Puppet Making

I started by watching the YouTube video, How to Make a Sock Puppet (No Sewing).
After that I was all excited to start my puppet making journey! I went and picked out the
materials I needed for making the sock puppet. After watching the video, I knew exactly what
pair of socks I was going to use. I had a pair of fuzzy fleece, black and white stripped socks and
immediately my brain started to plan how I could follow his directions to make a Zenni Zebra
hand puppet. I could not for the life of me find my crafting glue gun and so I borrowed a friends
high-temperature glue gun, the kind that is used for upholstering furniture. Well, that turned out
to be a very big mistake!

I started this puppet making journey on Monday, but by the end of day I had a big, long,
painful blister across my hand. The high temperature glue gun was not working properly, it was
leaking out from the sides as well as the tip. The glue came through the fleece material and stuck
everything to my hand! I had to pull apart my puppet as fast as I could to get it off my hand.
This put a dampener on my puppet making journey and I decided to put away all my materials
and wait until my hand and my heart felt better before continuing. I found myself emotionally
set back from completing this assignment.

The type of puppet we were going to make is an assemblage art project. “Assemblage
refers to a three-dimensional collage in which children creatively assemble an array of objects”
(Fox & Schirrmacher, 2015, p. 248). My pre-gathered materials were now spoiled but then I
remembered that the gentleman in the YouTube Video (Woodfish Toys, 2021) said to “be
creative with the materials you have around the house” (Woodfish Toys, 2021, 4:41-4:43), “I
encourage you to go out and try your own design. You don’t have to follow what I did”
(Woodfish Toys, 2021, 0:10 – 0:14). So, on Friday, I started my planning process all over again.

The idea of making the sock puppet was soured in my mind after having my previous
struggles, so I took back to YouTube to look for some new inspiration. It was now Friday
evening, and I was dedicated to getting myself back on track. I came across some videos by the
“Puppet Nerd”, and I was instantly intrigued to challenge myself to make a real-looking puppet
like the kind that they use on children’s TV shows. I watched his video, How to make a puppet
and pattern from scratch! (2012) and decided that this was the kind of puppet I wanted to make.
Thinking about what materials I had available at home, I started to plan my next puppet making
adventure.

“Most three-dimensional creations require a fixative or fastener” (Fox & Schirrmacher,

2015, p. 248) and in the “Puppet Nerd’s” video he said that he used both a glue-gun and a craft
spray adhesive, so I made it a priority to pick up a low-temperature craft making glue-gun from
the dollar store before starting my next puppet. The rest of the materials I had planned out from
supplies that I already had around my home. If you would like to follow along with the “Puppet
Nerd’s” video, the link will be listed on the reference’s page.
 I observed how he created his own puppet pattern and then replicated the exact same
steps as in his YouTube video (Puppet Nerd, 2012). I took apart a child’s size baseball hat and
used one of the sections to create the head pattern template for my puppet. I cut out 6 sections
all the same out of flooring underlay and glued them together using the hot glue gun, it was
almost like putting the shape of the hat back together. After I had the top of the head, I created
the mouth plates by drawing around half the circumference of the head and cutting them out on
thick plastic sheeting. Two pieces were needed, one for the top of the mouth and one for the
bottom.

I cut out two more sections using the same pattern piece I used for the head and glued
them together to create the chin. I affixed the mouth plates to both sections of the head and
attached them together temporarily using two pieces of packing tape. The packing tape is
removed after the final fabric goes on as it’s the fabric skin that will hold both head pieces
together. Once both the head skull pieces were complete, I started tracing out the shape of the
head on a thin fabric sheet to make a template for my skin. I chose, like he suggested, a fur type
material. I did this partly because it helps to hide minor imperfections but also because it gave
the final puppet a look that I was hoping for, like a character off Sesame Street.

With my skin template pattern ready, I laid it out on my fur type fabric. I used an old
minky fleece sweater that was in our donation pile. The only problem with cutting this type of
fabric is that it sheds everywhere and makes quite a bit of mess! My hand sewing began. I laid
the mouth template on top of a piece of red felt and I cut the inside piece of the mouth. Once I
pinned the mouthpiece to the skin fabric, I could see my puppet coming to life. I finished my
sewing and used the spray adhesive to attach the skin and mouth fabrics to my three-dimensional
head.

I was happy with how it looked, even though the mouth lined up a little crooked, I think it
gave my puppet more character. I looked up another one of his YouTube video’s so that I could
create the exact style of nose that I wanted for my puppet. He has many tutorial videos available,
but I found the instructions for the specific nose that I wanted, in the video, How to Make a
Puppet Face! - Part 8 - Puppet Building 101 (Puppet Nerd, 2017). I made a cute, tone matching
button nose, and it turned out just the way I had envisioned it. I decided to create my own eyes
using white and black pieces of crafting felt. I drew them out, cut them, and attached them to the
head using the glue-gun. I even used leftover scrap pieces of the fur material to give my puppet
eye lids. I used the same scraps to create its ears.

My puppet now had a face, but I wasn’t a fan of the hair that the “Puppet Nerd” used in
his videos, so I took back to the internet once again. I came across another puppet maker named
Valita (2013) who was sharing a tutorial called, Making a yarn wig for a puppet. I was drawn to
the style that she was creating and so I chose to duplicate her method for my own puppet’s hair.
I wrapped, taped, and sewed together the three hair sections of yarn. I pinned them to my
puppet’s head and then sewed them on. I was really pleased with how my puppet came together.
 My children were excited to play with my puppet head. My youngest son named the
puppet Tommy and so that is what his name will be. My oldest son is on the spectrum, and I
really thought that he would like my puppet, but once he put it on his hand, he didn’t want to
make it speak or anything, he just starred at it. This kind of surprised me because we learned
that “puppets help create a low stakes environment for kids where they all feel comfortable to
talk about their feelings, to come out of their shell a little bit. But it also creates, like, a really
fun, exciting environment” – Kate Martin (Edutopia, 2023a, 0:08 – 0:18). This was not the case
for my son; however, my other two children were drawn to the puppet and right away they
started to maneuver the puppet to make it speak for them.

I think I will keep my puppet for my future classroom, “Puppets are wonderful teaching
tools” (Edutopia, 2023b). I find them to be engaging and fun and they can have educational
value because sometimes they “allow for improved communication skills” – Emily Wicks
(Edutopia, 2023a, 4:48 – 4:52). In some cases, “they can be proxies on sensitive topics,
expressing feelings and acting out scenarios the humans around them sometimes can’t”
(Edutopia, 2023b) but as I noticed, we can’t always expect that specific outcome will be assured.
Every child is different and not all of them will enjoy the use of puppets, we can just provide
them and let the children decide for themselves if they want to interact with them or not.
 References

Edutopia. (2023a). How Puppets Can Help Kids Express Emotions. Www.youtube.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfycJWiF34Y

Edutopia. (2023b). How Puppets Can Help Kids Express Emotions. Edutopia.

Fox, J. E., & Schirrmacher, R. (2015). Art and creative development for young children.

Cengage Learning.

Puppet Nerd. (2012). How to make a puppet and pattern from scratch! Www.youtube.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4jqGph9E2k

Puppet Nerd. (2017). How To Make A Puppet Face! - Part 8 - Puppet Building 101.

Www.youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhm3AYj0JGM

Valita's Creative Designs. (2013). Making a yarn wig for a puppet. Www.youtube.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRpXzAzsypE

Woodfish Toys. (2021). How to Make a Sock Puppet (No Sewing). Www.youtube.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym13GbygiSM