I need to make a Gingy puppet, an identical of the one from Shrek the Musical. I have no idea which kind of materials I need to use, or how I can make it but I need to make it, and I was directed here for the best help around. PLEASE supply me with helpful directions, and materials that I can use and how I can make Gingy and I would be VERY grateful. Thank you!

Here are some videos of Gingy. Please use these as the guideline, because this puppet has to be identical. Thank you so much.

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Well it looks like in the Musical version that Gingy is a piece of poly-foam cut in the shape needed then covered in fabric and decorated with buttons and cording. The mouth would have been cut in the open position.  What do you need this for?

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https://youtu.be/dUFPWW7IqCU

Welcome to Puppets and Stuff......................... This should be pretty easy as Shawn described.

Billy D.

Well it looks like in the Musical version that Gingy is a piece of poly-foam cut in the shape needed then covered in fabric and decorated with buttons and cording. The mouth would have been cut in the open position.  What do you need this for?

Great minds think alike. I haven't even seen the show/videos and that's what I suggested. (The question originally posted on Yahoo Answers - thought you guys might have some additional ideas so I suggested Mitchiez to post here)  The only difference was I thought that the foam could be painted, so it keeps that gingerbread texture.

Love the costumes!..

Well it looks like in the Musical version that Gingy is a piece of poly-foam cut in the shape needed then covered in fabric and decorated with buttons and cording. The mouth would have been cut in the open position.  What do you need this for?

What is poly-foam, where can I get it? And what is cording? I'm so sorry I don't know. I need it for our local theater's group is doing Freak Flag for a competition and I have to make Gingy.

Poly-foam is what you find in your cushions on your couch.   You can often get it at fabric stores or places that supply foam for upholsters.  The stuff you well find at the fabric store may not be thick enough since it looks like he is about 2-3" thick.  You may have to glue several layers together to get the thickness you need.  You can use an electric carving knife to cut the shape you need out of the foam.  Should be easy to find one since it is close to Thanksgiving and they are used to carve the turkey.   You can also use a band saw to cut foam if you have access to one.  You use contact adhesive to glue foam together.  You can find that at a hardware store like Home Depot.  Look in the paint area where they keep the adhesives. With contact cement (not rubber cement), you apply a think layer to each piece you want to join and let it dry for 15-20 mins then you press the two pieces together and they stick. 

Cording is used on things like decorative pillows..  now that I look at the video again I think maybe they did not use cording.  He is a larger scale then I had thought at first.  For the different decorations on the ginger bread man you could cut thinner pieces of foam and cover them in fabric then sew them to the covering fabric of the puppet.  A lot of people use hot glue gun to do stuff like this but I prefer to hand sew on details like this.

I think the mouth needs to be an O cut in the fabric that then has a mouth plate glued into it. You are going to have to experiment some with the mouth plate.  In a normal puppet the front of the head is kind of rounded and thus your mouth plate has a curve on the front of it.  For this guy he is flat on the front so that is not going to work really.  Maybe someone else well have some ideas on the shape it may need to be.

You need to pop over to YouTube and check out Dary's (StiqPuppets) channel.  It has a bunch of videos on the process of making a puppet. http://www.youtube.com/user/StiqPuppets  You can see how he makes mouth plates, covers a puppet in fabric, glues foam and a lot more. It might take you some time to watch them but well make things easier for you.

What kind of fabric would be best to use? Or just any kind of brown/cookie looking fabric? How do I cover it without having seams on the sides. Like I invision me trying to cover it and having large seems on the sides of the puppet...

Look for a non-pill polar fleece at the fabric store.  There is a fabric called Antron, but it is only available on-line and is limited.  It is what is used on the Muppets and most likely is what was used on this guy.  The thing is it comes in white and you have to dye it.   If you really want to go that way then search for Antron here in the forums or I can get you the links to the suppliers.  Had it at the top of the page at one time but just took them down.

Look close at the video, there are no seams on this guy.  The Antron and polar fleece is stretch so you simply wrap it around to the back.  Let's say you have your cut out foam of the shape.  Now you cut the fabric in the same shape but you add a few inches all the way around.  Lay that on top of the foam the pull it around to the back and glue it.  It takes some patience and work to do it without any wrinkles but it can be done. You may have to snip bits of the fabric out to make it all lay right when you get around to the back.