I'm going to make a body puppet for a 12th Night party I go to each year. She will be about 36" tall with rods to each hand.
The head strings will be attached to a head band that will sit on my head and the shoulder strings will be attached to a strap which will sit around my neck. I haven't decided if she will have feet, but if so they will be attached to my feet. Her dress will be medieval. Does anyone have any tips for this type of puppet?
Has anyone seen the film " Strings"?  It's unbelievable. We got it from Netflix.

I haven't seen the film but this is similar to the Eloi design I'm doing for the time machine. I don't have any marionette elements though. Id love to see it when its done!!!

I think you described the workings of this type of puppet perfectly. Sounds like you have a good handle on it. The only thing that came to mind was when you mentioned the shoulders attached to a strap around your neck. That is how I've seen it before but it occured to me that you might be able to attach a string to each shoulder both on puppet and you your own and then if you moved your shoulders in shimmy fashion it may translate down to the puppet.  Might take some testing and figuring to get working though.

Was there something specific that you where not sure of how to do?

I worry about the ergonomics of having something attach to your neck... Wouldn't that get painful/tiring/possibly dangerous?

The example I saw had a wide padded strap that looked like it hugged the neck. I also think you need to build light. I'll let you know how it goes.
Shawn, a good idea about the shoulder strings. I  was wondering about elbow strings as well. I'm exited about how direct the manipulation seems.

I loved "Strings." Good story, and the puppeteering was tremendous.

Does anyone have any tips about how to attach the rods to the hands. Also what material to use for the rods?

Here's one previous thread I found on rod attachment:
http://puppetsandstuff.com/community/index.php/topic,5283.0.html

I'm sure there are more but don't have time right this second to go into it. Try the search function

My choice for rods would be spring/piano wire and you embed it inside the foam in the hand. I think Daryl did a video on it but can't find it right now. http://www.youtube.com/user/StiqPuppets/videos?flow=grid&view=0 Maybe you can find it.  Really you just bend the end of the wire in kind of a triangle and then glue it between the two pieces of foam.

I use a 1" piece of tubing (1/8"-1/4" diameter), cut a small hole in the underside of the hand and glue it in.  Then all I need is the appropriate size dowel.



Portable and I can easily move rods from puppet to puppet.