The Art Of Puppets.

First of all, I just want to thank everyone who faithfully reads my blog posts: my family, friends, and followers!! In today's post, I want to do something a bit different. If you have clicked on the "About Me" tab, you are probably aware that I have a fascination with puppets, so I'd really love to tell you about Czech Marionettes.

To get things started, I've got a little history lesson for you all. ;) Puppetry is an ancient art and goes back thousands of years. Aristotle (384-322 BC) is noted as having used the term puppet. The Greek word puppet, though there are many different kinds of puppets today, translates to "drawn by strings" or "string pulling", suggesting that marionettes were the earliest forms of puppets. The origin of the word marionette comes from the French word marionnette meaning "Little Mary" because it is said that the first figure to be made into a marionette was the Virgin Mary. If you've been kind enough to read through this paragraph, you rock, e-hug!! :D

Marionette performances came long before actors, which I find pretty cool. Many people traveled all over Europe and performed with puppets on the streets. Slowly, they became more popular. I think most people today, upon hearing the word marionette or puppet, think of Pinocchio. After all, that's how my love for puppets began, when I watched Walt Disney's Pinocchio; I was 12 years old at the time. Sadly, puppets are not often used today. However, there are puppeteers in Czech Republic who keep ancient traditions of puppetry alive.

The Czech Marionette company has been around for years, since early 1990; they even have a store in Prague. There are several great artists who create the most spectacular and unique puppets by hand. Their job is to create beauty and "bring joy and fun into every household on this beautiful planet" as quoted on their website. :D Czech Marionettes offers so many great puppets for professional use, play, or decoration. I can't express enough how much I love these marionettes!!!

What the puppets are made of varies from ceramic like these mice from the Animal Circus...

...to resin like the puppets from the Charlie Chaplin collection  featuring movable eyes...

...and unique plaster compound like Young Sparky with fabric clothes, or the widely popular Old Couple Fanny and Joe marionettes.

They even have wooden marionettes like this Little Sam and Sue with cloth clothes,...

but my all time favorites are the large hand carved wooden marionettes, not with cloth clothing, but only carved and painted clothes, like Vampire Barnabas, Don Quichotte, and Sancho Panza.

Czech Marionettes is "for people charmed with magic of marionettes and marionette playing" (All about Czech Marionettes).
I mean, even if you're not really in to puppets, pleeeeeaase don't tell me you can't appreciate the art. Am I right?? Seriously though,  If I owned every puppet I liked from this company, my wallet would be empty and I wouldn't be able to find a wall large enough to hang the marionettes from. They have so many puppets to choose from, each one beautifully and uniquely made, filled with special intricate detail. They even leave you the option to request a custom marionette, so you could have one of yourself made if you wanted because that's not creepy at all.

I wish I could be a part of the Hand Carving Workshop this summer in Prague, Czech Republic where people can learn to carve their very own wooden marionette. The workshop is under the leadership of Martin Ružička - an extremely experienced and talented wood carver. Maybe some of you guys could go and then write me a very detailed novel about it or something. :) Anywho, I encourage you all to check out czechmarionettes.com and see for yourself these wonderful works of art, because a "...marionette should be in every home on this planet" (Marionettes for sale). A marionette isn't just a statue. It's a magical form of art where life is given to the puppet; they're just waiting to tell their stories. ;)

P.S. So, just in case any of you are thinking that Czech Marionettes asked me to write this post about them, you would in fact be wrong. I actually asked them. They said yes and were more than willing to answer any questions I had. I'm just so passionate about these puppets and I really wanted to share that with you guys. Thanks so much for reading!