Wood, leather, cloth . . . all those materials, once alive and now, reborn in the life of a puppet! It's a romantic notion, and probably more goofy than spiritual. Yet there's an inescapable, organic sense of material correctness that informs the making of puppets. Real puppets are made to last, to be tossed in boxes and carted from stage to stage. Real puppets, however light and flexible, are tough nuts. And so, ye who would become a puppet master . . . forgo the balsa, the papier-mâché, the wood filler – make real stitches in your cloth, put real leather in your joints, and take a few years to learn how to carve real wooden heads. A genuinely good puppet will outlive you – nicks and scratches, rips and all.
