Hello, it's me again! Have another project come in. It's for a theatre company who are doing a play based around the children of the Holocaust. It's based on a small girl aged 8 called Hana. It's my job as you've guessed to build her and manipulate her in the play. I've got till Jan. Needs to be realistic in the sense of not Henson looking! Which is a challenge for me!

I'm thinking of using styrofoam for the torso and head. Easily carved and shaped. The torso will be cover obviously with clothes.. And the face I was thinking of mixing PVA, Woodglue and using brown parcel paper.. After sanding down will be smoother then can paint!

Arms I'm thinking some light wood.. And doing similar mechanisms to banruku puppets. Rods at the elbows and hands. Same as legs... Leather as the joints.

My only thought is the head. It shan't have a jaw piece. I was thinking similar to this mechanism to the picture at the bottom of the page.
http://www.blindsummit.com/puppets/pages/head.htm

I haven't used these materials before.. I haven't constructed for a while.. And I only used foam when I did.. And things are really starting to shape out for me so its gotta be good!

HELP! 

Your on the right track. Just a couple suggestions.

Instead of brown parcel paper for the paper mache' you might want to use something thinner like the industrial paper towels you find in public restrooms. You can get them at party supply stores often in smaller quantities or larger case quantities at like Costco or Sams Club.  Use smaller strips and pieces of paper for a finer smoother look.

For the arms and legs you can do two things that might be lighter then wood. Pool noddles or even the foam tubes used to insulate pipes that you find at the hardware store can be used.  You can also just make fabric tubes out of a cotton material and then stuff them with fiber fill.  Stuff bottom half of arm then sew two lines in the tube to make the hinge and then stuff the upper part. Wood can work but like I say these options are sometimes lighter. You have to support the weight of this puppet for a long time in a performance like this so you want it as light as possible.

Is this a rod puppet performed from below or will it be like a Bunraku puppet that is full body performed in the open. The diagram you pointed out looks like the controls on the head could be used for both styles. The rod out the back of the head would be for a Bunraku style and the lower controls would be a rod puppet. I would go with one or the other depending on the style you need.

From what I've been directed im manipulating the puppet when the audience are coming into the theatre on the stage. Then for short periods of time after. So I'm sure extra height here and there should be ok. She's to be 1.5ft or at most 2. So planning to be quiet small. When I say rods I mean more stumps than rods. So not holding the arm.. Just a small offset of wood.. Make sense? Maybe instead for the head.. Tinfoil then clay? Surely this would be more detailed?

Yes tinfoil then clay would work. You could also build the heads the way I did the puppets for Carnival http://carnival.puppetsandstuff.com  I use creative paper clay over a Styrofoam base. The start of the process is in the pages I linked to above.  It does not show the modeling process but paper clay works much like regular clay bit it air dries and then you can sand and paint it. You can get a really clean finish and lots of detail if you want.

Yes I understand what yo mean about the rod offset.