How to start making puppets?

[Graffickasdream]

sunken eyes...

Thanks, these are great ideas... will try! Just looked at my head... well the puppets. I constructed it out of 2 6 inch blocks of foam glued together. To do it from the inside... I will try but first have to separate them... So will try the post method first... Next puppet... I do have to build her brother... I will try from the inside. I also found a place where they show how to make mascots... I was thinking of doing the puppets in smaller version the same way the guy did mascots... it is absolutely fascinating... all that we can do!

web is at werevarmint this the link, though I am sure you must all know about this....
Have a great day!

 

[SesameKermie]

Ah. Silly me. I forgot about 'carved' heads. I was thinking of heads constructed out of sheet foam. The technique should work better with 'hollow' heads.

 

[Super Scooter]

Many of you are probably familiar with Buck Beaver's technique for removable arm rods. It's really one of the best techniques for this I've seen. However, I recently discovered the joys of alligator clips. Very small ones. They can be found at most auto parts stores, and all you have to do is attach them inside the puppet's wrist. So long as you attach them right, you can use them to attach your arm rods, and just squeeze the clip to release them.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

There's actually some kind of fancy clip the Muppet builders used to use in the arm of some of their puppets in the `80s but no one seems to know much about it. I think it may have been a proprietary thing someone in their workshop invented. There is also a clip method involving a bobby pin that David Pannabecker uses and works quite well, but alas it is also proprietary.

...so really this post is not very useful at all, except to say that the clip idea is a good one.

 

[Super Scooter]

Yay! I posted something good!

Another thought on it, it would be best to attach a piece of wire or something to it that leads up through the hand, that way you have the best maneuverability with it, and your puppet's hand isn't just flying around loose.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Maybe a brass tube would work? One question though, how do you think the clip should be attached inside the arm? The smallest gator clips I have seen are still very bulky.

 

[Super Scooter]

The smallest I could find are just over an inch long, nearly a half an inch tall, and a quarter of an inch thick. It's still small enough that will fit inside the smallest arms I've built.

If the arms are filled with foam, I would assume you could attach it inside using contact cement. It could be attached directly to the fabric, I suppose, but that would probably leave the wrist fairly loose. If the arm's made out of something else, it gets trickier. If you're using a dowel on the inside of the puppet arm, you could simply attach it with electrical tape. I've actually used electrical tape in attaching wires to fingers so you can pose the hands. It doesn't make too much noise when moving things around, so it'd probably be your best bet as far as taping things goes.

I haven't actually tried the alligator clips yet, it just occured to me recently that it would work well. I intend to experiment with it a little. I'm going to rebuild one of my puppets this month, so I'm going to try it out on him. I'll let you know how it works.

 

[Super Scooter]

Okay, I just tried the gator clips. They work really great! Here's some instructions (hope I'm clear with them):

(note: when I built my puppet arms, I used foam for the hands, and dowls for the arms)

• Cut a small slit in the foam hand by the wrist.
• Insert the lower grip of the alligator clip into the slit, and secure with electrical tape.
• Attach the rest of the hand to the dowel with electrical tape, and wrap around the gator clip grips to hold it in place (always make sure the teeth are not wrapped in the tape).

... I hope I wrote that right so it makes sense. It's not that hard at all.

EDIT: Here's a link to some alligator clips. I believe they're the size I bought: http://www.radioshack.com/sm-leads-and-alligator-clips--fi-2032304_cp-2032058.2032235.html

 

[CBPuppets]

BTW how do I make The Hands and Arms for my Puppet? This is so confusing Man!!! Besides Is it okay to just sew the arms on? or are there any other Methods for this?

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Here's my method and also Sean Johnson's (scroll down to parts #10 and 11 of that tutorial).