For centuries, people all over the world have been making anything into puppets. To the right, you see a Javanese shadow puppet made from carved and painted buffalo hide. The shadow puppets interpreted plays based on Indian mythology. This puppet represents the monkey general Hanoman. Puppeteers create them in many different ways.
Some puppets take only minutes to create and some take much, much longer.
To know how these types of puppets are made visit Puppets in the Making by Steve Axtell. In puppetry, you use your creativity. When Steve Axtell sits down to sculpt his puppets, he has a blob of clay. As he plays and works with the clay, puppet characters emerge. An important part is that Steve is willing to sit with a blob of clay and play.