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What materials do you use for glove/hand puppets?
As mentioned in my short post about what materials to use when making a puppet, there’s no hard and fast rules as to what to use when building a puppet. However, there are many things that tend to be favourites of puppet makers and the following will list a few suggestions for you.
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What fabrics can I use to make a shadow puppet screen?
I’ve been getting a couple of emails lately about the different types of fabrics used in shadow puppet screens. As in my tutorial [link to be added], I discuss predominantly using silk (or bisilk, which is cheaper). So I thought I’d post my responses here for everyone else to read too. This is probably the beginning of a new category of articles: ‘your questions answered’. I’ll not go out of my way to seek questions, but if you do email me, I might just put the answer here (which isn’t to say I’ll not reply to your email of course). Names and personal info removed/changed and posted with permission of the author. Questions are in block quotes, my response is below.
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What materials do you use for shadow puppets?
As mentioned in my short post about what materials to use when making a puppet, there’s no hard and fast rules as to what to use when building a puppet. However, shadow puppets generally stick to the basics: something to create a silhouette with (usually a flat card or paper material), plus something for joints, and of course the rods to operate the puppet with. Even though these materials may seem limited, you can actually push the boundaries quite a bit, as I explain below. The following is split into sections: the puppet itself; joints; and rods. A separate post about materials for screens is here [link to be added].
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What materials do you use for blacklight puppets?
As mentioned in my short post about what materials to use when making a puppet, there’s no hard and fast rules as to what to use when building a puppet. However, blacklight puppets are slightly different. Before continuing you may want to read the intro on blacklight, which discusses certain concepts in more detail, like how it works and what colours to use.
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How to make a puppet using recycled materials
In this day and age, we’re all conscious of the amount of crap we produce that can’t be reused, and ends up in the local town dump. Making puppets seems like an addition on that waste, with foam, plastic and all sorts of other things being needed to make something that may, in the end, be put in the trash (that’s another topic for another day). Is it possible to make puppets out of only recycled materials? Of course! There may be some things that you’ll simply have to buy (like glue), but practically everything can be reused. Skip to the tutorial. Skip to the video showcase.
@Amy, This depends all on what you mean by 'bunraku'. Technically speaking this refers to a style of Japanese puppet; but many Americans and other people use the word to refer to a totally different style of puppetry - table-top puppets.
... School of Puppetry on Basics of puppet design and buildingI recommend reading the following if you haven't already:
http://www.puppetsinmelbourne.com.au/faq.php/2009/03/11/how-to-make-a-bunraku-puppet
http://puppetsinmelbourne.com.au/index.php/faq/2009/03/18/how-to-make-a-table-top-puppet
http://www.puppetsinmelbourne.com.au/faq.php/2009/03/17/how-to-make-a-table-top-puppet-part-two
All of these posts will soon be moved to this site.
Sadly, there aren't many tutorials out there on either, but if you get stuck head to www.puppetsandstuff.com. It's a forum for puppet makers and many of the members are willing to help advise people on how to do things.
Lastly I will add that these types of puppets are tough to make, so if it's for a school project, you may want to start on something a little easer.
Good luck with it!