Dancing puppet wall

Decorating my home is cathartic to me. It gives me a break from the daily drudgery and trying to stay on top of the mundane never-ending to-do list. I love having an idea in my head and the process of bringing it to life. In this post, I am writing about how an idea of the dancing puppet wall came to life. The best part of this – it is very renter friendly & cost effective. No power tools used & not one hole punched!

The inspiration:

The inspiration to do this came when I was browsing for pictures for my Chennai wall. For a bit, I was thinking of doing a gallery wall based on Indian folk arts and was looking up various folk arts/dance forms from across India. That is when I came across pictures of Tholu Bommalata. From the Wikipedia –

 “Tholu Bommalata is the shadow puppet theatre tradition of the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. Its performers are part of a group of wandering entertainers and peddlers who pass through villages during the course of a year and offer to sing ballads, tell fortunes, sell amulets, perform acrobatics, charm snakes, weave fishnets, tattoo local people and mend pots. This ancient custom, which for centuries before radio, movies, and television provided knowledge of Hindu epics and local folk tales, not to mention news, spread to the most remote corners of the subcontinent. Tholu bommalata literally means “the dance of leather puppets” (tholu – “leather” and bommalata – “puppet dance”) The puppeteers comprise some of the various entertainers who perform all night and usually reenact various stories from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata.”

These are colorful handcrafted puppets with beautiful intricate patterns on their clothes & jewelry. I thought they would be so beautiful hanging on a wall. The next question was how & where to get them. Not surprisingly, I found the leather puppets on Amazon. There were 2 sizes. One was smaller (about 17 inches tall), colorful ones and the other was much larger (about 3-foot-tall) and with a subdued color scheme. I liked the taller ones, but I did not know if that would work in my space and the logistics of shipping it. So, I bought 2 smaller ones.

Even before I got them in hand, I knew where I wanted to hang them – in our office room which is at the end of a narrow hallway. I got the narrow wall painted in a bright yellow (Benjamin Moore Mardigras Gold). This was also the very first wall we painted in our home! And there has been no turning back ever since 😀

Hanging the puppets

They are very lightweight, you could just stick them on a wall. But I wanted more drama! I wanted to bring in the puppet show effect. In a puppet show of course you see only the shadow of these puppets with a cloth in front of them. I stopped with the lights behind the puppets. It would be weird having a cloth hanging there. Or very artistic! However you see it 🙂

To hang the puppets, I used plain white twine thread. There are nodes on the back of the puppets, joining the parts,which gives the ability to maneuver them during the show. I tied one end of the thread to these nodes and took the other end all the way straight up to the ceiling and stuck the other end with a small transparent tape. Repeated the same with 4-5 nodes on each. As they are hung by individual nodes and from vertically above, these puppets can move and you can also maneuver the parts as well.

Anddd…lights and action!

For the lights behind, it had to be wireless puck lights. I used wired ones in my sunroom terracotta pendants and the wires are such a eyesore. At the same time, I did not want the battery-operated ones.  While searching for options, I came across a LED wireless, rechargeable puck lights with motion sensor!

These lights are everything I was asking for! They have a small 3M sticker on the back of a magnet. Stick the magnetic strip to the wall at the desired spot and the puck light can be taken on/off. It is that simple! It came with a charging cable also. Each light has a on, off & auto mode. When in auto mode, it turns on based on motion. I envisioned the lights turning on as someone walks the hallway towards this room. But, the puppets in front prevent the sensor from detecting motion (duh..but I did not think of that). So, it doesn’t automatically turn on as you walk towards it (as I wanted) rather it turns on when you walk by it on the sides 😀

Thank you for reading and I hope you found inspiration to bring beauty in your everyday home!

Products used:

• Puck lights – https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K1RK2SC/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B07K1RK2SC&linkCode=as2&tag=throughthegre-20&linkId=bfc40e74ee549ff984ec3bf927e16310
• Puppets – Same store but not the same one I bought. https://www.amazon.in/Craftuno-Leather-Painted-Foldable-Puppet/dp/B010MPU2AK/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=craftuno+puppets&qid=1570817200&sr=8-3