Grampaw's Workshop
Works In Progress

I love my workshop! When I'm not working in the garden or telling my stories, I'm here. Race likes to come here with me, this is where we make our scenery, stages and puppets. My favorite puppets are in the corner, go ahead take a look but, come right back, there's more I want to tell you.

I love puppets and puppet theater. It's a world, just about the right size for anything you feel like saying or doing. You can be somebody else for awhile or visit other somebody else's for a while. It's the best place for me to tell my stories and it can be a good place for you to tell yours. Puppets are easy to make and even easier to believe in and stages, why they too, can be as easy to make, as the little folks who come to live in them.

Here's how to make two very easy, simple, hand puppet stages. The first one, only needs a sheet, blanket or piece of cloth and a couple of tacks. All you need do is tack it across the bottom half of a doorway. If you don't want to make holes in the material, tack thick string across the doorway and throw the material over the string. This is a quick and easy stage. Remember, things don't have to be hard or complicated to be fun! If you want something nicer, not necessarily better, try this. Get a box, and either cut off the side with the open flaps, or cut open one whole side of the box. (Scissors can be dangerous and we don't want any little bunnies getting cut. All our projects are meant to be, NO band aid required activities. So, be very careful and always ask an adult to help you.) Then on the opposite side of the box cut a square leaving a 2 or 3 inch border around the top and sides and a 1 inch border along the bottom. This is now, the front of your stage, while the open end is the back of the stage. You can color the border and see, it looks like a curtain. Naturally, you can color or paint the box all around to give your stage a finished look.

The box can then be placed on a table (card tables are great for this) with a table cloth thrown over it. You are hidden by the tablecloth and if you set the table up in front of a doorway you can use the doorway behind you to tack up the scenery for your play. Scenery can be made of old sheets and pillow cases or posterboard and construction paper. You can go to my scenery page for more ideas on ways to make scenery.

If you go to my stages page you'll find there are many other kinds of stages in the world. In fact, some say the world, itself is a stage and we are all the actors in it. If that's so, then we must be our own play wrights, as well as, our own directors, costume designers and camera men. Everyone gets an 'Oscarette' for best actor in his own production. There is lots to do in life and with your life, but for now, let's just have some fun, play and dream. Childhood is a great place to grow in and is our chance to try on many hats and costumes before we settle on our final production.

If you like Puppetry
you will enjoy these Poems about Puppets and Puppetry 

Poetry:

The Theater  

  The Revolt Of The Puppets

The Circus  

Wooden Blocks

Pinocchio

A Brief History of Puppets

Puppetry Home Page

Plays

Puppetry Books, Music, Films

If you are interested in puppets to buy or make, 
in your neck of the woods, check out my 
puppetrybest links.