Month: January 2023

Puppet Making Workshop

The Progress…

I was ready to work on modeling my puppet; the wiring work, making joints, and adding volume to them were all on the agenda for the day. However, halfway into the day, my patience took a back seat, and my anxiety crept in lousy.

A new day brings new thoughts and manipulates the ideals of where you want your journey to take you. I was so preoccupied with making this puppet that I wasn’t following my initial thoughts; I made it up as I went along. I started by twisting wires for the hands and legs. I chose proportionate limbs for the puppet because I wanted more realistic yet unconventional hand and leg motions regarding posture and gestures. My most problematic issue in making puppets was twisting the wires for the wrists and fingers.

Well, it came with many unwanted back aches and neck crunches…

I was unsure if I could construct a functional palm without destroying it. This was still better than the previous one, but it’s all part of the learning process.

To separate the forearm, the biceps, the thighs, and the calves, I used striped rectangles of soft foam to warm around the essential areas of the hands and legs. The foot was slightly larger and gave the feel of shoes, which was to balance the head and feet with almost the same size.

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Puppet Making workshop

Start…

Hey! I am posting my experience of making my puppet right from scratch. Before I say anything further, I will let you know this is the 3rd poor attempt at making a full-blown puppet that gives out some character (the last time, two times, was an utter fail).

HMM! Moving on.

I wanted to create a puffy character who could express herself primarily through facial gestures. I joined two balsa wood blocks for the head and four for the bottom. Bottom, I kept it purposefully long because I didn’t want to animate the torso if I had to ( The funny part is I realised later that because of that decision, the entire body can not bend or tilt in any manner). Too late; I will just have to be creative with my movements.

I aimed for a small face and large body with proportional hands and legs, respectively. When I initially mediated what I wanted to build, it wasn’t how it turned out in the end, but the looks of it were more or less the same; the personality had a shift and that I consider as massive progress on some levels.

I wanted to add roundness to the main body of the puppet, so I just cut and attached soft foam around the lower parts of the body to give it a good form and help in roughly differentiating the lower and upper halves of the body. I wasn’t sure about wanting longer legs or shorter ones, as the balance of the character’s centre of gravity was unstable.

It was a labour day of constant wood particles and balsa shavings running through everyone’s inner pores; I was losing my patience but apparently not my dedication; how? I have to state that it is an absolute joy to be productive throughout the day.