wayang-making: A complete set of wayang ku/it, including duplications of a single character to show different ages and moods, could number 350400 puppets, the smallest only 230 mm high and the tallest over 1 meter. Penatah, the wayang-making artist, first cuts out contours from leather hide, or more recently, goatskin. All the cutting out and coloring is done with the help of a special pattern book using 12 different motifs which help make the figures more recognizable. Before painting, the hide is rubbed smooth, then given a plain white background. Gold or yellow paint gives puppets the effect of gilding. Of very delicate and grotesque design, stiffened with glue and coloured with organic ingredients, the best look like exquisite filigree. Each leather figure is held by a stem of split buffalo horn or a wooden rod which is stuck in a banana trunk when not in use. Thin sticks are attached to the puppets' elbows and shoulder joints to manipulate the arms. Faces of the puppets are always in profile, the body turned to the front and both feet turned in the same direction as the facial profile. Performances are quite realistic with the characters jabbing each other in the chests and waving their arms about human-like to punctuate the action or to fit the type of character who's speaking or acting. The puppets can tilt, advance, retreat, fall, pivot, dance, fight, rise, hover, come down from the sky, fly up like a bird. By moving the puppets towards or away from the screen, the shadows themselves become sharp black lines or blurry greys, always fading and wavering; this is done for its outerwordly effect. Small boys love to sit in back on the dalang's side of the screen to watch his deft hands and appreciate more the designs and the colors of the puppets.