Book on making Muppets?

[nloding]

Hey all--

I'm new to puppetry, and have always loved the Muppets. My girlfriend is starting to get into puppetry more and more, and I find myself looking for great books to buy her as gifts. She read somewhere (she thinks in a puppetry conservatory's text book list) about a recently or soon-to-be released "tome" about making Muppets. She said it was from the Jim Henson Co. Anyone know what this title is, or if it exists? And if it does exist, where I can get it?

Are there any other suggestions for books on intermediate puppet making/designing and operation??

Thanks in advance.

--Nathan

PS: If this is a repost, I apologize -- I was getting weird memory write errors when trying to post last night ...

 

[DannyRWW]

Cllick here to go to Amazon for muppets make puppets

Another good book though is Puppet Mania by John Kenedy and I saw that on sale at Michaels craft store for $5

 

[nloding]

I do not think that is the book she had found. I have seen that one, and it is only a couple hundred pages. From what she described to me, it was a massive, full-size textbook. Any ideas on that, or are the only ones out there the Foam Book and Muppets Make Puppets?

Thanks

--Nathan

 

[Jinx]

I have both the John Kennedy Puppetmania book and The Muppets Make Puppets book. They are great, but certainly geared more towards younger builders with limited skills and access to tools and materials.

The only "text" book I am aware of that is the size you mention is Hand and Rod Puppets by Hansjürgen Fettig. It was written many years ago, before the proliferation of softer building materials that are readily available today. But many of the concepts can be adapted to more modern materials. It is an extremely thorough treatise on the subject, and is considered "required reading" many many top builders.

For more modern resources, I am a big fan of The Foam Book from Grey Seal Puppets. It is a very user-friendly apporach to building puppets that is neither too simplistic nor too complicated. (The picture in my avatar was built using their techniques). The Foam Book also has two companion videos that I have found to be very useful. But be aware that the first half of both videos are identical, as they deal with materials and mounthplate construction. The remainder of the videos deal with very different ways of "foaming out" the heads. The viedeos should be available on DVD very soon.

For a very sophisticated puppet you can get a kit with patterns from Armslength Productions. They too have a 2 video set that guide you through building puppets their way. I detailed the procedure a bit on my website which can be seen at http://home.mcn.net/~fantom
(Click on the "puppets" button and it will show some that I've built with links to the step-by-step construction at the bottom of the page)

Hope this helps!

 

[Kimp the Shrimp]

a little diffrent i picked up a jim henson creature creater book that shows the production and movie making and puppters hard back 5.99 @ borders in like 1999

 

[DannyRWW]

If your looking for patterns on making basic people puppets there is a decent pattern with instructions at www.onewaystreet.com for $10