THE WAY OF MAKING WAYANG KULIT
THE WAY OF MAKING WAYANG KULIT
These Javanese shadow puppets come in all shapes and sizes from the squares brutish forms of the giants, 'raksasa', to the smaller fine limbed figures representing highly cultured kings and nobles.
Some are grotesques. In fact every part of a puppet's design has symbolic significance.
Different shaped eyes and noses denote such qualities as nobility, patience, crudeness, steadfastness, strength, loyalty, clownishness or wisdom.
There are about 25 varieties of headdress to represent priests, princes, fighters, queen’s deities, kings or gods.
Although shadow puppets are usually only seen as silhouettes, they are nevertheless fastidiously painted using very fine brushwork to elaborately render facial detail, clothing and jewelry.
Faces can be painted white, black, red, pink or even blue or green.
Young nobles or kings have white or gilded faces, while those who are older have black faces indicating inner maturity.
Various shades of red are used to express degrees of boldness. The bare chest and arms are often picked out in gold paint.
Actual gold leaf was applied to puppets belonging to the Sultans of Java.
