Puppet Space

I guess this is what you call a "prototype". He's definitely usable but not "sell-able" just yet. Short L-O-N-G Long Louie seems to be his name.  That's what came to me just now anyway. As far as this puppet goes the changes I would like to make are: the foot.  I'd like it to not be a full glove but more of a pointy foot.  I made a foot like that on another puppet a while back, I think I'll try that next time. the eyes.  I just used what I had, but I think pom poms might actually be better in this application.  I could use smooth eyes, but texture seems to be more appropriate. the nose.  Just don't like it for some reason. otherwise just a few changes here and there would make him much more appealing to me. Back to the drawing board! Chime in and tell me what you think of him.

Another puppet for a new team member.  She has long blonde hair and brown eyes, so this puppet is for her.  I made custom eyes for both of these puppets. Fun! Mint Girl Puppet Mint Girl Puppet Close-up

We have some new members on our ministry team and I promised to make them their very own puppet to practice with.  Here's one I made today. I still have another one to make. Pink Puppet Close Up Pink Puppet  She's really cute in person, I don't think the pictures do her justice. :)

I've been working hard on our PIT Crew's  upcoming black light show.  I made these lions for a song we are doing.  I waited a while until I found the style that I wanted.  Of course full size puppet lions would have been awesome but who has the time and budget for that? So here's what I came up with. Sitting Lion Lying Lion They aren't 100% finished yet.  They are all duct taped together right now. LOL.  Also one is missing his tail, and the other tail is just stuck on for the picture.  The yellow lion will open and close his mouth and the orange one's eyes open and shut. The were so fun to make! The materials I used were: Foam insulation board Neon poster board card board foam core board fleece fabric hot glue duct tape quilt batting practice golf balls & white fabric (for the eyes) clear contact paper and I will have some of the pieces laminated as soon as I can get to the teacher's store That's it! I love them. ...

The PIT Crew (our children's church/puppet/drama ministry) performed this for Children's Sunday on May 2, 2010 at church.  I finally got a copy to share! We had several new puppeteers but I think they did a good job.  Our congregation LOVED it. Especially seeing their youth pastors as babies. ;)

I put these training videos into a playlist for easier viewing.  Let me know if you like them!  I applaud the team who made these and made them available on youtube for all to learn!

I wanted to experiment with making a Bible puppet. I have made one before, but not like this.  I didn't have a pattern, just looking at some other book and Bible puppets.  Some I've seen have arms, but I didn't think this guy needed them.  I think he looks more like a book this way.  I made him as a gift for a friend, so I will be sending this her way soon.  But it's a surprise! Shhh! This was my first time to die the foam instead of covering it with fabric.  I died it black and then cut my pieces and glued them.  I did use yellow fleece for the fore-edge. I think he turned out pretty cute.  I hope she likes him.

We did a parody of this song called "Sanctuarian Rhapsody". It DID get videoed, I'm working on getting a copy to post. Check back soon. In the meantime, enjoy this one. Of course it's excellent! It's the Muppets!

It really stinks to try and blog about puppets with no working camera!!! I have my phone, but it's just not that good for these types of pics.  I'll do the best I can getting a camera soon.  I can't believe I've gone this long without one! I'd love to take more pics as I make puppets and add them on here. Anyway,  Our PIT Crew had a chance to perform a show for a library in a town about an hour away. We had only 3 weeks notice!!! We had to choose songs, choose puppets, get some scripts together and make props, assign roles, learn choreography and lip syncing, memorize scripts and coordinate it all in that 3 week period! Whew! But guess what? My kids are great. They worked hard and we did it! The folks were impressed and want us to come back. I wish I had some video, but that seems to be our downfall too. We are all so busy actually doing the show that we can never get a video of the show. Our show was about friendship and being kind to others, even if they are...

I just realized I never posted the finished pastor, guitar player and mother puppets. I did finish them but only have a picture of the guitar player, and it's not very good but here it is anyway. I'm working on being able to upload our song we did in May. As soon as I get a copy, I will upload it!

I recently discovered these puppet training videos from OneWayUK. They were very informative and I used them in our workshop yesterday. Go to their youtube page and start from Part 1. http://www.youtube.com/user/OneWayUKpuppets Yesterday we had a workshop day for our service team we call the "P.I.T. Crew" this is a puppet/drama/service team that helps out in children's church and does puppet shows as well. Here are some of the things we covered in our workshop: What is the PIT Crew? What do we do? What are the rules for PIT Crew? Puppet training: Entrances/Exits Lip Sync Puppet Height Characterization We did some drama training and games Had a little drama skit presentation Wrote our own puppet skit and performed it later Learned the songs for VBS Practiced skits and lessons for Children's Church June Brainstormed for our upcoming blacklight show in October Performances at the end Cleaned up! Whew! ...

