Puppet Space

Here are a few pictures of our recent black light show taken by one of the PIT Crew parents. These pictures were taken from a video so they aren't the clearest. When you first walk in the stage area (gym) you see this sign.  It is hung up on the wall behind the stage. Our Theme Verse A green peg leg pirate and friends sing about the tale about Jonah. Seabirds (rod puppets) and a Green Peg Leg Pirate The Cap'n and Katy Pillar discuss Jonah's dilemma.  Actually The Cap'n doesn't seem to know too much about Jonah and God.  So Katy helps him out with a song. The Cap'n  and Katy Pillar The "spring chickens" as The Cap'n calls them (hardy har har) sing about being fishers of men.  Slinky Birds Jonah finds out that God is with him, even when everything is falling apart. Jonah in the Fish The people of Nineveh rejoice as the king and his queen decide to follow God's ways. Dancing Puppets This i...

Our team has always used a stage made of PVC for budget reasons.  I've reconfigured it a few times over the years.  The one we have now is the one I like the best so far.  Someone asked me to share it with them so I thought I would post it here in case anyone else was interested. First of all there are 3 parts to the finished stage and one person could put it together alone, but two make it easier. There are two poles that go across the middle horizontally to hold everything together. And there is the actual stage part that folds up like an accordion. Here it is from the side folded up. Here it is unfolded and the two long pieces placed horizontally in the back.  One at the top and one lower.  This second bar really adds to the stability of the whole stage and keeps puppeteers from moving the back curtain as they go in and out. Here is how we add the curtains. Our curtains are in 4 parts.  The front, 2 wings and the b...

**Edited on 9-28-11 to add newer pictures of Monster in action** Our church mission team helped do an outdoor Bible Camp this summer for another church in the area. Let me just say it was AWESOME! God really taught me so much in this week! Of course we used puppets! ;)  Many adults are just as fascinated as the children with puppets. Never underestimate the power of the puppet! I wanted to share something fun that we did with the monster puppet:  I had printed, cut out and laminated the day's memory verse, and hung the words across the edge of the stage.  In my case we have curtains on a pvc frame, so I used bent chenille stems to hook the words on.  I talked with the kids about the verse and we read it together a time or two. But something different started to happen; every time I turned around, one of the words would be missing and the kids were shouting excitedly.  I never could seem to figure out what was going on.  Every time I loo...

I made this little guy this weekend. He's so stinking cute!  Much cuter in person. I made my own pattern for him, as I so enjoy doing.  But the technique came from these videos: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xe191h_the-basic-supplies-to-make-a-monste_creation I also made a second detached hand to use with a second puppeteer if desired.

I started this little puppet a while back.  I made a few mistakes, but over all he turned out pretty cute.  I wanted a "blank" puppet that could change costume and become something different.  His main personality is a scout type character.  We just began a new theme with our children's church, it's kind of a treehouse/clubhouse type thing.  He'll be the character to tie into that theme, but I still wanted him to be flexible too. He's a much darker red than shows in this picture, I just have a camera phone and the light washed him out a bit.

I ordered some supplies from Out of the Box Puppets . Would you like to see what I got? Trust me the camera phone does not pick up the vibrancy of these colors! up close  I also scored some bright green shag fur from fabric.com for under $9 a yard! Yeah! I have 4 yards of this.  I haven't decided what to do with it yet. ;) Camera phone again, it is much darker than this.

I haven't posted in 6 months!  Yikes.  I want this blog to live, not die, so I'm committing to post at least twice a month.  Hopefully with pictures, I mean puppets ARE visual.  But I don't really have a camera working right now so I have to use my phone mostly.  If I can't post a picture, then at least an idea.  I always have ideas. ;) I have made a few quick puppets in the last week or so to round out a song we did last Sunday for Children's Sunday.  It was a simple song, but I think it turned out cute. I needed a fish, a bird and a flower.  I have a snap shot of the unfinished fish, but I'll have to take a pic of the others and post them later. Here's the fish body: I literally drew out a fish shape, cut it out of foam, glued it together and covered with fleece! Easy!  I did give him eyes and he was done!  The song wasn't blacklight, but I went ahead and made him out of blacklight fabric so I could use him e...