This is Curtis ..my first marionette, designed by (and for) my daughter.
I've always fancied a try at this, it's great having kids ..brilliant excuse !
Got the legs on today although im not sure i have the proportions quite right
but i shall soldier on.
Any comments are more than welcome (totally winging this).
Plan is to try and do the hair with faux fur (this guy has BIG hair and sideburns) so any hints
and tips on this would be more than welcome.

Meanwhile...... off to nurse my cut fingers  

No suggestions, but question carve these pieces? They look fabulous!

Cheers Chris, yes carved in Lime. I have done a little woodcarving in the past with hardwood, but nothing like this.
Carving Lime has been a complete revelation to me, its a fantastic material to work with ..loving every minute of it.
Ian

I am very impressed Ian.  Your doing great rather it be your first or one hundredth.   Leg proportion may be a bit off but I think you'll be ok. Remember that puppets are as a rule a character of the real thing so you have some leeway.  The carving is super.  Fakefur should work fine for hair and could easily just be glued on to the wood.  How "big" do you need it to be?  The only reason I ask is if the lengthen of the fur on is not long enough to comb out and style to the height you need then you might need to build out the head to the "bigness" and shape you need before you apply hair.  Other tip is think about the direction of the hair on the fake fur. If you where doing a hair style that was a part in the center you would apply two pieced of fake fur with the direction or grain of the fur going down on each side of the head.  Does that make sense?  It may be you want the grain to go up for some reason even.  Just something to be aware of.

Thank you Shawn. I have some fur with a 7.5cm pile coming so hopefully that should be enough, if it's not then he's just had a wee haircut! It's a caricature of a guy called Curtis Rx from a band called Creature Feature (my daughter is the  big fan), he did go through a spell where he had slightly shorter hair!
Thanks for the tip about the direction of the pile too.. hadn't really thought about that. Yes the length of the legs is niggling me a bit although this guy is tall and lanky (is that a scottishism?) i can see me taking a centimetre or two off them yet. I'll wait till its all put together and see how it looks, good thing about this is you can always take material away if necessary, not so easy adding it back on though. I have found getting the proportions really difficult but that all comes with experience i suppose.
Ian

First marionette? Great job!

Proportioning the body can be a stuff one. Here are some links that may help you out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_proportions
http://www.fairbanksartbooks.com/Proportions.html
Link no longer available.

Link2 is perfect..thank you sir!

Excellent work! Can't wait to see it develop.

If the fake fur doesn't work out for you check into wool, silk, or mohair roving. You can get small sample packs from various etsy sellers for a couple of bucks. Alpaca roving is very fine, has very nice curl for making fro type hairdos and comes in a wide range of natural colors.

He's coming along very well! I can't wait to see him finished.

Edit: Something like this would be perfect. http://www.etsy.com/listing/115037408/alpaca-roving-ready-for-spinning?ref=sr_gallery_25&ga_search_query=alpaca+roving&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=all