Hi,
I"m builiding my first marionette.


pictures at:
http://torontopuppets.blogspot.com/


I have a couple of questions.

Generally speaking, what should the proportion be?

 I read in an old article it should be one to two to three.
the head one unit, torso two units, legs three units.  Does that sound right?

Also, I"m using the book "making and manipulating marionettes", and it talks about casting rubber latex body parts.   I went to the sculpture supply store, and the latex example there seemed pretty floppy.  I asked about a latex hardener and the store only has a thickener.  Is that one and the same?   

Also, is latex still a popular choice for casting puppet parts or have folks moved on to more advanced products like urethane rubbers or other things?

thanks,
to puppet

Welcome and glad you sign on to our family....I know someone who is great with marionettes will be along to help you with your questions. 

Daryl H

thanks!

Welcome to Puppets and Stuff.  I'm glad you joined onto to our community.  As a partial answer to you questions.  I can't advise you on latex since I've never worked with it but I do know that latex is not the only choice for building marrionettes.  Here on the forum we have builders that are using wood, clay, polymer clay, paper mache and a variety of other materials.  Keep researching and you'll see that you have many options at your disposal.

I expect that Shawn will be along shortly with some help for you, he is a very experienced builder.  Johian is relatively new to marionette building but his sculpted marionettes are of superior workmanship.  And these are just two of our members.

I am not an experienced marionette maker, I have just made 3 or 4. I usually work with a 7 heads, very close to human proportions If you do a google search with "canon" or "human canon" you will find lots of examples. I use these proportions and adjust a bit, for instance shorting the legs. This is an example of the results

I allways work with papier-maché. No idea about latex. Sorry

Hi Jorge, Thanks for your post. that's an awesome marionette.  How tall is it?

close up picture of leg to be paper mached.   tongue depressors will take a wire through them and attach to body

paper mache head,  I applied paper mache over a clay model head.  but it was hard to dig out the clay after the paper mache dried.  I won't try that again.

clay head:  paper mache applied over it.



full shot of body, legs, and head.   no arms or feet yet.