Live Hands Question

[Squigiman]

Hey,
It's been a while since I have been on this forum, but I'm actually finally making some progress on my first home-made puppet, and it is exciting. I plan on making him a live-hands, but I do have one inquiry about how the arms work, before getting to it. It doesn't really apply to the sack-like ones like Cookie or , so forget them, for the moment. It's more like an thing. I know the puppeteer's arm acts as the puppet character's arm from the elbow down, while extra material continues downward, to try to prevent the rest of the arm from showing.

What I was wondering is how to deal with the arm, from the elbow up. Ernie doesn't look, based on my just watching "Sing Yourself Silly", at least, like there's much of anything in there. I would down that it's nothing at all, though. I'd think that would make the character look like they have no upper arm, at all, while they mysteriously have a bulky lower arm. I would prefer less in the upper part, ovbviously allowing for a greater range of motion. I wouldn't, for example, want to fill the top with a big tube of foam, attached at the shoulder. I just wonder if there's any technique commonly used to give it some substance. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.


-Squigiman

 

[puppetsmith]

Hey Squigiman! A little stuffin' should do it. I use regular polyester fiberfill. I would just loosely stuff the upper arm. Just enough to give it some "body".