Puppet Arms

This past week Patrick and I have been busy building puppets for our new school assembly puppet show - The Swazzle Workshop Live. We will be presenting a seven minute sample of the show at this year's Orange County Performing Arts Center Performer's Showcase. The Swazzle Workshop Live is a live show based on Swazzle's popular web series The Swazzle Workshop. During the show students will learn team work and cooperation through the art of puppetry. The Swazzle Workshop Live was created with a grant from The Puppeteers of America in partnership with The Orange County Performing Arts Center's Arts Teach Program.

B.A.R.K. Production Journal: Puppet Hands, Step 13

1) Use your own arm as a guide to figure out the orientation of the puppet's elbows and wrists.

2) Pin the hands in place.

3) Using a sturdy needle and strong thread, sew the hands to the arms. The hand material will be difficult to sew through because of the glue, so stitch carefully.

B.A.R.K. Production Journal: Puppet Arms, Step 3

1) Trace the same pattern that you used before onto your arm material. In my case I'm using the terry cloth that I dyed orange with Rit Dye.

2) Pin the arms so they can be machine sewn.

B.A.R.K. Production Journal: Puppet Arms, Step 1

Now it's time to make the puppet's arms. I am a fan of skinny arms, they give your puppet a great range of motion and lots of movement possibilities (read more about spindly arms in Puppet Design). I also think it's very important for puppet arms to have elbows and not bend like rubber hoses (unless that is an effect you are trying to achieve). The technique I'm going to show you will teach you how to make skinny arms with an invisible elbow.

1) Draw your puppet arm pattern out on a sheet butcher paper, and cut out.

2) Trace your pattern onto a piece of thin cotton material. This will be a liner and not visible so any material will do.



3) pin the material so it can be machine sewn.