Do-it-yourself cane doll: features, types and reviews

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Reed puppet is one of the most common types of professional puppet theater puppets. From this article you can find out where dolls on canes appeared, how to manage them, what you need to create such a doll at home.

Puppet concept

Reed puppet - a kind of puppet, the game body of which implies the movements of the head and hands. Such a doll consists of a head attached to a cane, an empty torso-suit that hides a cane, and arms to which canes of smaller diameter are attached.

The puppeteer rotates the puppet's cane with one hand (in more complex versions, the head can be rotated independently of the body), and with the other hand manipulates the canes that perform the movements of the puppet hands. In performances involving open actions of the puppeteer (not because of the screen), there is a kind of cane puppets with legs - canes are attached to them, just like to the hands. The simplest scheme of such a doll can be seen in the figure above.

History of Creation

Step puppets came to Europe from the East, where theaters with their usehave been known since ancient times. It is assumed that they were invented on the island of Java in Indonesia, so such dolls are often called Javanese. The most popular early reed puppet theaters were in Indonesia, Japan and China. The characters were made like the famous theatrical masks of these countries, such as Warrior, Sorcerer, Princess, Sage and so on.

In Europe, puppets gained popularity due to easier control than rope puppets, a wide size range and the ability to use a huge number of characters, creating "puppet extras", such as a squad of soldiers or a market crowd. It was impossible to create extras using classic puppets because of the danger of tangling the threads of different puppets with each other.

In Russia, the first puppets on canes appeared only after the revolution, in 1918. The first performance was based on Krylov's fables.

Do-it-yourself cane doll

Before you start making a doll on canes, you need to decide on its variety. There are four main types of such dolls. For a small home puppet theater, a large-cane puppet is best suited - it is easy to make it yourself, and one puppeteer can control two or even four puppets at once.

Gapit is a small stick, ten to twenty centimeters long, designed to fit entirely in the palm of your hand and be controlled by your fingers. Profession althe version of the gape doll implies a simple mechanism that allows you to rotate the doll's head and control its hands with the fingers of one hand, hidden under the doll's body-suit. At home, making such a mechanism will not be easy without special tools and woodworking skills.

But there is also a variant of a simple cane puppet: the head is attached to an ordinary stick, which will act as a gapit, and the hands are sewn onto the costume without control. Thus, one puppeteer can control four puppets at once, holding two in one hand. Such puppets can be used when arranging a home puppet theater for the smallest spectators. The head and costume can be sewn by hand, or you can sew the body to an already finished head, for example, from a broken Barbie doll or some kind of rubber toy. As a gapit, you can use any stick or even a regular pencil. A performance with such puppets must be shown from behind a screen.

Classic doll

With your own hands, a reed puppet for the theater can also be made in the classic version. But it will take more time and skills to create toys. First of all, you will need to choose a good cane for the base. What are sticks for stick dolls made of? There are many materials - wood, metal, plastic and even thick cardboard. At home, you can use a turned branch, part of an old mop (wooden or plastic - it doesn’t matter), a leg from an old chair, and so on - it all depends on the size of the conceived doll and onthe heaviness of her head.

If you don't have to worry about the appearance when choosing the main cane, as the costume will hide it, then when choosing the canes that control the hands, you need to use ingenuity. These canes will be in front of the viewer, and therefore they should be beautiful, solid and not spoil the appearance of the character. Depending on the size of the cane puppet, you can use long knitting needles, even turned branches (they can be pre-dyed), plastic sticks from balloons.

The head of the doll can be made from papier-mache: it will be light, it can be given any shape and painted as fantasy allows. You can also sew a head like a soft toy. A simpler option, again, is to use a finished head from an old toy. The costume and hands can be made with rag.

Skill is required to control such a doll. If a simple performance is planned from behind a screen, legs are not required (for female characters, they may be implied by a long dress). If you want to take the doll out from behind the screen, you can make legs hanging from under the suit - you don’t need to control them, they will just hang freely when moving.

Performing a doll in the form of a four-legged animal, you can fasten two canes - one under the stomach, one under the head, leaving the legs in free movement.

"Talking" doll on canes

A more complex subspecies of the cane doll is a symbiosis with a hand puppet, mouthwhich opens and closes with the palm of your hand. The popularizer of such dolls was the famous puppeteer director Jim Henson, the creator of Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. Most of his dolls are of this type: their body and head are hollow, a hand is inserted into them to control the movements of the mouth, head and body, and canes are used to control the hands.

To create such a cane doll, you will need to sew a glove head, as well as a suit with hands. For hand canes, you can also use knitting needles or plastic sticks. You can sew a whole doll like a glove one, but instead of empty hands, make them stuffed. This option is suitable if a person who is just starting to learn sewing skills is going to make a doll.

Dolls with legs

Step puppets, which are supposed to be controlled not only by hands, but also by feet, are the most difficult. Firstly, at least two people are needed to control them (one controls the upper limbs, the other the lower ones), secondly, they are more difficult to make, and thirdly, a performance with such a doll cannot be shown because of the screen, so you will need to think through story space and puppeteer outfit.

The production and use of canes is the same as in the previous methods, except that the character will not get off with a long dress: you will need to think over the appearance of the legs, and also make the main cane as beautiful as possible, since it will also not hidden.

Using puppetson canes

For what occasions may you need to make such dolls? First of all, of course, to create a home puppet theater. With large cane puppets, you can put on a play to entertain 3-4 year olds by entertaining them with a funny performance. For older children, you can first arrange a master class on making such dolls, and then invite them to take a place behind the screen and play a role play, or by arranging an improvisation.

More complex reed puppets can be worked on for a large-scale show, such as one put on by parents in kindergarten, or for students to play on their own. Also, with such a doll outside the performance, you can unusually congratulate the child on his birthday, making the doll (for example, the talking version) a kind of leader at the children's party.

Where to buy?

If there are no questions about using a cane doll, but you don’t want to work on making it, you can always buy a ready-made one. Of course, it is difficult to find such dolls in ordinary toy stores. But you can search on the Internet - on unusual toy sites you can find a new doll specifically designed for home use. And on sites that resell used goods, you can find professional reed puppets for puppet theater, which are now out of use. These dolls will feature high quality and unique designs.

If you are planning a serious performance with large investments, you can always order a cane puppet from a professional. By contacting the local puppet theater, you can find out who makes puppets for them - as a rule, full-time craftsmen do this. A professional will be able to make a doll of any complexity, taking into account the wishes of the customer.

Pieces for puppet shows

Classic cane puppets are designed for serious performances, including dramatic elements that allow you to use hand play. The classic performances are "Little Muk", "Aladdin's Magic Lamp", "Tutta Carlson and Ludwig the Fourteenth". For large dolls, simple children's fairy tales are perfect, such as "Turnip", "Ryaba Hen", "Three Bears".