ornate styles of cut-out holes. Use a hole punch on the body, arms, and legs items where they’re going to be joined beside eyelets.
The body items can even be textured and embossed and facial and body options are often enhanced with paint to create the puppets’ look additional pleasing, even supposing these details will not be visible to the audience. Since the puppeteers will see them, it makes it easier for the scholars to urge into the spirit of the puppet show. Hairs are often fashioned from wires bent to create spirals of various sizes and lengths, and clothing are often made of craft mesh. When the ornamentation is completed, the arms and legs are joined to the body with eyelets placed with an eyelet tool, loose enough so the limbs move freely. Then cut rectangles of craft sheet metal and bend them round the skinny sticks or rods to create tubes, and glue the tubes to the hands, feet, and bottom of the puppet. Alternative tubes of identical diameter are glued to the lower fringe of the podium screen to carry the puppets in place whereas the puppeteers manipulate their hands and feet. It takes alittle follow to be ready to move the puppets smoothly and realistically, however the scholars soon get the droop of it.
