There are lots of different types of puppet you can make. In this film we’ll show you a few different examples of ones you can make at home.
Watch
Papier-Mâché Puppet
You will need:
- Tape
- Some sticks – wooden bbq skewers work well.
- PVA Glue
- Some paper you can tear into small pieces
- Tin Foil
Instructions
1) Take some foil and gently scrunch it into a ball, add as many layers as you like until you’re happy with the size – this will be the head of the puppet.
2) Repeat to create the other parts of your puppet – a body, arms and legs too.
3) Now we are going to layer our tin foil pieces with bits of ripped up paper using some pva glue to strengthen them – this is called paper mache.
4) Repeat until you’ve done this will all the parts of your puppet.
5) Wait till they dry and harden.
6) Take some tape and cut or tear into small strips.
7) Now we are going to join our puppet parts together using the tape.
8) Papier-mâché over the tape using pva glue and pieces of paper.
9) Leave to dry.
10) Once it’s dried – the joints of your puppet should be flexible.
11) Take a skewer or stick, remove any sharp ends – ask an adult to help you!
12) Attach the stick to your puppet’s hand using sticky tape
13) Repeat this, and attach another stick to the back of your puppet’s head.
14) Wow! One papier-mâché puppet! Decorate however you like!
Rod Puppet
You will need:
1) Some card
2) Pen
3) Glue
4) Scissors
5) A stick
Instructions
1) Take a pen and some paper or card. Draw a picture of your puppet character.
2) Cut round the shape of your character.
3) If you’re using scissors or something sharp to cut with – make sure you have an adult there to help. Or you could ask them do it for you!
4) Take a skewer or stick (make sure you’ve removed any sharp ends first), and take this to the back of your character – with the rod coming up out of the top of the puppet.
5) You can also use pictures from magazines to create your puppet characters.
6) Cut out your chosen character – carefully – glue to some card to make it stronger – and carefully cut round the image – attach your skewer or stick to this as previously.
7) Your very own rod puppets! Complete!
Peg Puppet
For this you will also need:
1) A peg
2) Some string or ribbon
Instructions
1) Place your peg on the card and mark out your face shape, and cut it out!
2) Now cut across the bottom of the face shape. This will make our puppet’s mouth.
3) Decorate your puppet face.
4) Choose some string or ribbon for your puppet’s hair.
5) You can wind the string round your hand, slip off the wound up string, and tie it in the centre to secure it.
6) Now use the scissors to snip each of the looped ends. And fix the hair to your puppet.
7) Cover one side of your peg in glue.
8) Fix the lower part of the puppet face to the bottom edge of the peg.
9) And fix the upper part of the puppet face to the top edge of the peg.
Now you’ve created some puppets for your puppet theatre, join us in the next film for How To Create Action.
