I have always been infatuated with puppets. I hate dolls with a passion, but I love marionettes. Now I would love to go into details as to why I hate dolls ("Hi, I'm talking Tina, and I don't think I like you") but that isn't what this topic is about.

Ever since I was thirteen I've had this crazy idea in the back of my head. I wanted to start and finish a life sized marionette. I wanted her to be five foot six inches (or roughly 1.89 metres... I think for anyone who isn't American) and completely movable. I didn't want to tie any strings to her or anything like that, I honestly just wanted to build basically a Manikin that was fully movable. Well, now I'm 18 and just recently graduated from highschool and almost have a whole year before I go and do some.... religious work before going off to college and starting a career and figured what better time to start this project than now when I have literally nothing to do other than work 30 hours a week at my job.

I started this task last week and though I haven't put anything down on pen and paper I figured out every problem I thought I would run across (mainly things like joints, connecting the neck, how I want the torso to work, etc...).

Now I understand this community is full of wonderful people who are more than capable of assisting me with this. So if you don't mind, I would like some help.

What advice do you have to give me? I'm open to idea, comments, and even criticism.

Welcome to the family of P&S!  YES, there are a lot of people who will be able to help you!  I am not one of them, but I had to welcome you and say that the Talking Tina episode of Twilight Zone is not one of my favorites either - every time I see it I really cannot turn it off because I love Twilight Zone BUT ....
Any way WELCOME and once you start making your marionette we will want to see pictures!!

Thank you for the support. It would actually be really nice to know what type of wood I should start with, or how to design knee and elbow joints without using ball joins (I know I'll need them for the shoulders and maybe the hips... but thats a bridge I'm not in the mood to cross right now).

You might want to do a search on marionettes on this site; I know there's a lot of info on making them, along with some pictures from people's builds. I think wood's discussed somewhere; joints you could use leather straps... that too is discussed somewhere.

Also, welcome to P&S! Everyone here is wonderfully friendly and willing to share - if you get the chance, check out the marionettes by Johian:

http://puppetsandstuff.com/community/index.php/topic,3086.0.html

He's a new builder, but his work in marionettes is excellent.

Your first stop needs to be your local library.    Find all the books they offer on puppets/marionettes and have a look at them.  Those are going to give you the basics for the joints you need with some nice pictures to refer to. 

I doubt you are going to want to use wood for the project. It is going to get really heavy fast.  If you do use wood it needs to be something like balsa so it is as light as can be. You might want to think about using styro foam to carve out of covered with something like paper mache's or another coating.

Welcome to Puppets and STuff.

Thanks for the advice. My design ideas might actually be unclear. I want to literally make a doll, not a puppet with strings or a hole in the back. I did run to my local library and found 3 books:

Bunraku: the puppet theatre- I'm using it mostly for the pictures and some basic design.
Marionettes: How to make and work them
Expert puppet technique.

I'm betting that Marionettes will probably be the best book, but as of right now I'm still a little unsure. In case the design is a little cloudy try to think like this: A mannequin with fully movable body parts. Everything from the head to the fingers.

I understand what you are wanting to do.    There are many ways you can do joints.  Ball and socket is really going to be your best choice for all of them but you seemed hesitant to dive into that.  What you are wanting to make is similar to an artist anatomical model REFERENCE LINK.  You might be able to find one of these locally at an art store. It would be a good starting point for you.

You are right the marionette book should give you the best illustrations for what you are wanting to do.  I thought I had the one you mentioned and was going to try and give you some specific pages to look at but I can't seem to be able to find it at the moment.