Puppets are fanciful beings that live in magical worlds, like fairy tale characters, but that doesn't mean children get to have all the fun.

Adults, too, will be enchanted and amused by the quirky little figures in "Spectacles of Scale," at Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, which features two puppeteers, Brooklyn-based Leat Klingman and Philadelphian Beth Nixon.

Klingman makes films with her puppets which she says are for all ages, though levels of understanding vary.

"When I make my films, I want to aim for a collective unconsciousness, to reach a place that is common to all people."

"Mister Pink & Horsy" is the story of how the former, a fuzzy pink crab with big eyes, met the latter on a beach. In "A Wolf I Say," Wolfy relates his confusion about life in the forest.

If those sound sweet, consider "Carmen," inspired by the Bizet opera, of which a reviewer wrote: "The woman who sings is surrounded by an odd Gothic sexuality.... There is a fascinating potential with macabre aspects that stem from weird disruptions in scale."

Israeli-born Klingman, who has a background in dance and music as well as visual arts, creates the stories, makes the puppets, builds the sets, writes the storyboards, performs, directs and edits her works. She also filmed earlier pieces but now works in collaboration with filmmaker Shachar Langlev.

The exhibition includes seven films, varying from 11/2 to 6 minutes in length. The shorter ones are earlier works with finger puppets belly dancing, performing ballet or ice skating; they take about a month to complete. The longer, story pieces can take seven months to a year-and-a-half.

The artist says she's a very tactile person who loves material and making things, and she painstakingly constructs details for each puppet, such as a horse's mane or tiny shoes.

Klingman will give a free talk about her process and artwork at 6 p.m. tomorrow, including "some very rare, never to be seen again excerpts of my first films," which she describes as "low-tech and primitive."

Arrive early to view films in the gallery beforehand, from the vantage point of a constructed sandbox for "Mister Pink" or a forest setting for "A Wolf I Say."

And though the puppets have starred in one film, they're not retired: Watch for the sequels.

Puppeteer Nixon, a contracted artist with Spiral Q Puppet Theater in Philadelphia, has performed seven times at Pittsburgh's venerable Black Sheep Puppet Festival.

She's trying something new at Manchester, having installed a "stationary safari" populated with her whimsical cardboard animals. Visitors are invited to explore.

"I specialize in horned, winged, fanged and webbed beasts," she writes.

She'll speak about her cardboard and papier-mache creations at 6 p.m. Nov. 12 (free).

Nixon has been on stage since she became involved with a children's theater at age 7, has studied in Guatemala and has taught art and English in Nepal. A board member of The Puppet Uprising, a Philadelphia nonprofit, who performs under the name Ramshackle Enterprises, Nixon has been building puppets for a decade.

"I'm trying to use puppetry to reclaim public spaces," she writes, "to spread real news, to surprise us out of our daily zombiedom with homemade spectacle and celebration. I'm trying to transform trash, build puppets that float, improve my Spanish, and learn to like eggplant.

"I'm trying to see what anteaters, pelicans and lichen have to teach us."

Filmmaker Cayce Mell is seeking, for a documentary, people who exhibited at or have knowledge of Outlines Gallery, which operated between 1941 and 1947 in Pittsburgh and showed such notable artists as Picasso, Matisse and Paul Klee. Call 724-689-5790 or write tracingoutlines@gmail.com.

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