Fishing line idea is great, I can see that one working well.

@Chris, that is a genius idea!!!

I like the fishing line idea.  I use fishing line a lot.  But wouldn't that take another person to pull the line?  Our puppeteer already has the puppet head on one hand and holding the arm rods with hands and trumpet in the other.

Depending on how light the trumpet is, it may be that the puppeteer could release the rods and pull the string the with it in his hand grab the rods again.

If the fishing line was tied off in the mouth and the loose end went down the trumpet rod, you could put one finger in a loop to hold to the mouth and take the finger out to let the trumpet down. all the while still holding the rod.  But if you are putting it up and down more than one time that would be more difficult to figure out. If there was a stationary place to hold or hook the end of the line securely it would be a quick motion to adjust the line to another position with maybe loops in the line at the right spaces.  Not a complete idea, maybe someone else can finish it better.

All of our puppets have poly filled hands. I would like to get away from the rubber bands altogether. Is there a way to do it without remaking hands.? We have 22 puppets. I have searched the posts and see where doll joints can be used but with foam. Also..zip ties, velcro, elastic. Just wondering what you like

All our rod arms have Velcro. We make and. Sell them (on our website).  I don't like the stress rubber bands put on the hand/arm.  Whatever you use the important thing is to take the rods off each time when you are finished.  Storing puppets with rods attached stresses the fabric.  One company used to put  zip ties on the arms. I've had a number of those puppets come in the shoppe, people wanting the arms repaired where the zip ties rubbed holes in the arms.

You can  bend a loop in the end of the rod then sew that to the center of the palm. You just don't have as much control over the hand as you would if you use the doll joint method. You could put a doll joint in without completely remaking the hands if you wanted to. simply open up the seam along the side of the hand opposite the thumb. Pull out some of the stuffing. Then embed your doll joint between two pieces of foam cut to about the size and shape of the palm where you pulled out the stuffing. Insert back into the palm an then hand sew the seam back up. Just leave the fingers stuffed. In fact if you wanted to retro fit an existing hand to be poseable you could make embedded the wire into this round disk also and push the wire up into the fingers along with the poly fill. Not perfect and you do want to try and get the wire up the center of the filling but it can work.

I think I will try to re do one. Will let you know how it goes. Thanks!!!

I use props and what I have fallen in love with is using EARTH MAGNETS...this might be to late now for u but in the future I put metal washers in places just under the "skin" material and attach magnets to the props, and it really works well for me. They don't fall off you can really shake the living fleece out of it so you do have more freedom to move the puppet. All the best!

Stiq