Processed transparent skins of various animals are used to create Karagoz images. The masters used to make the figures of camel skin; nowadays they mainly use calf skin and choose the best skins which must be absolutely flawless.
The image is cut out and decorated on a lime-tree plaque with sharp knives called as nevrekan. Various tools are used to get flower, lacework effect and other specific motifs that are going to appear on each image. The size of images prepared as screen decorations vary from 45cm to 70cm. Images that are going to be used in actual shadow plays are 32cm to 35cm in height and 10cm to 15cm in width. The decorative images are prepared in 13cm to 15cm height and 4cm to 5cm in width.
The limbs of images are attached to the body with thin pieces of sinew or waxed strings in order to imitate the durability and flexibility of actual joints.
The images are painted with dyes. These paints are prepared by boiling various fruits, plants or their roots. For yellow tones onion skin, cehri (Rhamnus alaternus), lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis), saffron, tobacco and broom (Genista) are used. To get red and rose tones indigo (Indigofera tinctoria), mordant red (derived from the root of the madder plant), fruit of pomegranate, red cabbage, red mulberry, blackberry, currant, and sumac are used. Purple and blue tones are derived from asp of Jerusalem (woad flower) and logwood tree. Black and brown tones are derived from stove and oil lamp soot, mascara, gum arabic tree (Acecia senegal) and walnut skin.
The images are painted numerous times with hot dyes (the skin absorbs the color thoroughly), polished and as a last touch their borderlines are set off.
Red tones, cherry brown, lemon mildew green, dirty green and turquoise are commonly used colors on images.
Drawing ink and other chemical based paints give an artificial touch to any shadow puppet figure. Therefore, shadow puppet masters consider the figures as collectible only if they’re colored with dyes.
