well, i really like your puppet so far, he has alot of personality and looks great!!
ive made a few puppets in my time that have 'live' hands and it is not a big problem, ill try to explain how i make the pattern and i hope that you can understand what i mean.
first of all i trace my hand onto a piece of paper, then i cut out the hand shape and slice the hand into sectons between the fingers going all the way down to the centre of the base of my hand, then i arrange the fingers on another piece of paper, but this time with about 2-3 centimeters between the fingers, but only about 1 centimeter between the sections at the base of my hand (i hope that makes sense so far) then i carefully stick the newly made hand pattern onto the other bit of paper and cut it out again (it now should look like a rather fat hand with wide sections between the fingers) i then trace around my forearm onto a piece of A3 paper folded in half ( thumb side of my arm along the crease of the paper), then i add 3 centimeters on the width to eventually allow for sewing and cut the patter out. i put the hand pattern onto one side of the centre crease on the arm pattern and cellotape it together (so that you have a basic arm, with a section jutting out the side with a fat hand on the end) then apply this to the fabric as a whole pattern and then simply trace just the hand pattern, and when you have sewn it all together it should make a great glove onto which you can attach the puppets upper arm (obviously sew the puppets upper arm a few inches up the forearm to allow for clearance when using it behind a puppet screen, etc....
i really hope that you can get the gist of what you have to do itsnot difficult, but hard to explain.
ill see what  can do to take a few pix of my origional paterns to show you a little clearer.
for the time being, good luck.
Ben.

heres two pictures to help exlain the pattern, the first is me just trying to show you where the segents between the fingers are and the second is my origional live hand glove pattern. hope this helps!!!




Ben.

Thanks! It´s good to see it on the pictures. I will try that after the weekend.
Im gonna use one live hand.

cool, its best to use the pattern you come up with for both hands even tho only one of them is a live hand it just makes both hands look the same and even, i have done that in the past and simply given the 'dead' hand wireposeable fingers and stuffed them with hollow fibre filler, then attached a clear mono filament to both wrists of the puppet so that both hands appear to be moving like those of big bird from sesame street (but it is just the 'tugging' of the live hand as it moves and as you gesture, ect....)
i look forward to see the outcome!!
Ben.

Jeezbo what do you attach the top of the monofilament to, I've thought about doing this but I'm curious about wether you use a pulley of any kind. I should imagine mono through foam would soon saw it's way through. My brother has access to old photocopier parts and I'm planning on getting a light weight nylon pulley from him, but love to hear how you do it o I don't reinvent the wheel!
Bear in the big blue house is the other Henson creation with this set up. I just love the way he moves.
Scoob

what a great idea to make the glove for your puppet on this way. I tried to make a pattern for a glove puppet and used the hand of my daughter but I think this will me more the way to do it....

Monkey head looks great...I like the
shape..thanks for sharing the pics & video.

What is the thickness of the foam used
for the head??

 
Bhanu

One suggestion - most puppets and comic figures have only 3 fingers, not 4, and a thumb.  Make the fingers on the glove big enough so two human fingers slip into one glove finger.

in answer to your question Scubasteve, on most of the live hand puppets i have made o the past, i simply either run the monofilament through the fabric of the neck (about 1 inch at the very top of the body between the shoulders/base of the neck) or i more simpy just allow the monofilament to wrap over the back of the neck (hen i have the choice of removing it for certain performances) but on the other hand, on most of the larger puppets that i sell to companies, i will insert i mariners spindle, that i obtain from a marine bazaar (boat makers) just around the corner from my workspace. the spindle is simply a very small (1 inch) grey plastic wheel that i put inside a square plastic/styrene tube, which i then put a small section of brass tubing thru to hold the spindle and alow it to spin. i make two tiny pin holes just above half of the plastic tube, attach monofilament to 'live' hands wrist, feed the monofilament thru the holes, then attach monofilament to the other wrist of the puppet and hey presto, a strong, reliable pulley that allows both hands to look like they are moving, but wont suddenly come ndone half way thru a performance!!! the tube is obviously instaled into the foam on the back of his neck (between the shoulders) and covered over by the bodies fabric.
im sorry if that seems a bit longwinded, but its really quite simple and the customers love the added mechanism.
Ben.

oh yeah, and the live hand pattern is obviously easily modified so that the sugestion that MsPuppet offered can be achieved. just use your imagination!!!
Ben.