What you need
- two empty loo rolls or a kichen towel roll
- tape
- string
- glue stick
- two lollypop sticks to hang the puppet from
- 4 bottle tops for the feet
- a piece of old tin foil
- scissors
- pens or coloured pencils
- white paper
- a pin or thumb-tack
- any other bits you want to decorate with (we used a few paper straws to cover the string for the legs, and a googly eye!)
inspiration
Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Stag (marionette for King Stag) 1918. Museum für Gestaltung, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Zurich. Decorative Arts Collection. Photograph courtesy of Umberto Romito and Ivan Suta.
Swiss artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp designed this puppet of a stag in 1918. It was one of seventeen 'marionettes' (puppets with strings) designed by the artist for a play called the Stag King (König Hirsch), in Zurich, Switzerland.
Sophie Taeuber-Arp was a trained dancer and she used her knowledge of dance to help her design the puppets, which could move and dance too. The play closed after three performances because people said that the marionettes were too modern and daring! What do you think?
