Puppets Holding Objects

[D'Snowth]

I'm curious as to know what some of you out there do when it comes to having puppets holding objects in their hands? I've tried a few different methods myself, almost all of which had subpar results at best: monofilament, stretched out ink pen spring (both work best on furry hands, where the pile of the fur can cover them up), double face tape, scotch tape (yeah... that's kind of bad), pins, and such.

I'd just like to hear a few more ideas, methods, and techniques.

 

[ma0298]

If the object is not too heavy (like a pencil or a paint brush) I just use the posible fingers in the puppets and if it is... I've seen people use pins sticking into soda cans cups, etc.

 

[D'Snowth]

I've actually tried using pins sticking into a can once, but it kept popping out, so I settled on the double face tape.

Unfortunately, none of my puppets have posible fingers, they're all just stuffed.

 

[crazy chris]

Something weve used on a couple props is a thin dowel painted black attached to the prop with glue or tape (usually on the underside). When held simultaneously with the armrod at the right angle u can control both the arm and the object which is normally breaching the bottom of the screen anyways so the dowel is rarely even seen. Our robot tooty carrys in a tray filled with a huge block of cheese. the dowel is underneath and never seen.

cc

 

[crazy chris]

You can also have a second puppeteer control the prop while you control the arm... it takes some practice...but can look really good....

We actually used to do this method alot on our live shows... characters were always playing saxaphones or drinking slurpees...and we would control it all with dowels.

cc

 

[Buck-Beaver]

For light objects, I've found sewing or pinning the object to the puppet often works best for on-camera work. If the object has to be picked up or passed from one puppeteer to another, Chris' suggestion of mounting the prop on a rod is a good approach.

 

[Slackbot]

I sometimes glue a small loop or two of wire to the object to be held, then sew or pin that to the hand.