Henry the Horse (the alternative).

After making Judy the Punk I wondered what Henry the Horse would look like as a Punch and Judy style puppet.  I decided to make the head out of styrofoam as I wanted to compare the detail achievable with polystyrene when carving.

Working in the same way as for the polystyrene head I drew the outline of the horse onto the block and roughly hatched out the shape using a bread knife. 


I then drew on the facial contours and hatched them out in the same way.

Ears will be adding onto the block once the face is carved.



The finer details of the nose, mouth and eyes were created using a smaller snap blade craft knife.




The ears were carved to shape before sticking into place with pritt stick and covering with a further layer of brown gummed paper.  This was not an ideal solution (Bostic two part adhesive is the best glue) but I had limited resources at home and this provided a firm join.

  Once both ears were in place I sanded the head with fine wet and dry all over.  The hole to allow hand operation was carved out from the back of the head and a groove for the thumb created between the cheeks.

The entire head was primed with two coats of white paint before painting.  Be careful what paints you use on styrofoam, I used water based acrylic which will not cause it to melt, if you want to use other paints then cover the sculpture in several layers of papier mache before painting.


This picture clearly shows how the head will be operated.



The head after painting and the addition of a mane.  This was the left over sheepskin from the Judy puppet.

I made a sleeve for the neck out of an old white cotton bed sheet and painted it to match the head.  The long side was machine stitched together and the mane pinned into place and handstitched down.

Glue the neck to the back of the head (I secured it into place with dressmakers pins while the glue set) and finally brush the hair into place with your fingers. 

The final article!! Perfect for a chat over the fence.



The miracle of imovie!!!!

After several hours of patient tuition this morning I was able to create this second draft of the shadow puppet movie complete with a sound track and special effects!!!!  Hooray for the magic that is imovie.

I now have a large headache but an even larger sense of satisfaction!!!

looking at the link you posted i found anoher which i really liked it shows how to make a hand puppet/glove puppet it looks very simple !
http://www.ehow.com/video_5238578_make-girl-puppet.html

First pictures of the shadow puppets

I have put a few pictures of the shadow puppet action stills that were shot as a demonstration to see how successful we could make this.  Please excuse the slow running of the pictures I am working with an old laptop and movie maker and can lay no claim to being an expert.  (That's Rhyan and Lauren's job!!)

Even though these are rough I am pleased with the way the puppets moved and excited by the colour gel used in Mrs Henderson.  The trapeze was created using a piece of wool and the flow makes the action more believable.  We are working together to create more background for the circus scenes and then the puppets can perform in a more exciting environment.

A Gloved Arm Puppet

Expert Village do a series of puppet tutorials, this one was great as inspiration for our main puppets hands.

Ring leader puppet head

Hi I was wondering if you could give me any improvements or critisism for the puppet head, I feel it needs something but am unsure about what that is...?

Mixing Puppets with Hands.

This act is not only hilarious but cleverly uses a mixture of the puppetry and real. It might be wonderful to use an element of this in the main puppet.