Hello All,

First let me say, I've loved lurking here for a couple months - there is a tremendous amount of brilliant information here, and great contributors as well!

I'm starting a new puppet project, and would like to incorporate removable arm rods, the last time I did this, I created a screw in rod design that was really cumbersome and ridiculously involved to build.

Whilst shopping at the fabric store today, I was struck with the idea of using medium sized snaps for the connection.  If I could fasten the male snap to the end of the arm rod, and then secure the female snap inside the foam hand, could this work?

I was thinking the positives would be a tight, secure connection plus the ability for rotation of the rod in the hand, so that more natural movement could occur.

I was definitely inspired by the tutorial at Puppet Planet (http://puppet-planet.com/rodarmtutorial.html) so thank you!

Any thoughts?  Anyone tried this before by chance?

 I hate having the rod permanently attached to the puppet.  After allot of painful testing with different methods.  I really have come to love Velcro.  It's cheap and works great.  The only down side is the puppet has a Velcro strip on the inner part of his wrist.  I know there 's a good tutorial on it.  Check youtube under arm rods. It'll show you the heat tube method and how he adds the velcro. 

Your idea could work - I did something similar recently, whereby the top of the rod is sewn to an 'arm band', which is the same material of the 'skin' of the puppet, sewn in a loop, with snaps (we call them press studs here in Oz).

However, I do recommend trying it a couple of times before making it. Mine were good, but very easy to come off during performance.

Velcro works too, but I also find that it pulls at the materials of the puppet and can make the 'skin' look quite sickly...

But I'm sure someone will have a good suggestion that you will like, because there's lots of great people here who have more experience than I do and have better advice

Welcome to Puppets and Stuff......................... We love it when someone just jumps right in with a idea and get everyone to thinking 
I agree your idea might work......................... Do you have a picture of the snaps you are talking about. If you the sew on snaps you may be able to wire it to a rod as if you were sewing it on. I would bend the rod at the top to keep it from slipping off. Please share photos if this works for you.

Billy D.

  Hi! to P&S

You've got the right idea.  Try this....You will need a small piece 1.5" x 1.5" of sintra plastic, formica or other very thin, hard material.  About 1/16th of an inch.  Drill a hold in the center, just large enough for the male side to come through.  Using the snap kit secure the snap to the sintra.  Hot glue the sintra/snap combo into the hand.  I always add extra fabric strips over the edges of the sintra (not covering the snap) and glue them down.  You want this to be a very secure connection. Allowing for an exit area through the wrist for the rod.  For the rod, you can attach the female snap to a piece of shamy or leather, then epoxy or gorilla glue it to the top of the rod.  I don't have any photo of the process, but I have used this method several times.  This also works well for puppets that don't have very much bulk to their arms.  I use it on my chicken puppet for that reason.  I learned this method from Dave Privett's video.  www.playsoup.com

Julie

Dave Privett from Play Soup covers this "snap method" really well! I recommend getting his series too

Dave Privett from Play Soup covers this "snap method" really well! I recommend getting his series too

Thanks for the tip!

I would definitely like to, however being in school and having a myriad of other (much less fun) expenses means I'll have to keep it on the back burner.  I wish it were the type of thing I could check out of my library, but we tend to deal in quite the specialized field! 

jlucci,
I found this thread because I have a similar question, I need to solve it before Easter or use old methods, I'm determined to find a better way and have a germ of an idea at the moment. I'll get back to you.
Scoob

Hi Scubasteve,

I was revisiting this thread and wondered if you came up with anything?

I ended up doing a screw in rod design that I'm liking, but want a better range of motion.