Characters Part 2

The following is my process for making a puppet body. I use 16 or 18 gauge aluminum wire for limbs and 20 gauge wire for the fingers. I start with two approx 1 foot section of wire (18gauge in this example) and by using sections of 1/16”aluminum tube at one end of each piece of wire to crimp small lengths of 20 gauge wire for fingers. I arrange these two lengths alongside the head and neck piece bending and measuring each for correct puppet height and arm length. I then tie these to the neck piece with thread and add some drops of hot glue to keep them from slipping. I usually make some feet pieces in advance by epoxying 3/4” sections of 3/16” OD aluminum tube to the holes in a couple small disk magnets. I cut the two wires to length for the legs and glue them into the feet pieces. I then lay this armature out on a thin sheet of transparent Japanese washi paper and tack it into place with a few more drops of hot glue.

Next i quickly squeeze hot glue over the armature and fingers. It’s a bit messy and there will be extra hot glue in places but no matter. Quickly, I place a second sheet of washi on top and before the glue hardens I press down all over squeezing this sandwich of paper , wire and glue the best I can. The hot glue will quickly cool and harden so that we need to apply heat from a small iron ( I use one made by Cricut used for applying heat transfers). I press the hot iron around the contours of the armature trying be sure each bit of wire is consistently glued to the paper and as even as possible.

When cool I will roughly cut the character shape out and then more carefully cut and trim my character. At this point I drill into the body at base of spine to place a metric M2 screw in front and a threaded insert in back. This will attach to your rig when you are animating the puppet.

I then paint the whole body with gouache to which I have added about a dozen drops of liquitex matte medium. You can substitute any matte acrylic that wont flake. House paint samples from the hardware store are cheap and good for this. For some parts that will bend a lot you may need to add liquid latex such as ‘Mold Builder’ to the paint. (You will need to test!.. some paints mix fine with latex and some cause the rubber to curdle). When dry, use VERY thin paper or fabric for clothing. On the example I used bits of fabric for a rag throw rug. When cut apart the small pieces of fine scarf like fabric are often a great fit. I attach all with hot glue or liquid latex as I am non sewing. This just one type of puppet. Next, some variations.