Hello to everyone who uses this forum !! I'm really excited to have stumbled across this site so pardon my enthusiasm !!
At the moment, I am not a puppeteer or creator myself, but I am an enthusiast and I'm purchasing my very first puppet at the moment.
A mime marionette from Eceteramarionettes on Etsy and gosh am I excited !!
I came here hoping for some care tips, so if you have any please feel free to toss them my way while I figure out how to navigate this forum.

Introductions, right.
My name is Peter, I'm 21 and currently work live a boring life working as a Starbucks employee.
I'm hoping this hobby will brighten things up a bit for me.

I'm looking to get into puppet making myself, but I'm not sure where to start.
I have (severe) adult ADHD and it's very hard for me to self-teach, but if you have any good recommendations for beginners guides or tips, I would oh-so appreciate it.

Puppets of all kinds have been a passion of mine since I was a kid, growing up and watching Labyrinth and the Muppets.
Marionettes specifically are my favourite.

I'm rambling a bit, anyhow !! I hope to get to know everyone soon !!

Welcome to PandS Peter! This best tip I can give you in regards to your new marionette is to just have fun. Put on some music and see what you can do with him. The smallest action in the control can create a large reaction in the puppet.

Welcome to PandS Peter! This best tip I can give you in regards to your new marionette is to just have fun. Put on some music and see what you can do with him. The smallest action in the control can create a large reaction in the puppet.

Thank you for your response, I'm really excited to be here and I'm sorry in advance because I'm going through and reading nearly every topic and commenting on a bunch. (Though I'm trying not to bump any without recent posts.)

And thank you, I definitely will try to do so !! My new puppet (I'm thinking of naming him Wesley!) is in my profile picture-- I'm hoping he'll be here soon so I can test him out. I'm still looking for the best ways to store him once he does arrive though, do you know any topics that might already have answers or any tips?

( I'm also looking for care information, I.E. what to do if something does happen like it gets dirty or a string breaks. )
Any help you have to offer would be grand !!

Welcome. If you ever have any questions, there are tons of talented individuals in here. Fromm creators to performers, I believe it all gets covered in here. Welcome aboard, have fun.

For storage you can just hang him from a hook or bar. Not sure what your marionette will be like but when I build them I put a cord in the control that they can hang from. We used metal shower hooks "old fashion cheap" to hang them on a bar.

Everyone always ask about "cleaning" but I never really cleaned my puppets. You can dust them or spot clean them if needed, but if you keep them covered during long storage that should not be an issue. I used to make cloth bags with draw strings in the top that could be pulled up from the bottom over the puppet and control then closed off. We also would use dry cleaner bags to cover puppets when cloth bags where not available. With them you cover from the top down and then pull the cord loop in the control through the top hole where the hanger comes out. If  you are transporting  you want to do have this cover on them or you can tie a couple ribbons around the strings. This helps to keep the strings from tangling.

If a string breaks  you simple remove the old one with a new one. See if you can find some black fishing line at a bait shop. They don't sell this in the south or on coast but if you are up north in lake fishing areas you can find it. Button thread is sometimes a heavy enough replacement depending on how heavy your puppet is.

Welcome. If you ever have any questions, there are tons of talented individuals in here. Fromm creators to performers, I believe it all gets covered in here. Welcome aboard, have fun.

Thank you very much !!

For storage you can just hang him from a hook or bar. Not sure what your marionette will be like but when I build them I put a cord in the control that they can hang from. We used metal shower hooks "old fashion cheap" to hang them on a bar.

Everyone always ask about "cleaning" but I never really cleaned my puppets. You can dust them or spot clean them if needed, but if you keep them covered during long storage that should not be an issue. I used to make cloth bags with draw strings in the top that could be pulled up from the bottom over the puppet and control then closed off. We also would use dry cleaner bags to cover puppets when cloth bags where not available. With them you cover from the top down and then pull the cord loop in the control through the top hole where the hanger comes out. If  you are transporting  you want to do have this cover on them or you can tie a couple ribbons around the strings. This helps to keep the strings from tangling.

If a string breaks  you simple remove the old one with a new one. See if you can find some black fishing line at a bait shop. They don't sell this in the south or on coast but if you are up north in lake fishing areas you can find it. Button thread is sometimes a heavy enough replacement depending on how heavy your puppet is.

Thank you for all of the tips and information !! This is a very new hobby for me and I'm afraid I'm not very crafty myself so most of these solutions (though simple) don't really occur to me on my own necessarily, so I appreciate it. I'm sure I'm worrying too much, I feel like a new parent, I just want to be prepared so I can take care of my puppet the best I can. I'm hoping to build a nice collection relatively fast but it's an expensive hobby already.

I'm really hoping to get into making my own, but honestly I have no idea where to start. I picked up a book on puppets at Half Price Books but it doesn't really seem to cover what I wanted (marionettes). I did notice a section about books on Amazon though, so I'll be checking there.

Does anyone have any recs for videos or visual guides besides books, on learning to make puppets? (Even if they're not marionettes!)

Check out the Puppets and Stuff Feed over at YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/user/puppetsandstuff/feed There are some videos from folks gathered there on puppet making.  Also check out Philip's feed https://www.youtube.com/user/PhilipStephens007 he does a lot of great videos on how to make all kinds of stuff even tools for making puppets. Pretty cool stuff.

Welcome, cirques!

I use spiderwire black braided fishing line for my marionettes. You can get it at the Bass Pro Shop in Grapevine.

I hope you will find the world of puppetry to your liking, no matter how you choose to indulge. There are lots of nice people who love puppets and puppetry, well worth getting to know.

Thank you both !!

Also, funny story but my puppet is currently lost in the mail (the shipping hasn't updated since last Thursday morning and the seller contacted me concerned about not having received it yet) so I'll be around more once he's safely here !! I'll post pictures, too. :'))

Does he arrived? we have no news on the marionette...