top of page
Free! Simple Mechanisms
To launch our 2026-27 Automata Fundamentals Online Workshop, we are offering the first session for FREE! Learn how to make simple mechanisms for Automata and learn about our plans for the entire year. Learn how to make beautiful automata in Simple Mechanisms that you can easily make at home with scrap wood, clothespins, and other materials that are easily sourced. On September 20, you will get guidance from expert toymaker/puppet maker Mirek Trejtnar on the basic principles
News
All Posts
May Puppet Recipe, Tricky Carving 3: Video and Puppet Recipe
So many beginner carvers do not understand how deep in the face they must make a puppet's nose, cheeks, mouth, and the corners of the eye. This puppet recipe teaches you how to find the correct depth.
May 5, 20251 min read
Mirek's Amazing Pencil Marker
Learn to make this special gadget invented by MirekTrjetnar that allows you to draw a straight line in the center of wooden blocks!
May 2, 20251 min read
PIP Puppetry Day Celebration
Join us online on April 27 for a belated World Puppetry Day Celebration! See the work students have completed with us this year and share...
Apr 20, 20251 min read
The Magic and Mystery of two Czech Puppet Makers
František Vítek (born 1929) and Věra Říčařová Vítková (born 1936) It is impossible to over-estimate the significance of František Vítek...
Apr 8, 20254 min read
April Puppet Recipe, Tricky Carving 2: Video and Puppet Recipe
At our Puppet Recipe on April 6, Mirek taught students about carving a mouth, beard, hair, and ears.
Apr 7, 20251 min read
Tricky Carving 2: April Puppet Recipe
In March our puppet cooks learned the secrets to carving an eye.
Mar 30, 20251 min read
An Unlikely Hero on a Czech Stamp
Happy 250th Birthday to Matěj Kopecký, the patriarch of Czech puppetry! Matěj Kopecký, who performed throughout Bohemia in the early 19th...
Mar 3, 20255 min read
Tricky Carving 1: Video and Puppet Recipe
At our second Puppet Recipe on March 2, Mirek taught students all about carving an eye.
Mar 3, 20251 min read
Finished Frogs!
Look what students have cooked up in their own workshops using our first Puppet Recipe! By Adriana Hollenbeck, Lucie Lavallee, Michiel...
Feb 24, 20251 min read
bottom of page