Shadow puppetry love

I must have told you many a time that hubby loves traditional Greek shadow puppet theatre.

I didn't really know much about shadow puppetry apart from having fun while watching performances on television as a kid.

When I met hubby he introduced me to his shadow puppets and to his performances. Only one person performs all the roles of the heroes, holds all the figures, speaks by changing his voice to present all of them. And I fell in love with him, eh I mean with it, the shadow puppetry and its protagonist Karaghiozis.
Hubby even used his puppets to teach his pupils.And they still remember that.
He and I, as his assistant, perform shadow puppet performances together from time to time for charity or friends.And we love it.
He makes his own figures and I have made some too like this dragon.

And we have taken part four times at the Greek Shadow Puppetry Festival in Patras winning  awards too.

We have made many friends who are shadow puppeteers and we have attended many wonderful performances and even my Godson loves playing it.

We visit places that have something that is connected to shadow puppetry.
Years ago, back in 2002, we went to Athens to the Spathario Museum and met Evgenios Spatharis, one of the most famous and popular shadow puppeteers in Greece, who died today six years ago.

And even when we travelled to the States we went to the Ballard Institute that has a Museum of Shadow Puppetry and we donated a Greek shadow puppet to their collection.
And of course we collect everything that has to do with shadow puppetry.
Our living room looks a bit like a Shadow Puppetry Museum too. All around the walls there are shadow puppet figures and works of Art that were either made by hubby or even me, or by friends.

 Some are store bought or bought from the artists themselves. Some are gifts by the artists to us.

On this wall Karaghiozis as a Macedonian soldier, original painting by Konstandinos Kougioumtzis (I made a surprise and gifted this to hubby for his 58th birthday).
Underneath it a porcelain piece from the Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation in Nafplion.
Two prints from old posters I bought at the flea market.Next to them Giannis Chatzis' original painting he presented me with. It's Karaghiozis and the mermaid.
Underneath it a print by Eleni Kastrinogianni (aka coocoovaya on etsy), who made the original after being inspired by our favourite Elias Karellas' performance at the Athens Music Hall, the same performance we had seen at Christmas 2013.

Finally two of hubby's figures. And the mermaid, a gift to me by Nikolas Tzivelekis , another very good shadow puppeteer.