A workshop on the manufacture of “Maruta dolls” was held at the Children’s Theater in Darb Al-Saai, which witnessed a turnout of children, accompanied by their families, to learn how to make “Maruta dolls”.
Mohammad Ali bin Hamouda, one of those in charge of the workshop, said that the marotta doll consists of cloth, a head, and two hands. It is made of very simple materials that are available in every home and in all shops, which are plastic balls, wool, cloth, and thin wooden sticks, where the child can hold the doll from inside the cloth and move it easily. He explained that it is possible to manufacture more than one figure from one shape, such as the shape of a young child, young man, old man, or woman.
Bin Hamouda added that it is possible to manufacture a puppet in the form of animals of various kinds, stressing that this type of workshop develops the artistic skills of the child, especially since the puppet theater depends mainly on artistic skills and a mixture of many arts, including drawing, sculpture and installation, indicating that the manufacture of puppets is also developing. The imagination of the child, and children usually have a very wide imagination, and it is possible for parents to benefit from this imagination of the child and direct him to positive things.
Bin Hamouda said that there are new types of puppets that are being used, and they are materials that are formed as characters, and all of them develop the imagination of the child, such as the possibility of forming a plastic bottle or cups into a character, which is called “recycling”.
The puppet-making workshops in Darb Al-Saai are one of the important activities that existed for the purpose of attracting children and teaching them new things that develop their skills in their spare time and away from electronic devices that have damages and negatives that outweigh their positives and usually have a negative impact on children who spend long time using them