Hi,
Im a wood carver and I've decided to make my own marionette. I would like to make one fully out of wood. However I cant find any pictures or instructions that can show me how to make the joints- neck,shoulders, wrists,elbows,anckles nd hipps(I could only find the knees). Can anyone help me?

Thanks

Welcome to Puppets and Stuff................. I'm sure working with wood and some simple instructions you will do fine. Shawn our Administrator here at P&S is our resident marionette expert. Here is one of his other websites. He has put this out of print book available for you to read.
http://puppetnet.com/trick_marionettes

Billy D.

You might want to start by purchasing a book on the subject.  Try something like Making and Manipulating Marionettes by David Currell or one of the other marionette books listed on the page linked below.
Link no longer available.

Another favorite of mine is Marionette Magic by Bruce Taylor ISBN #0-8306-9391-2 but it is out of print.  There are a couple used copies listed on Amazon right now but you never really know what shape used books are in. You might be able to find it or any of the others at your local library.

Hi,
   here a page you should check out;
http://bellsouthpwp.net/g/k/gkoepke/hartz/hartztips.htm

Conrad Hartz is a master builder of marionette and ventriloquist figures.
He recommend this book for information "Marionettes - How To Make And Work Them by Helen Fling and published by Dover Publications, Inc., New York."

Donald

For second-hand books in UK, have a look in Ray DaSilva's web http://www.puppetbooks.co.uk/

I am in my 3rd Year at University studying Character Model Design and Special Effects.  I would like to make a full size puppet (maybe 5/6ft) marionette style for my Major Project for our Degree Show.  My idea has derived from the film 'Strings' - Director: Anders Ronnow-Klarlund. What is the easiest wood to work with?  This is my first attempt at wood carving.

Superteen - Basswood is generally considered one of the easiest woods to carve.  However, I think you're going to need to do some research and build this size puppet out of more than one material.  That much wood would end up being very heavy.  Shawn, and some of the other builders, have much more experience in marionette construction than I have so I'll let them advise in what direction to go.


BTW - welcome to puppets and stuff and good luck on your project.

I agree with Jon, the puppet will be too heavy, I am afraid. Try to calculate the weight it will have. May be a wooden or aluminium skeleton and carved blocks or foam or expanded polyurethane covered with papier mache could work well. I am just guessing, since I have never work with so big sizes.

Have a look here http://www.gis.net/~puppetco/ You can get some ideas.

http://www.latiendita.info/escenografia.htm A Spanish site, but you can see big size, carved foam characters

Maybe a chicken wire frame covered with paper mache? Just a thought.

By the way, I purchsed the book on trick marionettes in Ebook format on Ebay not too long ago, so you might check them out.