Hi! I am a teacher, and I am contemplating using puppets to teach grammar to my oh so listless middle schoolers. My class last year was very involved in picking out our "class puppets".  We purchased a couple of professional puppets, and I decided to try my hand at making one on my own.

I haven't placed the arms on it yet, as I can not decide whether to use fur on the arms, or the green fleece.  Any suggestions?

Also,  the teeth are not attached as of yet...... I can't decide on them......  

Anyhoo, I would appreciate any advice.  I'm not happy with the eyes, alas, I don't think I can change them now.

Why am I sideways??? LOL

I like him, the purple wisps are very nice and the nose is so smooth. He looks blue on my computer. I don't know if he is tilted up right now, but it is better when a puppet looks like he is making eye contact with the audience.  He looks like his mind is wandering like your class right now.  I just finished 4 grammar puppets, if you search by grammar you will probably find that thread here.  The characters came from purchased grammar program and we made puppets to go with the program.  When I was a teacher we had the students write scripts to teach younger kids and in the process they didn't notice they were learning too.

I like him. He looks like he's thinking.

What about fur arms and top of hand with palms made from fleece or just the tips of fingers with fleece.

Julie

There will be no live performance, so as long as he appears to be making eye contact with me, the other characters, or the camera, there shouldn't be a problem. Funny, I thought my idea was wildly original for my middle schoolers. Lol They are excited about "guest starring" now that they have moved on to high school.

Julie, my next project will be to use the fleece I ordered from you! Thanks for the comment. My intent was that he should look a bit "clueless", or moony.

I like him! I agree though, changing the camera angle will help us figure out what's wrong with the eyes...

I like the eyes. Like Julie I felt it made him look like he is thinking. I know there is the school of thought that eyes should be such and such so they are looking right into the camera etc but remember there are not rules in puppet making only guidelines.   Some my own favorite puppets are the ones that do not follow tradition. 

I think he looks fantastic. I applaud the fact that you used different fabrics to create texture and depth in the puppet. Keep the teeth they work.

At first I was going to say go with fabric arms but I kind of like Julie's suggestions of combining the fabrics again. If you do that it may be easiest for you to make the entire hand out of the fur then trim away the fur where you want to apply the green fabric. Glue or, my choice, stitch the fabric on the the bare fur backing where you have trimmed it away. If  you are doing the palm you might even try putting just a small amount of cotton batting in there which would plump up the palm a bit. 

Funny, I like to do it the other way around.  I would make the hand from fleece, attach it to the fur arm, then apply the fur to the top of the hand to leave the palm exposed....or  make the fur arm and hand as well as a fleece hand.  Cut off the tips of the fur fingers and poke the fleece fingers through and stuff.

I think I have a photo on my gallery of a "Grinch" with the first method and a possum with the secon method.



Okay, after looking at the photos I used a modified version for the Possum. I didn't have any close up photos of the 'Grinch'

You could also just trim back the fur on the tips of the fingers as with the back of the Possum hand. 

In my experience making fur small fur hands is hard if you are trying to sew them right sides together and turning them because there isn't enough stretch and the fur is so bulky.

I agree with Shawn about the eyes.  If you look at the muppets characters not all of the eyes point forward. It depends on the overall character.

Mrs. LaPlume....thanks for the business.  You are doing a great job.  It's wonderful to have your former students so involved with your current one.  You never know....you might be inspiring the next generation of teachers and/or puppeteers.  Thanks for serving our youth in creative ways!


Julie

And there folks is the beauty of this art!  See no rules just results!

Julie I think I might try your idea with the hands. It's a nice compromise and will define the fingers. I'm starting on them now.