Making a Rod Puppet

[TopperFraggle]

My daughter has to make a puppet of a celebrity, and I'd like to help her make a rod puppet- by this I mean a puppet with a stick supporting the body, and rods that control the arms. Parts of it seem very simple and straightforward but I would like to find some plans online if possible. Does anyone know of any good plans for this sort of puppet? I've googled it but almost drowned in the results. Thanks for any help.

 

[TopperFraggle]

Ok after a bit more research I have found some simple plans for a rod puppet. I guess what I'm asking is, rather than blindly guessing which plans will work best, does anyone here have a favorite simple rod puppet design? I just need to give it arm rods and have a head that can turn idependently of the body. I'm not going to try and give it any more sophisticated function than that. Any recommendations are appreciated.

 

[TopperFraggle]

Here's the blog post I did about making my daughters puppet. It was pretty fun. I'm not really a sewer, so while I like the hands on aspect of physically making a character, I haven't given much thought to really making puppets before. This has made me reconsider doing something like this again though, more sculptural than fabric. Anyway, enjoy: http://ericscalessketchbook.blogspot.com/2012/04/how-to-make-daniel-radcliffe-puppet.html

 

[Animal31]

Nice job!

 

[TheCreatureWork]

Love the puppet and The Ol' Sketchbook! Your character design is flawless!