How did you get started?

[buckshot]

i've seen some of the puppets that you guys have made, and i'm very impressed with some of them. i was just wondering where you all started or learned to start up building puppets.

i'm very much a self-taught puppeteer/builder of about 10 years, so i look forward to learning from each of you.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I started making little puppets like you get in cheap-o Easter Baskets at Fred's Dollar Stores, then I took a doll with an open mouth and tore a hole in it's bottom; then I constructed a puppet similar to one I used in church, then I bought a 'people puppet pattern' from Puppets With Personality in TX and made one of those, then I began making my own puppets.

I still need to get The Foam Book and Videos!

 

[Ryan]

I'm still learning. I started building puppets made with hot glue, no sewing. I've grown to start loving sewed puppets now, they are so much better and easier to handle. You can see most of my puppets at my website below. As for puppetering, I've been weened on it. I was taken home as a newborn wrapped around a Muppet Babies blanket. So, I've been aware of Muppets since day one. I began "puppeteering" around age five. I recorded a puppet show with my sister, lip synching to Muppet Hits! when I was really young. I didn't get professionally intreseted until I was about 11. So, I've been puppteering for 5 years, professionally. I've made a lot of home videos then, and I sent an audition tape to Henson 2 years ago, and I'll be going to their next workshop to scout out new puppeteers for their productions. And that's the way it is.

 

[buckshot]

i have a question for you. the only puppets i've successfully made so far are made primarily of glue and foam, but i've just started exploring the whole art of making puppets with sewing. how do you stuff/form the head of a sewn cloth puppet without blocking the access to the mouth? (i hope i worded that question right) any info is very appreciated.

 

[Whatever]

. I was taken home as a newborn wrapped around a Muppet Babies blanket.

Eew, you're supposed to wrap the blanket around the baby, not the other way 'round!

 

[DPuppets]

I started a few years ago. I was working for a small church and could not afford puppets. So, took a very brief class on building. And have enjoyed ever since. Then I just put myself in front of other builders and picked their brain and watched them. So, I continue to learn and talk to other builders and just build!
www.dpuppets.com
Darren

 

[Beebers]

If you go to Page Two of the Puppetry section, toward the bottom is a post by FISH'N'WOLFE entitled Hi Ho, everyone, new member here. He wrote a fairly detailed story of how he got started. It's easier for you to go there and read it rather than his writing it all over again.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

On the heads, you pretty much make a skull from foam and then put the material around it.

Isn't there a link to building a puppet around here somewhere?

 

[Phantom]

I was asked to take over the puppet ministry at my church when the previous director moved to open a bed and breakfast in another town. (Answered prayer, but that's another story. Not that I wanted them to go, I didn't pray for that, but I am rambling on, aren't I?)

We needed, in my opinion, more puppets. I decided I could surely build something better than the made in China (isn't everything), "store bought" puppets. That's how I found this site. I bought the Foam Book and started "making it up" as I went along. I then graduated up to the Arms Length videos. Now, I just try new things.

I think I'm getting better and my puppet team primarily uses my creations during performances. Of course, I only started building in May, so I've got some moisture behind my ears. I'll say it again, everyone here is an artist when it comes to this stuff. I've only got a box of crayons, but you'll find this site can be informative and take you to new ideas and better building.

 

[scarylarrywolf]

It's strange for me to watch home videos of myself as a little kid putting on paper bag puppet shows for my Gramma. I had no idea I'd be this interested in it now.

I was about five in those videos, and I really got interested in the Muppets at age 10 when I went to my grandparents' house and saw Muppets Tonight for the first time. It got me hooked, cuz I had an interest in both the visual and dramatic arts, and I saw puppetry as a way to combine those. I got a Henson biography from the library and found out that he had very similar interests when he was young, so I set out to literally staple together a puppet the next day.

The stapling method didn't work too well, so I started dabbling in hot glue. Eight years later I've learned to sew, work with foam rubber, found better mouthplate materials, and am working on eyelid-movement mechanisms. The "Scary" Larry in my avitar is the third version -- today the original looks like a beat up washcloth. So I've come a long ways, and I still have far to go.

You can never stop learning!