I know i am absolutely bombarding this forum but i have another question
How do you guys attach arm rods to the hands of the puppets?

Thank you

I suggest stiq puppetsvideos on youtube on this topic. I use his method but I normally insert them at the elbow or wrist

Dont worry about bombarding the forum I used to do the same thing but there is always excelent help  from all the friendly people that are on P&S

I've seen Stiqpuppets videos on making the rods, does he have a video on attaching it to the hand?

I think he does hold on I'll check for you

Hey check out this in KnyMuppet's Gallery! http://puppetsandstuff.com/community/index.php?action=gallery&g2_itemId=11479  It is a picture of how she made hands with the rod attached.  It looks like maybe she just glued the rod between the two pieces for felt.  You could then cover that with the fabric hand or even embed that into foam hands.

That's right Shawn! Basically I used a wire coat hanger for the arm rod itself (make sure you use the heavy gage wire hangers, the cheap ones bend and flex too easily). I then used pliers to bend a sort of squared U shape at the top. The stiffened felt is one piece folded in half a little smaller than the cloth palm. The U shape of the arm rod is put in between along with the florist wire for the fingers, I then use Fabri-Tac adhesive to glue them together, then I sew the felt along the edge to help trap the wire in place more firmly.

For the cloth hand, sew them completely EXCEPT for a section from the base of the little finger to the wrist. Turn the arm/hand right side out, and slip the arm rod/ finger assembly inside making sure each wire goes into the appropriate finger. Once it is in place, I use a pencil to stuff each finger with fiberfill and then add some on both sides of the hand armature to plump up the hand. Once the hand and arm are sufficiently stuffed, I use the ladder stitch to close the opening in the hand, going back and forth around the arm rod to make it sturdy and to help it stay put. The other end of the rod I bend over at about 5  inches, then wrap with black tape to form a grip of sorts to manipulate the hand. Length of the arm rod is up to the builder, some like them longer, some like them short. Probably best to start with a long one, as it can be cut down later if it's too long but a short one could cause you to have to pull apart the whole thing to start over.

I haven't done it, but yes, you can put this between two hand-shaped pieces of half inch foam, then use contact cement or whatever you prefer to glue the foam hands over the whole armature in the palm area so that the finger wires are inside each finger. The rest of the process would be the same, minus stuffing with polyfill. Put it inside the opening in the hand, then sew it up.

Thank you so much KnytMuppet that gives me so many ideas!!

I do have a video on adding arm rods to a hand....however it is one of the ones that did not get downloaded....it will be added along with the antron fleece dying one which we found as well.  I did add another 10 videos on performing with a puppet I will be labelling them ASAP as soon as I get all the video's up and going.

Daryl H

Awesome Daryl you're videos are always so inspiring!

Thanks Daryl, i love your videos and would be soo lost without them!