I didn't take pictures along the way this time. But here is the finished choir. And I also promised to make them as per the colors I picked out, but I didn't make the lavender lady. I made a mistake and made my blue guy too small so I decided to just go ahead and use him anyway, and I made another blue guy larger. So there is only one woman in the choir. Oh well, sorry about that! Here they are; nothing like the sketches LOL! And check out Grandma's wig! A friend picked that up at a yard sale for 50 cents!!! Can't beat that! Oh wait, I found a pic of them before... Amazing what features and costumes and arms will do!!!

Here are my sketches for four choir puppets. Will they turn out just like these? After the quartet, anything is possible. But I promise you this they will be made in these colors, I already bought the fabric, and there will be two men and two women. After that who knows!

After a few days deliberation, here's what they finally ended up looking like. Not too terribly different from the last picture. How close are they to my original drawings? Well, one guy has glasses! LOL I'm pleased with them. It was a lot of fun making them and they are going to be a lot of fun in our show. Next - the choir!

Here I just have some features. They are just pinned on. I'm not sure if I will keep these exact features or not. I'm really liking the one with glasses and long nose. I will replace his eyes with some black shiny ones. Those are just felt pads for now. In fact all of the eyes just have felt pads for now. I need to work with the focus a bit before making them permanent. I added on some teeth on one, and bags under the eyes of another. Each time I walk in and see them, I try a little something different. I'm still want to look at them for a while before I attach everything permanently. Soon I will post them all finished!

I made some dickies to go under the jackets. My mom made these hats to go on the puppets. Aren't they looking dandy? As soon as I get the bodies attached to the necks, I will get to the fun part. The features! Stay tuned...

This is one of the fun parts. I made the patterns myself. I've sewn kid's clothes for years so making a simple pattern isn't too hard. Here are three of the jackets cut out and ready to be sewn. It fits! Starting to look something like a Barbershop jacket. All four are done! They look ready to sing!

I made a bunch of bodies at once. I had enough 1" foam on hand to build 8 tube bodies. I'll use 4 of these later. For one of my puppets I plan on making a panel body. I'll show that when I get to it. Hands I used some scrap fabric for the arms since they won't show to save fleece. I'll turn them right side out and stuff them. I could have made the hands with foam, but this method saves on foam and uses poly-fil which I have more of at the moment. ;) My little stuffing machine. If you have a just turned 12 yo son who wants to play video games, you can get a lot of stuffing done. ;) Body with arms added I didn't cover the body since they are wearing costumes that will completely cover the foam. Next, costumes!

Here are all four heads done with necks! They look like they are singing already!

It's a little blurry but you can see the head starting to take shape. I forgot to take a picture of the mouth-plate. I'll try to get one next time. The mouth-plate really helps determine the shape of the head. It's square so the head is boxy looking. This is what I wanted. Here's the same head covered in blue fleece. I ended up taking in some darts in the mouth to make it lay flat on those corners. He'll be fun to add features to! Next I add the neck.

We'll have to wait a bit on the monster because I have to make some puppets for a song we are performing at church in May. I have 11 puppets to make for it!!! Here's what I'm working on now. The first four. A barber shop quartet. I'll try to post a few pics along the way. These are some of the patterns I made for the quartet. They will have the same shape head and same fleece color. They will each have different features. Here are my sketches. We'll see how close they resemble! I have some new techniques I want to try and some experimentation along the way.

I would like to add more to this blog than I have been. The problem is I'm not too good at remembering to take pics as I go or write down info as I do things. I get so "into" what I'm doing that I have a one track mind. But for this next puppet, I'd like to document it a bit more. The puppet we are working on next is one my son designed. I will be making it but he drew out the sketch. I want him to begin making his own puppets and he will surely help me on this one, but we need to start him with something easier. This one is an experiment for me too. I just got The Foam Book and DVD (thanks to selling stuff on e-bay!) and will be using some techniques learned there. I'm excited and can't wait to get started. We are out of foam so I have to wait until I can get to the store to get some, and we have a busy weekend ahead of us so it will be next week before we can start.

Sorry for the poor photo, I only had my camera phone. Here are some puppets I made for a family member. I love them and will miss them.

Check out my puppet for sale on e-bay.