Hello everyone,

I am a new member here.  I am really excited to get to know other puppet makers and puppeteers.  My name is Cody Goodin and I live in Cincinnati Ohio.  I come from a college degree in Theater Arts and Fine Arts way back in the 80's.  I have been interested in puppetry for as long as I can remember.  But, I never pursued it as an art form because of my vision issues which created a great lack of confidence.  So, long story short I went for a more traditional art route and have been making artist style dolls for over twenty years.

Now, I am getting into puppetry because I am hoping to use this art form initially to help illustrate a biographical story I wish to create on video.  The two puppet makers/puppeteers I am most enjoying are Bruce Schwartz who someone on this list mentioned a while back and Philipe Gentry.  Personally I would like to create my puppet style like that of Bruce Schwartz.  So, I am in the process of making the puppets.  I do have a few questions.  So, not sure if this is the right place to ask them.  I am wanting to know how to attach the little control rods to the palms of the hands that would allow the fluid movement that Bruce achieves.  Also, it doesn't appear that he uses ball jointed heads from what I can gather in the video.  Does anyone know what joining methods he used?  Thank you for such a great place to be a part of such a wonderful art form.  I am coming to it later in life.  But, better late than never I guess.

Cody Goodin
www.codyland.blogspot.com

Welcome.  Glad you've joined us. 

Julie

Hello and welcome! I don't know the specific answer to your question, but I have two suggestions:
Hobey Ford's website which has useful info about rod and cable mechanisms:
http://hobeyford.com/downloads

Puptcrit.org
People there might have more info on specific mechanisms by specific US puppeteers.
(Of course someone else here might have some idea, but being Aussie and not really up on my American puppeteers, this is all I've got...)

Welcome to Puppets and Stuff.

Welcome to Puppets and Stuff!

I am not real familiar with Bruces' puppets but watching some of the videos I think I can give you a pretty good guess. For the hands there is a sort of universal joint. If you had a screw eye in the palm of the hand and then took a coat hanger and threaded it through the screw eye and bent it over then you would have the correct joint. His are more refined but that should give you the correct visual. I've made joints like this for things using two screw eyes by opening one up then threading them together and then closing the one back up. By moving the rod along with twisting it you have an amazing amount over the hand and can even flip it over and back. It does take practice though. Oh yes the joint at wrist can be the screw eyes also.

You can attain a universal joint for connection of head to shoulders with simply a piece of cord.   I've used this on many a marionette. I've also used the same idea as above to connect head to body. It looks to me that often he simply is holding the puppet by the neck to manipulate so sculpt the neck right onto the head static then connect at the bottom of the neck. Clothing covers the connection.

I never really bother with ball joints unless I want the joint to show. Otherwise I use something like above since it is never going to show. One thing about using screw eyes is that they can work themselves out of the wood or material you have screwed them into. For this reason I try to glue or epoxy them in. Simply put some glue (even white glue helps) on the thread before you screw them in.  If you are sculpting your head out of something like Fimo then you can embed the screw in the clay before you bake it and it holds pretty well as a rule.

Hi Cody! I am totally absorbed by the performance of Bruce Schwartz myself and wanted to go this direction, too. Right now I am trying to build BJDs (ball jointed dolls) (like this: http://www2d.biglobe.ne.jp/~dhnoah/make_00.htm but I use Fimo instead of the sawdust- paste mixture), but those joints are really getting to me. Tomorrow I will have a new approach. I figured that a BJD would work pretty well- but as I said: I still have a long run. Have you seen this?
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https://youtu.be/JY38P-6TYQM
Shawn, I feared if I used two eyes it would be too round and "wobbly", so this is not the case?

Thank you  everyone for the warm welcome and also for answering my questions.  Thank you Shawn, I think your advise is the direction I am headed.  Rikka, I have seen the video on YouTube and it is really beautiful. Amazing work even in tose early days of video.  You mention working with BJD type construction.  Is there a particular reason for this approach?  It appears that Bruce uses mostly cloth body construction.  As a doll maker myself I am very familiar with this technique and was planning to go that route.  BJD style figures are far too complicated for me to try and make.  Especially since it all has to be made just right for the joints to work properly.  I am afraid I am just not that exact.  One slightly less sophisticated way is to reverse engineer those wooden artist manikins.  The art store where I work sells larger ones and I had considered using some of these initially.

Everyone has been so helpful.  I am looking forward to exploring more of the forums.  I will post pictures of my puppets as I complete them.  I have a number of them to make.

Welcome Aboard!

I did some videos on a ball joint method I worked out that is pretty easy. You can see them over at my BlogTV account. http://www.blogtv.com/puppetsandstuff/Videos/viewAll/p/0/0  In the videos I was using them in the head but I bet the same concept could be used for other joints. It might also inspire even another method.  While ball joints may not always be necessary I still find them fascinating.

UPDATE: Did some code work so I could embed the videos here.

http://www.blogtv.com/Shows/737575/buZwbeRvaeXwbuVvbX&pos=ancr

http://www.blogtv.com/Shows/737575/buZwbeRvaeXwbuVEb_&pos=ancr

http://www.blogtv.com/Shows/737575/buZwbeRvaeXwbuTGZX&pos=ancr

Thanks Shawn your videos on ball joints are great. The technique could be adapted for use with polymer clay. That is my medium of choice. Again thank you so much for the info. It.s most appreciated.

Cody Goodin