pucciManuli - A Remarkable Collection

Maxi Kiermeier has been fascinated by marionettes ever since she can remember.  At only age 16, she began creating her own marionettes and giving them to family members as gifts. At that time, you could not buy the figures shown in marionette theatres, nor were they well suited for the “four walls” of one’s home.  While they were lovely in their movement and perfect for theatre, upon closer inspection, their look was rather crude.  Not long after meeting her husband, Maxi created a one-of-a-kind marionette for his birthday.  It was then, that the idea of making more struck them both. The idea proved so successful, they began selling one-off creations to those that expressed interest.

To build world class marionettes, one needs many artistic talents: creativity to dream up the initial character, modeling for the head and hands, painting for the expressive facial details, fashion design for the wardrobe creation and fitting, and woodworking for the inner workings of the figure.  It wasn’t until after her studies in fashion design at the Munich Master School for Fashion that Maxi realized marionettes were the ideal medium for her skills, the marionette as objet d’art.