how to begin ?

[animalthepunk]

Hi !

question to all puppeteers here : I'd like to make puppets but I have no idea where to start , which materials , how to do etc. does anyone know a site or something where u can find the answers ? Thx !

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Welcome to the forum! Nice to have more users from Europe logging in. You've probably come to the right place - there is tons of great puppet building information stored here in the forum. A lot of people have made similar posts to yours so I'd recommend doing a search of the puppetry section of the forum for the words "puppet building". You should find enough threads and info to keep you busy for days (if not weeks!).

A few great sites to get you started:

The Puppetry Homepage ~ No longer updated but has archived tons of puppet building links in it's "Puppet Building" section.

Puppetbuilder.com ~ Has some good diagrams for building rod controlled puppets

Blue Boy ~ The standard "starter" puppet pattern that most people here recommend taking a look at. It's far from perfect but serves as a good introduction to the basics.

The Tumbles P. Bear Project ~ A series of articles on my site explaining how I'm building a foam puppet for my current puppetry project. I also keep a blog where I post a lot of puppetry stuff, usually 2 or 3 times per week.

Puppet Planet ~ Michele (PuppetPlanet here in the forum) has a lot of links to more great info on her "Build Your Own" page.

Lots of other MCers have tutorials and "how to" pages too which they've posted links to here in the forum.

Most people recommend reading "The Foam Book" from Grey Seal Puppets at some point. It's available through amazon.com and the only really good book devoted to building foam puppets. I'd also recommend Muppeteer John Kennedy's new book "Puppet Mania" which is in most major bookstores right now.

There are also alot of puppet building kits you can buy. Armslength Productions has a very good ones (there's a thread dedicated to their kit in the forum) and you can also order a good less expensive one from Puppets For Goodness Sake Inc. (email them at puppetsfgs@aol.com).

Just take some time read some of these sites. Don't get too hung up on spending lots of money on expensive materials, patterns or kits at first. Start simple and learn as you go.

If you've got any questions everyone here in the forum is always happy to help.

Have fun!

 

[Show and Tell]

Welcome Animal. So good to see that others are still interested in learning to make puppets. I've just begun learning myself but have so quickly been able to make pretty cool looking puppets just from the information from this forum an from a cheap pattern. Most people in this forum don't very much care for One Way Street's people puppet pattern. I built a few from that pattern but I only used it for a platform to start from and then altered it. This pattern is great for basic learning I think and if you need help, the staff at One Way Street are very friendly and willing to help out in explaining the instructions even if you plan to adapt them. Then there is "The Foam Book". This is a priceless piece of reference. I bought the 2 videos and the book, all for $50 and it was worth every cent. Even though I'm not building the exact types of puppets he shows, There are great techniques I have used. Now get some materials together and get busy building as soon as possible so as to keep the fire burning. Just to embarrass Buck as I love to do so often, He is one of the best references I have come across in this forum. In fact each of the people he just mentioned in the post just before this one has been great help in my learning. I read this forum every day. I may have jumped the gun but I am so pleased with how my previous puppets have turned out that I had to buy the Arms Length video and kit to take a leap forward. No questions are treated as dumb questions in this forum as long as you use the search first to try to find out if it has already been addressed. Again welcome to the forum.