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November 21, 2008 |
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Created and Maintained by: The Photoimaging Information Council |
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If you ever wished you could make somebody else jump and move in funny ways just by pulling on a string, this project is for you. It actually looks cool on both adults and kids. For this project it would help if you have a computer and Photoshop but again it is not essential if you can make good color photocopies instead.  What You’ll Need:
Bea Here’s What To Do: Step 1 Start with a good photograph that you can blow up or print to A3 size (the bigger your puppet will be, the easier it will be to do). Don’t worry, you don’t need an A3 printer, just print all the body parts on a full letter sheet (make sure they are in proportion to each other though) and you will find your combined puppet to be about A3 size.
 Step 2: Isolate all the parts of the body that you want to move (like arms, upper and lower legs). Bear in mind that you need to add on a little extra to each limb. For example, for the separation at the knee joint cut out the upper leg rounded and then extend the lower leg underneath it towards the knee so that the upper and lower leg will be overlapping at the knee and you can fasten them to each other easily. The extended part will not really be visible so if you are working purely on paper you could just color in the extension part with a matching color.  Step 3: Print out your isolated Photoshop body parts or make the photocopies and glue all pieces onto thicker cardboard for more stability. Then cut out the parts carefully.  Step 4: To attach the parts to each other make holes with a scalpel or sharp knife into the main body (2 for the shoulders, 2 hip joints) and 2 at the knee joint of the upper legs. Then position the other limbs underneath the main body and move them about to test out the most realistic positioning. Only then make the second hole into the loose limb and attach the parts with a fastener. Make sure to keep the fasteners loose (and the holes big enough) so the limbs will move freely. Attach all the parts of the puppet.  Step 5: Then turn the puppet over so it is lying face down. Now we are working on the mechanism that makes the puppet move. We have to make new holes that have nothing to do with the earlier holes and the fasteners. Make 2 new holes into the top outer edges of the extensions of the arm limbs (kind of where the shoulder blades are). Connect a piece of string between them so that the string is running in a straight line when both arms are hanging loosely beside the body. I used a thick sewing needle to make the holes and get the string through the cardboard and then tied knots.  Step 6: Do the same for the hip joints. The positioning of the holes and the length of the string are the key factors for the puppets movement. The more symmetric you can be the better. If you make the holes at the inside edges of the arms or legs by mistake, you have less pulling strength and might not be able to lift the puppets limbs very far. Also make sure that the string is tight in the puppets relaxed position. If it is too lose your arms will disappear behind the body and if it is too short the movement is limited because the puppet won’t be able to lower its arms.  Step 7: When you have connected both arms and legs connect another piece of string from the middle of the arm string to the middle of the leg string and let the rest hang down between the legs. Turn over your puppet and try it out by pulling gently. Since they are hand made they might need a little adjustment of the string to the left or right to pull both legs equally strong. If you want you can attach an additional string for hanging it up at the head of the puppet and add a bead at the end of the pulling string.  Another Idea: The second puppet you see has her hair braids move as well. Because this puppet was a little more delicate the fasteners would not have looked nice on her head. So I fastened the limbs using small beads. This is an alternative option to attaching the limb parts to each other. It works the same but is a little harder to do than the fasteners. The back of the puppet is the same as I described earlier but you also tie your vertical string to the string that connects the two braids. Here is the bead method: Put a thin thread in a needle and tie a knot in your string then push the needle through the cardboard from the back. Now put a bead on the thread and then go back through the same hole in the cardboard and tie a tight knot from the back to hold everything in place. Again, not too tight so that the limbs can move freely. 
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