Design Course
Puppet Making
The Craft of Animated Figures
by
Introduction
Indian Puppetry: From Concept to Demonstration:
Course Teacher:
Ms. Anupama Hoskere (Independent practitioner and domain expert)
Ms. Jagriti Galphade (NID)
Indian puppetry has been one of the most ancient arts based on India’s rich tradition and cultural wisdom. From conceptualization to execution, puppetry involves a lot of creative imagination as it entertains people of all age groups and from all socio-cultural background. It is also a form of storytelling which involves expression of drama, romance, emotion, comedy and other everyday life experiences. Puppetry involves manipulation of objects which symbolize different characters, personalities and these are embedded in plots, scenes, events, actions and activities.
Puppetry is a social art and involves creative construction of personality, characters, events and social realities. It acts as a special form of art and entertainment and at the same time acts as a communication channel for myths, rituals, cultural heritage and religion etc. Indian puppetry has been categorized into four forms:
• Glove Puppetry
• Rod Puppetry
• String Puppetry and
• Shadow Puppetry
The course on puppet making was conducted at NID R&D campus, Bangalore for the postgraduate students of various design disciplines. The main objective of the course was to educate design students on various aspects of traditional puppetry – puppet making, character creation, storyline development and final presentation on the stage. The course emphasizes on the following points:
• Character Sketching
• Character Sculpting from Thermocol
• Integration of string Mechanisms into body components of the puppet
• Application of colours onto the body surface of the puppet
• Script Writing for dialogue and for various plots
• Song Writing
• Stage Design
• Final Performance
As part of the course two domain experts (Teachers) on puppetry were interviewed and video graphed. In the video the two experts speak about the various aspects of puppet making and its historical development. Photographic methods were also used to depict the various processes and methods involved in puppet making.
Traditional Puppet Making is a deliberate process that uses a variety of traditional and modern Materials and Techniques. The documentation captures the process and stages as experienced by the learners during the course while using low cost, low weight materials, easy-to manipulate forms. The idea was to get hands-on experience on the steps involved in the puppet making and be a part of the creative process.
