Some more pictures, mind this is a try out... the strings must be brown. A problem  : the shoulders aren't doing the thing I want them to do. They must come up more... So, the surch will go on.

Your marionette is looking great. loving the photos. The controls look really complicated, that might be just down to my lack of knowledge on marionettes i dont know. i do know that building puppets is a very experimental process even when you have a good idea what you want and how it should look. putting that idea into reality can take e few attempts until you are happy with the result. keep up the good work.

to puppetsindecarribean,
It must have been in 2000 i think. we had to put on a jetski display in the harbour by the moving bridge. we actually jetskied under the arches of the bridge. we were made to feel very welcome and had a lovely stay. I'd like to take my wife there someday as she was unable to come at the time.

cheers Spam 

The white strings do not bother me at all.  All you have to do is preform your puppet in front of a white sheet and no one well ever see them. I do use black nylon fishing line (10lb - 20lb test) but that is because I can get it easily where I live and doesn't break easily.  Many people use the clear fishing line but I can never get knots to hold in it and think it is too stiff. It well also reflect light and often show more then black line.

Your shoulders can be built up when you add the cloths for your puppet. They are at  the level mine are before I add padding and cloths so you are on the right track.

Hey Shawn, the problem with the shoulders is that they have to go up while I'm pulling the controls. You can see what I mean in the next clip: http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=w-QQJ0E6SWA
At the end of the clip you can realy see the shoulders, or back go up.
Maybee I must put the connection with the back lower? Experimentation is the word...

Do you have a "hinge" at both the neck and the shoulders? I think the control you are trying to replicate is dependent on that. Your string point attachments look a bit off.  It is hard to tell from the current photos.  I don't use the method you have seen at YouTube but understand the basics. From the little I can glean from the video it looks like you are combining methods they use with some I use.

Really cool! Really, who's to say that a marionette has to have legs? Come to think of it, has anyone put a marionette in a wheelchair?

Come to think of it, has anyone put a marionette in a wheelchair?

Hallo Drunk Puppet show, as a matter of fact, we did: in our play 'Kleine Sofie' there is one puppet in a wheelchair... see picture 

Great work there, looks fantastic!

Speaking of odd puppet types that don't have their whole bodies this is one of my favourites. Its from Ronnie Burketts 'Provenance'. It has a head which is attached to Ronnie's head and his hands are her hands. It means that you can look at the puppet and directly at where the voice is coming from all at the same time.

Here's the full article if you're interested.

http://www.torontolife.com/features/guys-n-dolls/?pageno=2

There is another puppet in the same show that is just a head that Ronnie wears on his forehead in the same way of Pity, the female lead of the show. Its good to have that variety in a show I think!

When I was talking to Presto puppets they used to do a show where they had small stringed marionettes taht would appear high up in the theatre at the back and then they would have the same characters as Banraku puppets in a larger form that would come in at the front. Very clever!

Wy

I love this one: my friends and I saw him do this show, and made some similar puppets. We did papier mache heads, mounted the back onto a strong rod, then mounted the rod to a headband. We added a cloth body, but didn't add any elastic attachments to operate the cloth with - we used just our fingers instead.

He's so brillant - he performed last year in Sydney and gave a radio talk afterwards. I also had the luck to introduce myself in Melbourne at one stage! He's very enthusiastic, and supportive, even if he doesn't have a lot of time to chat.

Hello fellow puppeteers,

I haven't been working on my head and shoulderpuppet for some weeks because I have started building two new marionettes. Yesterday, out of the blue came the solution to my problem... it is a matter of connecting the strings, as Shawn did write. I let the strings, that are attached to the back, run over the stick where the back of the head is attached to. Now, when I'm pulling the control...yes... the back is comming up.
Now I will make the clothes and finish the other two marionettes. Maybe they will be manipulated in Bruges.  Johian