Colour and artistry to be showcased with hand made puppets for South West Multicultural Festival

As part of the Live Lighter South West Multicultural Festival, Karen Hethey is creating a large scale puppet modelled into a dove, representing peace and harmony, to lead the festival parade on February 24.

Members of the community are invited to participate for free in the puppet making project in collaboration with Ms Hethey.

Workshops are occurring every day until February 23 and people are welcome to walk in or register online to create the large scale art piece.

This project is being held in the Creative Tech Village below the City of Bunbury Library and is open to people of all ages and backgrounds.

Ms Hethey, who has worked with the art form for more than 28 years, said the dove-shaped puppet would be 5m wide and more than 3m long when complete.

Ms Hethey has also been a puppeteer and is particularly interested in multicultural-themed projects.

“Puppets of this scale usually take between three to five weeks to complete depending how many hands are involved. These large scale community projects are done with input from the community in their design and creation,” she said.

Young designer and collaborator Calvin Tham, 13, has worked with Ms Hethey on previous projects.

“I have worked with Karen before, building a marron-shaped puppet, in particular I built the claws that opened and closed. I enjoy doing this kind of thing when you have to model stuff,” he said.

For more information visit bunburymulticulturalgroup.com.au.