Like myself I've learned puppetry on my own.  By the books and watching many videos on how make puppets.  Any great puppeteers who learned on their own not by school?       

I don't imagine Jim Hensen went to any school, I doubt that, in those days, there was anything other than perhaps having a mentor.

I'd say I'm mostly self taught, with some education via short classes (most about 2-3 hours long) at an occasional festival and a limited (extremely) amount at uni.I've learned  Mostly through experimentation and books. And of course the awesome people here.

Pretty sure most of the Aussie puppeteers are the same, there's never really been any kind of formal education outside of a short-lived degree a few years ago. I know the past decade or so has also seen a decline in festivals, but from what little I've heard there used to be a lot of face-to-face sharing and workshops, but nothing too formal either. I hear more about puppeteers who travel overseas to intern with other companies than I do about workshops or courses.

Guessing that Europe would have the most formally-trained puppeteers as there are generally more opportunities there for study. Plus the international puppetry organisation is headquartered in France and began there I believe. So they're more supportive of puppetry anyway.

Very interesting.  Thank you, Na and Mr. Arveson. 

No probs. I'm willing to bet most puppeteers are self taught so it may be easier to look for people who have been trained instead. The other thing is that it could be, for performers, that they're more likely to be formally trained actors and have on-the-job or workshop classes as an extra skill. So lots of puppeteers could be self taught; like an actor who does juggling as a hobby. I think for musicals like The Lion King it'd be easier to hire singers/dancers and then train them in rehearsal than to look specifically for experienced puppeteers. On the other hand I've heard Ronnie Burkett talk numerous times about how he'd intern for well-known puppeteers and about his huge library.

I can't really think of anyone off the top of my head who is well known and had formal training, outside of acting degrees. It could be that people do visual art (sculpting, painting, etc) degrees or similar classes instead.

*learning.  Though...books and video is a good idea, should start that :D 

Well I had the good fortune to work under a master puppeteer for many years by the name of Dolores Hadley of La Famille Marionettes. Here is a nice little write up on her https://clivehicksjenkins.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/dolores-hadley-and-la-famille-marionettes/ There is also an article about her in a past issue of Puppetry Journal http://www.puppeteers.org/puppetry-journal/journals/winter-1999-volume-51-no-2/ Most my knowledge of marionettes come from her.  Other puppetry styles I kind of taught myself like others have.

I read the wordpress-DoLores Hadley and La Famille Marionettes.  She was a great strong woman.  First, poor, living with children and began a job she loved.  The La Famille Marionettes got her happy. 

How very cool Shawn. .. you are being written into history as we speak!
    I for my part, it's similar as Na was saying about Australia... New Zealand is an isolated bunch of islands a thousand miles off the coast of Australia, so, a thousand miles even less likely to have any opportunity to train in puppetry. The only option was to mortgage your life and head to USA on a classic head to Hollywood risk... but to a Henson risk instead. So...it was self taught with many hours spent with VHS and frame advance button under the finger, watching the gold coated muppets behind the scenes, that my mother so lovingly recorded for me from TV, at sometimes ungodly hours of the night. We waited weeks sometimes for them to work their way up the programming schedule to get taped. I was so awe struck with it all, seeing cameras monitors and such, but now I know each piece of equipment. Later I worked in TV transmission, so I got to run all of that stuff. Now it is a lot simpler. I still have a copy of the  Muppets 30 years, and my favorite is Labyrinth from 1986. Practical experience was, as a kid, sculpting firewood with a knife, and attaching dowel rods with screw eyes and string, and doing short 'shows' for parents, from behind the sofa. My first contact with a 'muppet' style thing was in the South Pacific Islands when I was on a missionary ship, which had a  puppet team on-board. At the end of the trip, we were handed three puppets, and we had to quickly whip up another two, and off we went.

I don't know if I'm great but I learned on my own. I was involved in a church that promoted creativity and drama, music, and puppet shows were the rage.  We just did it without much thought.  However after those years, I did go to school for radio/TV so I did get some training on how to block and set up scenes.  My teacher was Catherine Hawkins who created Romper Room, and Ladybugs Garden.   Two syndicated Children TV shows in the 60's.  She had me write a short series incorporating my semi retired church puppets that was shown on public access TV.  Wow I almost forgot about that part of my history.  Miss Hawkins really wanted to mentor me but I didn't have the confidence back then to fully explore that career.  After decades, those retired church puppets along with some new ones became part of my youtube series "The Patsy Hooligan Show".  And that's a fact.