I completely agree, i have never used a mechanical device to make a hand puppets mouth move because i don't think that it would truly work well, much better using your hands and getting really good at what you do, the control devices are much better suited for rod puppets, however, i AM slightly curious still!! i still really love Hansjurgen Fettig's methods, i have in the past only seen one or two pieces of his work, but am still impressed with the thinking behind the mechanisms. i have come up with some mechs of my own based on his work, but tailored to my needs and slightly improved for their intended purposes!!
anyway, enough of my waffle.
Ben.

Here are a couple of examples of mine.


Craig

Several years ago, I did a OWS competition act with a hand puppet (my right hand) doing a vent act with a small puppet attached to his  (the puppet's) left hand. The small puppet was controlled by my left hand through rods and pulleys. The idea was to have one puppeteer manipulating both puppets.

Unfortunately, this was lost on one of the judges who commented...you needed to have some action with the main puppet's right hand. I guess I either needed to grow a third arm or connect his arm to my big toe. Duh!

Cruppetman,  I would have loved to see that.  It sounds funny.

Craig

Cruppetman - I love to be able to take a look that the mechanics of the puppet.  And I know how you feel about the judges not getting everything your are doing because they are seeing what you aren't doing.

Last year our puppet team did a routine where we needed so many puppets each puppeteer was using two.  The judges said we needed to work on our use of arm rods.  We were all thinking, "Didn't you notice that there were a lot more puppets than puppeteers?  We've only got two arms a piece."  Ah well, you can't please everybody.

Thanks so much for posting all of these ideas/tips. I've been dabbling on a few mechs for my first totally rod-controlled puppet and all of your ideas have given me a lot of new ideas to explore. I'll post pictures after the weekend!

You can check out my gallery for some pics of a rod puppet I'm working on based on Hansjurgen Fettigs designs.   I wanted to manipulate the legs.  His book is really great if you can find it. If you live in GA you can get it on loan from the library system online. That's what I did. The have one copy. As far as I can tell I'm the only one that ever checks it out.

...or better yet check out Hobey Ford @ hobeyford.com. he has alot of info that he shares. Really cool stuff.

This is a great thread. I never even knew you could do this!

I'm resurrecting an ancient thread after finding this video on making a ball joint.