Rainy Day Puppets

Here is a way to fill a rainy day with fun: make a puppet and give a little show. Most of the materials you will need are around the house. Glue, poster paint, colored paper , rags, yarn , old socks—do you have them? Then, let's go!

17. LITTLE MISS MUFFET

You need yarn , a bit of lace or rickrack, construction paper , a bathroom tissue tube or paper  towel tube and an old glove . Cut a 3-inch section of the tube (31/2 inches if you are using paper  towel tube). Make another tube of stiff paper  big enough to fit snugly over the top of your first finger , but too tight to slip down past the second joint of the finger . Insert this tube into the larger one and glue it in place with no more than an inch sticking out. Cut the eyes, eyebrows and mouth out of paper  and glue them in place. Make three coils of yellow yarn . Tie them together as shown. Glue them in place on top of the tube face. Miss Muffet needs a glove  body with a bit of rickrack or lace sewed to the palm to give her a flouncy look.

18. THE SPIDER

Sew or glue an old piece of fur to the back of a glove . Glue six shiny black buttons into the fur for eyes. Crouch your fingers to make the awful creature scuttle up behind Miss Muffet.

A Glove  Body

To make a quick body out of an old glove , just tuck the fingers you are not using out of sight. Or you can cut the spare fingers off and sew up the holes. You will need a glove  large enough to allow you to double your fingers up inside. Hands of cardboard, as described on page 22, can be slipped over the ends of the second finger  and thumb.

19. GOLDILOCKS

Paper  heads are fun and fast to make with construction paper  and glue. On pink construction paper  draw out the large shape, A, about twice the size shown. Cut out along the solid outside line. (The features are shown only to show you where to glue them.) Bend this piece around, overlap and glue at dotted line to make the basic  head shape.

Now copy out the features and cut them out: lips, B; nose, C; and eyelids, D. Light blue paper  is good for the eyelids, pink for the nose, red for the lips, yellow for the hair. Bend the two little tabs of each eyelid under and glue them in position, not perfectly flat, but cupped outward like a real eyelid. Eyes and eyebrows can be painted on or also cut out and glued. Lips and nose are glued on in the same way.

Braid the long side tabs of the hair  piece, E, and curl the bangs so that they fall over the forehead when the piece is glued on top of the head shape. (Crepe paper  is best for this wig.) Roll the neck piece, F, around your first finger  so that it fits snugly down to the second joint, then glue. When it is dry, glue it up inside and against the back of the head shape to form the neck. Roll and fit the hands, G, to fit your thumb and little finger . Use an instant  body, a glove  body, or the simple puppet skirt  described on page 22. You can use this same basic  head shape and method for any other human character you wish to make.

20. PAPA BEAR

Make the gruff old bruin exactly as you made Goldilocks, using the basic  head shape shown, A. The features are glued on in the same way: eyelids (for Mama Bear ), nose, neck piece. Cup the ears, B, forward when gluing them in position. Paint eyes and frowning eyebrows. A straw  hat  can be added, if you wish, C.

21. MAMA BEAR

Her basic  head shape might be a bit smaller than Papa's. She need not have such a fierce frown. Add a pink bow between her ears and an apron  to her dress to give her that feminine look.

22. BABY BEAR

He's just a little fellow, of course, but made just like his papa. He can wear a beanie of crepe paper . The bodies of all three bears can be made of brown paper , wool, felt or actual fur. Their paws, D, are made just like Goldilock's hands.

A Ready-Made  Play

Now you have all the characters you need for a complete play about Goldilocks and the Three Bears. There is no need to write out a script; everybody knows the story. Just go through it once or twice, talking it out as you go along and having fun until you are ready to present it to a little group of friends or parents. In this way you can make plays out of many other folk tales and nursery rhymes that we all know; Sleeping Beauty for instance. (The Prince would have the same basic  head shape as Goldilocks, but without the braids!)

23. ROBERT ROBOT

Here's a goggle-eyed, gleaming monster made out of a tissue tube and aluminum foil . Construct his head as you did Miss Muffet's (No. 17), then wrap it in aluminum foil . By pinching and pushing the foil  this way and that you can get the most gruesome features. Cut the large parts of the eyes from paper  and stick them to the head with silver-headed thumb tack s, which then make the pupils of the eyes.

