Blogger Jonathan Dolce

Easy Puppetry From the Shadows

So, coming up this Friday I’m going to be in Ocala for the 2023 TBLC KidsLit MiniCon. For the first time, I’m doing a workshop all about shadow puppetry. Of course, it’s made easy! Moreover, I’m bringing my own brand of shadow puppetry, one that combines many styles and forms of this ancient art. Taking your show on the electronic highway Shadow puppetry enjoys a history that stretches back to time immemorial. Today, we have theability to create, share and present wonderful shadow puppets and entire shows utilizing 3-D printingmethods in person and online. Shadow puppet creation used to take hours of painstaking work withscissors and exacto knives and result in workable but fragile products. The average professional handpuppet today costs upward of $30, while a 3-D printed shadow puppet costs pennies. Here are two (2) I’ve printed: Since most shadow puppet screens/theaters are big rectangles, just zoom in on…

Blogger Jonathan Dolce

¡Día De Los Muertos! ¡Celebramos!

¡Día De Los Muertos! Hoy celebramos Día De Los Muertos. Día De Los Muertos or Day of the Dead is not just on November 1st.  It is a three-day festival – October 31 – November 2 – that is celebrated throughout Latin America.  Here in the U.S., places that have large Latino populations, such as Los Angeles, California, and Phoenix, Arizona celebrate with incredible picturesque decorations like papel picado (estampo), costumbres, dulces y mucho mas. Día De Los Muertos is a huge fiesta – a national holiday – national, as in no school today, chicos! Remember, though, Día De Los Muertos is not Halloween.  Even though trick-or-treating has become more common on Día De Los Muertos, Halloween  is a Northern European tradition.  Instead, Day of the Dead is a blend of Aztec and Catholic beliefs. And yet, even ancient Egyptians once believed that “the spirits of the dead returned every autumn to…