Puppet making Over the last 10 weeks, young people have worked towards making their own rod puppets, based on a carnival theme. We looked at how these are made across the world, in a variety of sizes, scales and colours. Taught over Zoom, the course had challenges and opportunities. We used foil, paper, glue and paints to create the puppets heads and hands. Many of these materials were from the young people's homes, easily found around the house. Anna, the Creative Youth Worker leading the course, demonstrated to the whole group papier mache and sculpting techniques. For the body of the puppets, we used pillowcases to create costumes. Each young person used a different technique, tie dying, printing, painting or collage techniques to decorate their costumes. Each young person collected sticks from their garden to make the rods for their puppets and attached them to the head and the hands. This enables the movement for their puppets. We also investigated how you can bring a puppet to life through breath and movement. Puppetry is about bringing life to the inanimate. It’s a powerful tool for self-expression and that's what all the young people on the course accomplished. All the participants came up with very individual unique characters, through the inspiration of carnival, thinking of colour, patterns and textures. We worked in an improvised way so that there were no restrictions on imagination or creativity. Congratulations to all the young people who took part! We love the diversity and imagination of all your puppet characters and thank you so much for joining our course! Have you enjoyed seeing how young people expressed themselves during lockdown? Do you want to support more young people to access creative opportunities? Donate: Please select a donation amount (required) £15 Could provides a young carer an evening of fun activities, taking a break from their caring responsibilities £30 Could provide hot meals for 50 young asylum seekers and refugees to eat together during our weekly sessions £50 Provides a 1:2:1 session for a young person struggling with their mental health with one of our trusted youth workers Other Set up a regular payment Donate Manage Cookie Preferences How can we help?