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Making Animal Puppets

You can certainly get creative when making Animal Puppets. They can be realistic, cartoonish, or even you own creation.

How about a free pattern to get you started...

The Great Ape Honk Kong

Honk is an elaborate combination of overcast papier-mache and cloth. His mouth is articulated with the full hand inside his head, and so his arms are stationary.

This one is a bit involved, but you can get creative with it. And paper mache really is pretty easy to use.

Cloth and Papier-Mache Combined...

Overcast papier-mache parts are used where rigidity or a smooth texture is needed: in Honk's case, the crown of his head and his glowering brow, A, and his chest and belly, B.

Cloth is then cut, sewed and glued to the papier-mache parts to complete the puppet. A good deal of fitting and re-cutting is usually involved, so it is a good idea to have plenty of the type of cloth you plan to use.

When the puppet is assembled, the exposed papier-mache parts are painted. Honk's face, ears and belly are left exposed and painted black because these are exactly the parts of a gorilla that are hairless and shiny black.

The rest of him is made of a hairy gray wool material like a gorilla's coarse coat. The upper and lower jaws are made of strong but flexible cardboard so as to make his grimaces as expressive as possible. His muzzle is made of a double layer of light gray felt. The inside of his mouth is lined with pink, his tongue is a deep scarlet, his tusks are of white felt.

For more patterns in making Animal Puppets (and others) click here.