Grade 9 Marionette Puppet - Max's Soccor World Cup Supporter Vusi Vuvuzela

Being twins, Max got the same brief as Connor regarding the creation of a puppet (see other post).  He decided on a marionette rather than a rod puppet due to his puppet needing to be more moveable.

We used a polystyrene ball as the base for the head and then used paper mache' and paper pulp to create the features. You need to make a whole through the middle of the head and push through a piece of string.

Once dry, the head was painted and features added. The hair was created in the same way as Connor's puppet, only using black paint rather than grey.  We made a short neck in the same way we created the arms.  Be sure to glue the top of the neck onto the bottom of the head though or it will spin independently which is annoying.

Max made the legs and arms using string and rolled up strips of newspaper.  You need two 'cigars' per arm and two per leg.  These will be tied together at the end.  The arms will be shorter 'cigars' than the legs. Paint them in your desired colour.

To make the body we used scrunched up newspaper and packaging tape.  Make sure to tape in pieces of strings in areas where the legs, arms and head can be attached later.

We made the clothing out of scraps of material.  The black shorts were attached using straight pins stuck into the body.  It's easier to dress the body first and then attach the arms and legs by tying the strings together.

We made the hands from brown felt.  Again you need to tie string to these in order to attach them.  If you cut four hands and glue the string inside two stuck together, it seems to work. His vuvuzela is a cotton reel from overlocking machine thread.  His hat or macaraba was a toy hat that we painted and added a South African flag to. We drilled a hole through it so the string from the head can fit through.

The boots were cut out from egg boxes following the shape we thought looked good. We painted these black and then attached them to the legs using black electrical tape.  Quick and easy.

The marionette driving mechanism is made from dowel rods. One down the center and two diagonally across.  The front one is slightly shorter than the back one.  Hopefully you can see from the first picture how we did it.  We then attached strings from the different areas of the body to the driving rods. In hindsight we should have attached the leg strings on the thighs rather than the shin area, but you live and learn.

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.