https://americanfolklore.net/folk-tales/index.php/2010/07/06/brer-rabbit-and-the-tar-baby/
These are actually mini plant pots made of cardboard and they came in sets of 35, so I used them also to create similar puppets with a class of 5 year olds. The eyes are drawn on white sticker, then cut and pasted, and everything else is customised with pens and cutouts.
In this one I use a lovely idea I saw in a theatre installation back home, which is to tell a story by using things in boxes, so that every time you come to certain parts, there is a box to open that contains some surprise.
As you can see I have chosen only a few highlights from the Odyssey. You can´t go wrong with classics. You can see Penelope, Ulysses on his boat, the mermaids (monster figures at the back), the Cyclops and the Goddess Athena.
I first heard this tale in the celebration of the Korean Full Moon Festival, Chuseok, in the British Musem, and understood the exchange to be between two old men so that´s what the puppets reflect.
The base for the puppets is a pair of cheap paintbrushes, but this time I made the heads with air-dry clay that you can purchase at any craft shop. After they were dry I painted them with acrylic and wrapped some old fabric bits I had to make the gowns.
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https://www.sacred-texts.com/asia/ftft/ftft23.htm
I edit this story and make it much shorter when I use it in class. But of course I keep the moment when the evil character pushes the hairpins into the girl´s head , and the fact that the lover strokes the bird´s head and that is how he finds the hairpins there. I found a similar version of this story in the Basque Country.
I cut up a delivery box into three equally sized rectangles and did the illustrations with watercolour. For a better effect, I then mounted the watercolours onto additional cardboard and cut out rectangular frames, also of cardboard, that I decorated with washi tape. As you can see, the girl and the bird are on both sides of the same cardboard piece, so I can just flip that over.
As always, having sturdy, thick cardboard will give a much better effect than using card.
This contains the gist of it, because the story revolves around the monkey making the turtle believe he takes off his heart and leaves it in a tree, so he can escape.
https://sites.google.com/site/thingsmyanmar/fairy-tales/the-monkey-s-heart
In the version I read years ago, the turtle does not want the monkey´s heart for his wife but for the daughter of the King of the Sea, for the King has promised to make him rich. So the turtle invites the monkey to a wonderful party and when the monkey is worn out by all the dancing and frolic gets him a room. But the room is guarded by the jellyfish, who in those days had a skeleton, and the manta ray, who was nice and plump. They chatter, the monkey finds out he has been misled, and he escapes. As a punishment, the King rips the skeleton off the jelly fishes and slices the manta ray so it´s flat. As for the turtle, when she goes to apologize, the monkey hits her with a coconut and this is why a turtle shell is always cracked.
The animals are just cut outs in card, but I find wine corks invaluable to make any cutout stand up while telling a story. In Spain they are very common, so I always travel back with a bunch. I do cut them in half , so one cork makes for two stand.
The puppets for this are made by cutting out a cardboard base for the faces (use sturdy cardboard such as delivery boxes are made of) and then punching holes to push the popsicle end through. I then modelled the faces out of playdoh and coated them with a mixture of PVA and water. Left to air dry, the mixture becomes hard and protects the playdoh, though you must still keep the puppets in a box.
I make the hairdresser come from Paris so he can have a strong French accent. He always steals the show.
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I have been unable to find this story again so cannot credit it, but please, if you find it, let me know so I can.
A mother and a daughter, very poor, are tilling a small field. An evil dragon appears in the sky and sweeps the child away, but she shouts out "Don´t worry, mother, my brother will save me!"
The mother cries all the way home as she only has one child. But on the way there she is crying so much she stumbles into a tree and swallows a red seed. By the time she gets to her cottage she has a huge belly and as soon as she walks in she gives birth to a boy. She is so exhausted she falls asleep and when she wakes the baby is a boy already.
"I am Little Red", he informs her. "I will bring back my sister".
And he travels all the way to the dragon´s mountain. When he is climbing to the top, where the dragon is, he finds a huge rock in the path. He can easily climb over it, but being a considerate boy, he thinks "what if someone were to come not as young or nimble as I?". So with great effort he pushes the huge boulder off the path, and under it lies a flute.
Little Red discovers that by playing the flute he can make any animal dance, none can resist the music. So he faces the dragon and plays the flute. The dragon, furious, dances until he is exhausted.
Depending on the audience, I make Little Red drown the dragon in a lake or threaten to do so , so the dragon leaves forever.
The puppets are simply cardboard (the type used in delivery boxes) cutouts on which I have pasted the paper, washi tape and drawn the faces. I have also added some sequins. I keep an assortment of washi tape and patterned paper on hand. They are then simply glued onto popsicle sticks.
Oh, the dragon´s head is a little damaged but I made it by adding some cardboard strips to a clothespin and then wrapping it up with washi tape (green) and customising it a bit. Great advantage is the clothespin dragon can actually pick up the girl and carry her off.
https://americanfolklore.net/folk-tales/index.php/2010/07/06/brer-rabbit-and-the-tar-baby/ These are actually mini plant pots made of card...
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