Sock puppets - your new best friend

Even if we tend to think about puppets as something childish and playful, the birth of the puppets is linked to religious ceremonies, rites of primitive man related to hunting and pagan rituals of the Ancient Egypt and Greece. In our training course we learned how to make mouthy puppets - funny puppets with a big mouse that can be used for talking, eating and picking up various objects.

Materials:

BODY: old socks, sleeves of jersey of a shirt sleeves or a pant leg can be used. 

MOUTH, TEETH AND TONGUE: Pieces of discarded colourful fabrics of cotton, felt or other. 

HAIR: Pieces of wool, fabric, rope, cables, plastics. 

EYES: Balls made of pressing paper or plastic, corks, plastic caps, buttons, plant material (small cones, seeds). 

This list should be seen as guidance. The creative possibilities for making puppets are so broad that every person can use any other material for recycling, as long as its bring colours shapes and textures suitable for the Muppet.

Tools and accessories:

Scissors, needles, threads, pins, white glue, silicone gun and hot glue sticks, pencil, cardboard

Preparation

Photo: Isabel Alcantud Gómez
Cut the sock at the front, at about a third of the length of the feet. 

Photo: Isabel Alcantud Gómez
Draw the shape of the mouth on a cardboard, which should be the same size as the area that we cut. This cardboard is used to give stiffness to the Muppet’s mouth and also as a template to cut a fabric used to make ​​the inside of the mouth. 

Photo: Isabel Alcantud Gómez
Cut the tongue and sew it in the middle of the mouth. Connect the inside of the mouth, the cardboard, stick it to the sock with pins; sew on the outside only the two fabrics. 

Photo: Isabel Alcantud Gómez
Cut the tongue and sew it in the middle of the mouth. Connect the inside of the mouth, the cardboard, stick it to the sock with pins; sew on the outside only the two fabrics. Add the details: cheeks (soft wax); freckles, nose and eyebrows with a marker; and accessories like earrings, made of remains of fabrics.

Photo: Isabel Alcantud Gómez
The final version of the Muppets. 

And here you can find pictures of some of the puppets made by our participants. Get inspired and make your own theater troup!

Photos: Montserrat Guirado

Toys - there´s more than meets the eye

The workshop of Ángel Haro on the toy making from recycled materials was the most philosophical one. 

Children in Africa make toys in shape of hi-tech mobile phones and computers, even if they see them just on TV. Through this small action we can see how the world is getting smaller and how the ideals are being transmitted from one continent to another.

Our trainer believed the making of toy is an important part of the whole process of play. Western children, who receive their toys from shops, are being robbed from the experience of creating. That might explain why children in western countries break their toys and dispose of them so easily. 

Time to recycle some paper

As our training course took place during november and Christmas was right around the corner, we dedicated some time to create Christmas decorations with Liene and Mina.

Christmas tree

A very simple christman decoration that looks amazing. You´ll need a book or a magazine to recycle (of around 150 pages, with back glued), spray paint, glue and some glitter.

Photo: Montserrat Guirado

What to do with all those old T-shirts?

On the second day of our training course Alicia came to teach us some simple things we can do with our old t-shirts. We will publish the descritpion of some of the transformations that took place during the morning session.

A bag from an old T-shirt

What you need is an old t-shirt, scissors, needle and thread, marker.

CDs, microwaves and jewelry

Photo by Maja Cadez
The jewelry is no longer measured, as before, by the precious material it is made from. Now jewelry is converted to an object of desire because of its design. María Luisa Guerrero Gónzalez

It´s not about gold and diamonds anymore. The new wave of jewelry puts the design and creativy before the price of the material. Jewelry can be created from everything. There are no limits. This opens a whole new field of oportunities and our trainer María Luisa gave us a glimpse of what can it mean.

As it is a very creative process, we will not give you a description of a specific piece of jewelry. We will just explain you the steps you can take and the ways you can play with your old CDs. How  you use this knowledge is up to you, but we believe that the craziest ideas are the best.

Let´s make some soap

The first workshop during our training course was a smelly one - we made soap from used cooking oil. Don´t be afraid to try it at home. As our trainer, Esperanza, said: soap making is easy, even if the process can take some time. 

I knew plastic bottles are bad... but oil?

Even if it is not a well known fact, each liter of used oil contaminates more than 1,000 liters of water. If the oil reaches the river, it forms a sheet that limits oxygenation process and can kill fish and aquatic plants. In addition, the cleaning process is very expensive, so it increases the costs of maintaining public sewers and water treatment plants. Thus, this is money that cannot be used for other important things, such as health, education, etc. Oil that is flushed down the sink can also clog our pipes, so we end up spending money on unblocking.