What materials do you use for glove/hand puppets?

20th July 2011 Glove puppets, Materials & Tools glove puppets, materials, tools

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.

There are actually a variety of methods to making glove puppets which allow for a single material to be used; or for a number of materials used per body part. I’ll explain this a little more in a moment, but for now, let’s discuss using a single material.

A series of glove puppets at the exhibition during the American National Puppetry Festival in 2009.

You can create a glove puppet using two pieces of fabric glued or sewn together (the title image shows my glove puppet, which was sewn together using cotton fabric). It doesn’t have to be a particular fabric, so long as it doesn’t have much stretch; felt, fleece, cotton, calico, all are good materials to use. Indeed, felt is a popular selection for use with children. You can then decorate the puppet with facial features, clothing, etc. (I’ll get to that in a moment) If you’re particularly keen, you can sew together large noses out of the same fabric, or whatever, and then stuff and sew them to the puppet. There are a number of glove puppet patterns sold by clothing pattern companies that allow you to do just that. - As a side note, I considered adding foam sheet as a material to use. However, I’ve not seen or heard of anyone using this for glove puppets. I think it’s most likely that it would lessen the durability.

But you can also try your hand at making the puppet in parts. The head can be one material, whilst the body and arms are different. (You can add legs too, but most puppeteers tend to avoid it) There are a variety of ways you can do this. The head can be made from fabric, papier mache, carved from a lightweight wood or foam block, latex or other mould-making products. The head is usually hollow, to allow the puppeteer the maximum range of movement, comfort and security (aka ability to hold onto the puppet).

Then you can attach the body separately. Again, you could glue or sew a fabric body onto the head. This is the most-often used material for bodies that are separate to the head, as it is lightweight and easy to make. However, you can also have arms that are made from different materials to both the head and the body: fabric, papier mache, carved or moulded hollow arms, and cardboard tubes can be used. You can even have poseable stuffed hands using fabric or foam. These are then attached to the ’sleeve’ area of the puppet’s body and made secure. Foam block and other lighweight materials can also be used to build up the structure for bodies that have unusual shapes: animals or fantasy creatures for instance.

For all of these options, a lining is recommended to prevent sweaty hands from reducing the durability of the puppet. Some other great tips: add a loop of wire, wool or other type of thick thread to the base of the body. This allows you to hang the puppet upside-down in your puppet booth, and make it easier to find and insert your hand into the correct puppet for your scene. You can also use the wire - or whatever - to keep the base of the body circular at all times, again making it easier for you to fit your hand whilst your attention is elsewhere.

As for materials for decoration, facial features, accessories, and so on, materials vary. Anything and everything goes: you can use thick cotton thread to create eyes, or glue circles of felt on, use sequins, feathers, paints… whatever you have, you can use! Puppet eyes and noses are discussed in more detail here [link to be added].

If you’d like to learn more, David Currell’s Puppets and Puppet Theatre is an excellent resource for information on materials and tools, and has some tips that I’ve left out of this article that are worth reading. Indeed, many of the old puppet books from the 1950s - 1970s have a lot of great tutorials on glove puppets and discuss materials in detail - just avoid the ones that mention asbestos! (That would be a joke, except, seriously, I have a copy of a book that suggests using it… in a section on puppetry for kids :eek: )