Dear puppeteers.

I`m new here and do not have a great skill in woodcarving and never liked it to do so, I`m a creative person and want make heads, hands and feet with my hands, I spotted in the gallery some great marionettes, they look awesome! I do not think they made these heads, hands and feet from wood..they look like real cartoon figures, I can not find the pictures anymore, but I saw some people working on these puppets, two men with beard and one woman with glasses, they made some kind of Santa claus and several other cool figures, hope you understand what I mean ?
I`ve been over and over again in the Gallery but simply can not find them any more..

Can any one tell what kind of material they are using for these smooth marionettes ?


Thank you in advance.

I am not sure whose puppets you saw in the gallery, but I make mine from a combination of paper mache' and a product called Creative Paperclay. The following guy is a hand puppet but he was made this way. You can see part of the process I use at http://carnival.puppetsandstuff.com/



I make my marionettes the same way. You can see examples of them here: http://www.wildjokerdesign.com/puppetsandsuch/gallery/gallery.html

I know that others use products like Fimo to make/mold their puppets which would also be a way to do it. Even have a member that is carving them out of soft poly-foam like is used to make hand in mouth puppets.

I agree with Shawn, those are the same methods i have used for carving and moulding charectors in the past, however i have also used foam blocks aswell, the kind that you can usually get in big blocks of yellow, blue or pink, kind of like polystyrene. i get the blocks and cut off small sections for what i need and then just carve using craft knives and blades, and if i make a mistake i can either start again or glue a bit on, then  after i have got the shape sorted, i smooth them down with sand paper and seal them with laquer, then paint them, etc..... for hands, i reinforce then fingers with wire.
hope we can all help with this project, if you need help, you know where we are!!
Ben

Dear Shawn.
Thank you very much for your information.
This helps me a lot and now I do understand much more about using creative paperclay


Still I found some movies on youtube were they are using Polymer paperclay? is this something different then creative paperclay or is this a different manufacture name ?

I searched on Ebay to buy this polymer paperclay but didn`t get no hits at all.....

Do you happen to know if there are artist arround who take orders to make the head, fingers and feet perhaps ?

Thanks again Shawn for your great help.

Best regards
Mylongwish

I am not sure whose puppets you saw in the gallery, but I make mine from a combination of paper mache' and a product called Creative Paperclay. The following guy is a hand puppet but he was made this way. You can see part of the process I use at http://carnival.puppetsandstuff.com/



I make my marionettes the same way. You can see examples of them here: http://www.wildjokerdesign.com/puppetsandsuch/gallery/gallery.html

I know that others use products like Fimo to make/mold their puppets which would also be a way to do it. Even have a member that is carving them out of soft poly-foam like is used to make hand in mouth puppets.

Dear Jeezbo,
Thank you also very much for your reply.

It`s very kind of you to help me to understand more about making marionettes

In my youth we did some Marionettes shows and we always loved to do this. Sooner or later I want to start a theater and give some shows to the childeren in the Netherlands, it`s very important for childeren that they experience these shows in there life afterwards.

Personal I think childeren are not that creative anymore like we used before, they are playing to much with there gameconsoles

Thanks again.

Best regards
mylongwish

Best regards
Mylongwish

I agree with Shawn, those are the same methods i have used for carving and moulding charectors in the past, however i have also used foam blocks aswell, the kind that you can usually get in big blocks of yellow, blue or pink, kind of like polystyrene. i get the blocks and cut off small sections for what i need and then just carve using craft knives and blades, and if i make a mistake i can either start again or glue a bit on, then  after i have got the shape sorted, i smooth them down with sand paper and seal them with laquer, then paint them, etc..... for hands, i reinforce then fingers with wire.
hope we can all help with this project, if you need help, you know where we are!!
Ben

I see Billy gave you the link for Creative Paperclay.  I think maybe the Youtube vidoes that you saw where useing either Sculpey or Fimo. Both of these are polymer clays. Unlike Creative Paperclay they are not air dry.  You have to bake them in the oven.  They are also heavier then Creative Paperclay as a rule. Cost of the medium is normally more also. For those reason I prefer Creative Paperclay but not everyone agrees with me.

I think that most builders prefer to make the entire puppet for you and not simply supply the parts. There are some that might be willing to do it for you but don't have any specific names for you. The majority of builders I know of live either in the United States or Canada so your big problem with parts or even having someone build the entire puppet would be shipping cost.

Dear Shawn,
Thanks again for your great information

If I have to bake the models into a oven then Creative Paperclay is more my thing

Shippingcost isn`t a problem for me, I did and still do many imports so I know what to expect

If you could find some artist who are able to design some puppets for me then I would be more then happy.

Thank you again.

Regards

I see Billy gave you the link for Creative Paperclay.  I think maybe the Youtube vidoes that you saw where useing either Sculpey or Fimo. Both of these are polymer clays. Unlike Creative Paperclay they are not air dry.  You have to bake them in the oven.  They are also heavier then Creative Paperclay as a rule. Cost of the medium is normally more also. For those reason I prefer Creative Paperclay but not everyone agrees with me.

I think that most builders prefer to make the entire puppet for you and not simply supply the parts. There are some that might be willing to do it for you but don't have any specific names for you. The majority of builders I know of live either in the United States or Canada so your big problem with parts or even having someone build the entire puppet would be shipping cost.

Dear Shawn, I finally found my most wanted artist here he will start working on my first marionette, after this one is finished we will go for the second one etc..

I feel very happy that I visited and found this website and wil come back every day to get more inspiration

Thank you so much.

Best regards

I see Billy gave you the link for Creative Paperclay.  I think maybe the Youtube vidoes that you saw where useing either Sculpey or Fimo. Both of these are polymer clays. Unlike Creative Paperclay they are not air dry.  You have to bake them in the oven.  They are also heavier then Creative Paperclay as a rule. Cost of the medium is normally more also. For those reason I prefer Creative Paperclay but not everyone agrees with me.

I think that most builders prefer to make the entire puppet for you and not simply supply the parts. There are some that might be willing to do it for you but don't have any specific names for you. The majority of builders I know of live either in the United States or Canada so your big problem with parts or even having someone build the entire puppet would be shipping cost.