Grade 9 Puppet Project - Connor's Madiba aka Nelson Mandela look-a-like

The brief said to make a puppet with an ethnic background.  You could make either a rod puppet or marionette.  Connor chose to make a rod puppet as it suited the style of puppet he wanted to create. He chose to honor the legacy of South Africa's beloved Madiba (Nelson Mandela) who died at the end of 2013.

The head was made up of paper mache'   The quickest way to create the head was using a toilet roll inner as a neck and then using twists of dry newspaper and masking tape to form the basic shape.  Paper mache' was then applied on top of this.  Place the toilet tube over the neck of a bottle, makes life much easier when working with the paper mache' application. The lips, ears, eyebrows etc. were all created using a paper mache' pulp.  It took about 3 days for the paper mache' to dry properly.  Then Connor could paint it.  He painted it solid brown first and then added in the shading and features afterwards.

Connor used batting (cushion stuffing) to make the hair.  We pulled it apart and then using his hands, Connor massaged in the grey paint.

The shoulder board which the head fits into and holds the clothing up was made out of an empty cardboard tube that my calendar came in.  We cut it to the right length and cut it in half.  We made a hole in the middle.

The clothing or kaftan type outfit was a straight strip of material sewn down the sides.  We sewed it slightly rounded on the shoulders too. The hands were made out of brown felt.  One hand is glued to a dowel rod which will act as the arm (cut dowel to appropriate size).  This needs to be secured to the shoulder board using a piece of string. We made a sleeve for this 'arm' out of the same material as the kaftan  A small slit on either side also needs to be cut in the clothing so the arm can go through it.  You need to put the arm through the slits in the material first before securing it to the shoulder board with the string on the inside of the clothing.  A bit fiddly!

Madiba's second arm is false and simply made from material and glued to the clothing.  We cut a hole in the top of the clothing big enough to match the hole in the shoulder board to insert the neck. We glued the neck into place. 

To finish, we wrapped the end of a another dowel rod in newspaper and tape (to fit snuggly inside the neck).  This is your 'driving' dowel.  We cut the dowel to the desired length and inserted up inside the clothing and into the neck.