Hi,
I'm about to give two of my puppets over to a couple of teenagers in our church to use. They will be using them in Vacation Bible School to lip-sync to a song and do a skit or two.
What I'm wanting to know is what should I tell them about how to properly remove the puppet from their hand, and how to put it on too. My husband wants to pull them by their head and I'm worried this will damage them.
I'd also love some tips on manipulating them. For instance, I read on one site to use your thumb to make them talk instead of the upper part of the mouth.
For those of you that sell your puppets, is there a paper you include on handling the puppet for the proper care of it?
Thanks so much for any help you could give.
Nina

To properly remove and put on a puppet you need to cradle it like a baby in your one arm and slide in the other arm in our out.  Don't grab it by the head since this puts lots of stress in the neck area and also puts hand oils or any dirt around the face area which does not look very pleasant in a short while.  Store puppets when not in use on either a mike stand or a music stand (base area only) as well as making stands from PVC pipes this helps to air them out better since the inside of the head can get really yucky from sweating in them during practice and shows if not done. 

Try to encourage them to wash there hands before handling the puppets to reduce and extra oils getting on the outside or the inside to make things less yucky all around.   

Hope this helps you get started......

Daryl H

Thanks Daryl. That does help me a lot!
Nina