Good afternoon. I have a friend who is wanting to dress for Halloween as a marionette. I would like to help her out by making a control rod for her, approximately to scale for a puppet that is 5' 0". I did search the net for some basic plans and I think probably an airplane type control would be most realistic. I am looking for tips on making it look good, ideas for what to use as string, etc. I will probably make some way for it to be velcro'd to her when she wants a break from someone pulling her strings or when her puppeteer needs a break. Any suggestions out there? I am by no means a puppeteer but I do enjoy puppets and would like to be as realistic as is possible given the circumstances.

I am a reasonably experienced wood worker, with turning and basic cabinetry as my grounding. I have maple, oak and a few other hardwoods available to create with.

Thank you.

- Ernie

Welcome, Ernie
I'm no specialist in marionettes myself, but just picturing a control rod in scale for a 5'- puppet in hardwood: does she work out really hard? I imagine she'd better: this does sound VERY heavy. Maybe you should rather build in foam or the like- after what I picked up from docus Henson made, a costume can hardly be to lightweight? But maybe I am picturing the wrong thing. One of the marionette builders, please?

Hrm. Perhaps I was unclear. She will wear a costume designed to look like a marionette. The control rod would either be velcro'd to her back or a tall friend would carry it for her when she wants to dance or the like. No actual control of her would be possible, nor would I want to build the rod to actually lift her arms and the like. I would simply like to create a plausible looking device as the control rod. If weight is a huge factor I can make it out of lighter woods (balsa or the like), although I would prefer for it to be sturdier than that. She is reasonably strong (massage therapist and yoga practitioner) but not a weight lifter or the like.

- E

I think Rikka's point is that a marionette control is going to be attached to her somehow, whether someone's controlling it or not: either way, working with wood will be heavy at that scale.

Assuming that the control is going to be attached via velcro/some sort of string, the wood will have to 'trail' after her. Even the strongest people in the world find it difficult to hold up a puppet for long periods of time, hence a lot of big name shows (ie. The Lion King) worry about ergonomics and spend a lot of time with the performers/physiotherapists/saftey advisors working out the kinks. I can't imagine having a good time having a large piece of wood trailing about behind me. Carrying it doesn't sound like fun either.

I agree with Rikka, using foam - paint it to look like wood! - or something lighter would be better. Not sure about how well balsa wood will stand up to the rigours of outdoor walking around. You could insert some wire into the foam to make it stay a certain shape.

I think we understand what you describe, it's just gravity probably won't let you do it easily with wood and there are easier ways to do things. A good idea would be to experiment: get your friend to walk around the house/block with something of similar weight/size to what you plan to use. Then see how long she lasts or finds it comfortable to work with. My guess is that strength won't be an issue, but endurance.

Another possibility would be to have one of the "strings" of the control mechanism actually be a solid piece of metal (a steel rod perhaps?) that could hold the mechanism suspended above her head. It would have to be attached to her via some sort of harness or strap. The other strings could be some sort of string of a thickness similar to the metal holding up the control. In this way the control mechanism would be suspended above her and maintain the illusion you're trying to achieve. You could even have the control mechanism secured to this steel rod in such a way as to allow it to rock back and forth as she moved about further enhancing the illusion that she is being controlled by this device.

For this to work the mechanism would almost certainly need to be constructed out of styrofoam. Of course depending on how much time and money you want to invest it would be possible to work with some of the foam materials that theaters often use for props. With that you could create your own mold, incorporating wood grain and then paint it accordingly to achieve a fairly realistic look.

Well, don't know if any of that will help but I thought I'd throw another idea into the building brain storm. Best of luck!

Okay, so I'd like to mock something up in foam then. I have a foam cutter and foam available. Where could I get some pictures to look at and figure out scale? I have seen marionettes before, but I was always either interested in the show or the person putting the show on, so I don't have solid ideas of the parts of an arm or what scale would be good for someone 5' tall.

- E

If you google for Emily Decola, you'll find some videos on making marionettes; or Shawn's videos - he's a member here, and has posted stuff on making them. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of good tutorials on the net for marionettes, outside of ones for kids. Best bet is to find a book at a library.

Actually, I thought I remembered a link or two, and on checking my bookmarks, found this drawing of a German (vertical) control:
http://www.puppets.uk.com/controldeleriumt.htm

There's also a couple of Popular Science articles out there, one of which is here:
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2007/08/21/trick-marionettes-will-enliven-your-puppet-shows/?Qwd=./PopularScience/11-1936/trick_marionettes&Qif=trick_marionettes_1.jpg&Qiv=thumbs&Qis=XL#qdig

I'm sure others here will have moe suggestions.

Welcome to Puppets and Stuff!

The scale for a marionette controller is only partly based on the size of the puppet.  More important is the size of the puppeteers hand.  Here's one solution:
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https://youtu.be/5TqJBMrl2js
And another:
http://www.halloweenstore.com/store/F59491.html
If you want pictures of marionette controls, then...
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Marionette+Control+Pictures
You might also try doing a search with "Coad" as one of the terms.  Lumen Coad brought together many different controller designs in his Marionette Sourcebook.  Good building!

I'm thinking wind up toy doll instead of marionette. As the controls for a marionette are actually attached with strings and the puppet is suspended. I'm not sure how you would insinuate that in a costume.