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| - Depends on what you'd like the puppet to ultimately do. There are three basic types of puppets: rod puppets, hand puppets, and marionettes. Some puppets are a combination of these (i.e. -- Kermit the frog is both a hand and rod puppet). The easiest, cheapest way to make neat puppets, I've found, is to seach thrift stores for big, stuffed animals. You then find an easy entry point for the arm and cut into it, and remove enough stuffing to reach in to the face. You'll then need to seperate the mouth, and attach folded cardboard lined with felt where the lips would be to make it so the puppet can talk. Other easy puppets can be made from lunch bags, paper plates, and so forth. Just find something that can open and close easily and build on that. The book "Muppets Make Puppets" is a good reference. For more complicated puppets, I start with a foam ball from the Walmart toy department as a base for the head. You can also make foam shapes from coach stuffing and shape it with masking tape, but be careful about the weight since you may be holding the puppet up for long periods of time. The key is to make it so you can open and shut the mouth, so two foam builds (the top and bottom of the head) connected with cardboard or other stiff material tends to work well. I use various kinds of fleece to cover the foam, since it covers seams well even if you are not great with sewing. If it's a human type character, you can cover the body with small clothing (usually thrift store style kid's clothes work well, and offer a suprising variety), which you can sew directly to the head, if you wish, as long as you can still reach your arm through easily to operate the mouth. For arms, you can figure out how to sew a glove that your hand can fit through, and make an arm that fits to the puppet (this gives you a lot of options for expression and is one of my favorities to operate), or just make a small hand and arm that is connected to a rod (broken coat hangers work best). For eyes, I use Sculpy and paint it with White-out and Sharpie. For hair, I get Fun Fur which can be found about anywhere and is most commonly used for scarves and is in a great variety of colors. I've even found it at the Dollar Store, so shop around for the style you like. You can even make "monster" style puppets cheaply -- most of these require a lot of fur, but lately I've used those colorful fur scarves with an opening as the basis for a lot of my characters, which saves me a lot of sewing. Again, it depends on how you'd like to operate it. I used three scarves and made a foot puppet -- one on each leg, with a head connected that I operated with my arms. We did a black light show this way that turned out pretty well. Other options: play around with Sculpy. I made an elaborate finger puppet baby dragon that way that was a hit at the Ren Faire that was just Sculpy made to fit my hand with big black marbles for eyes. I never tried it, but Sculpy could work well for a rod puppet or marionette, too, though most prefer wood and a lot of hinges. There are tons of resources on the web and in books, so just have a real clear concept of what you'd like to do, and then figure out how you want to do it. Best puppet I ever saw made was a giant angry carrot with a Chaplin moustache made by a puppet novice who just wrote down what she wanted to do and then got help making it. We even made an eye moving device for it with tiny foam balls connected to pencils, because she was real clear that she wanted to move the eyes independently. Turned out great for the play it was in. Anywho -- you can see some of the styles I'm refering to on our site www.grumpsters.com or (warning: some is pretty grown-up in subject manner). Not all our puppets are showcased there but it gives you a general idea of how to make neat puppets on a small budget.
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