Welcome to Arty Tales online – where the Incinerator Gallery comes to you.

Our Barking Spider Visual Theatre artist and storyteller Laura invites you to join in this creative story and activity from the comfort and safety of your own home.

Please take a photo or video of your story and artwork and share it on Instagram, Facebook, or our Facebook Group. Use the hashtag #IncineratorGallery so everyone can share just as we do during the program at Incinerator Gallery.

Everything is alive

This workshop is about animating and turning everyday objects into puppets. Bringing them to life and encourage us to see stories all around us.

Next time you’re stuck at home on a cold and wet day, encourage your preschooler to look around your home and find some household objects they can to bring to life. In this video Laura has used vegetables, but you really could use anything. Whatever you select can transform into the characters for a story. Create characters and use them to inspire the kind of stories you want to tell and play with.

The materials Laura worked with in the video are just an example of what could be used to explore creating stories through puppetry and animation of objects. Laura encourages you to be flexible and playful when finding your own objects to work with – you can use anything at all!

Here are some suggestions of objects you could use as your puppets:

• vegetables or fruit
• socks and other clothing
• small cardboard boxes and packaging, such as a toilet paper roll
• small plastic items, like a cup

Once you have your objects enjoy exploring their voice, the way they move and their own personalities through your play. Is there an adventure that they could go on?

You could bring your objects to life as puppets on a table or bench as Laura has. In the air, on the floor or even in the garden or on the grass outside. You can use furniture or other objects in the house as a part of creating your imaginary world just as Laura did with the cooking pot in the video. There are unlimited possibilities for what you and your child can create through play!

As always, there are no right and wrong ways to play, so have fun using this framework to inspire and explore your creativity and imagination!