Rainy Day Hands

Robert's right hand can be cut from foil  in the shape shown, A, which is then fitted around the little finger , overlapped and glued or pinched in place. For his left hand, fit the same shape to the thumb. Simpler mitten  hands can be made from paper  or foil  as for Goldilocks (No. 19). Longer lasting wrap-around hands, as in A, can be made of felt, leather  or cardboard. Soft wire  twisted in the shape shown, B, can be covered with cloth  or paper  and then fitted to a paper  or leather  cuff.

The Basic Body

Here is the pattern, C, for the basic  puppet skirt  or body. Two pieces are cut and sewed together down the sides, leaving neck, wrists and hem open. You will have to experiment to get the proper size for your hand, large enough to allow free movement, but not so large that too much material gets in your way. Once you have discovered the right size, make a pattern of cardboard and keep it.

With a little experimentation you will discover ways of padding  out your skirts to make characters fat or broad-shouldered or bosomy. The method shown (D) has the hands attached by rubber bands to a little pillow, which fits in the palm of your hand under the skirt . This has the advantage of also holding the hands firmly in place on thumb and little finger .

24. STOCKING  DRAGON

Make sure the stocking is clean and the color you want. Green for dragons? Thrust your hand inside the sock, as shown, keeping the fingers together to form the upper part of the mouth, the thumb lowered to form the lower jaw. Poke the toe of the stocking back into your hand to form the mouth. Sew across the fold at each corner of the mouth to hold it in place. The mouth can now be lined with red cloth  or felt. A tongue, forked, flat or flappy can be added. Because your thumb is not in the center of your hand, you might want to add wadded cloth  or felt stiffening beside it to keep it in balance. You will find that with a little practice you can make the flexible mouth grin comically, smirk and turn down grumpily. Eyes are button s on discs of paper  or felt. The dragon's crest is cut from felt and sewed along his spine, which is the back of your hand and wrist.

25. THE PERKY PUP

Use a brown or black or speckled stocking and add the pup's floppy felt ears. For droopy  eyes, first sew on bright black buttons, then cup a half circle of felt over them and sew it down. For a nose add a little bulb of black cloth  or a big button.

26. OLD JOE CROW

This bird has a bill of cardboard in two parts. The sock is first prepared as before, with the folds at the corners wrapped, then the upper and lower bills are glued in place. Use quick-drying household cement and glue the bill on with your hand inside the sock, holding it firmly in place until dry. For eyes, use buttons, sequins or the eyes used on stuffed  toys.

27. MACCUS  THE  JESTER

Here is a simple animated head named after the Roman god Maccus, ancestor of the most famous puppet of all, Mr. Punch, (No. 38). Cut the two pieces from stiff cardboard and paint them white on one side. Hinge the jaw as shown with a brass paper  holder, loose rivet or small nut and bolt. Attach the control wire to the back end of the jaw, using wire that is stiff enough to give good control. Attach a stick to the head, making sure it does not interfere with the jaw movement. Now paint the features. Maccus can cackle, jabber and sing. There's only one trouble: he can face in only one direction!

28. HARLEQUIN

Here is the father of all clowns and another ancestor of Mr. Punch. He is assembled just as Maccus was: all five parts of stiff cardboard or thin wood ; hinges loose enough to allow free movement; stick placed so as not to interfere with movement; control wire stiff for good control. (Coat-hanger  wire is a little heavy, but stiff enough.) Harlequin dances mostly, although he can flag down trains very handily.

29. DANCING BEAR

Rod puppets  are discussed amongst other Special Puppets on page 94, but you can make this dancing bear and his ball as easily as you have made Harlequin. In this case there is no holding stick; the control wires hold him upright, so they must be good and stiff. Note also that this time the legs are hinged on the side of the body toward the audience. The bear can waltz, chase his ball, balance on it, or balance it on his nose. One puppeteer can operate the bear, the other the ball; or, with practice, you can operate both yourself.

30. BOBO BLOCKHEAD

Bore a finger -sized hole in a block of soft wood  such as pine or balsa. Into this fit a finger  tube  of cardboard or leather  to make the neck. Glue a plastic thimble or a red wooden  bead in place for the nose. The eyes are two cloth -covered buttons with dots of black ink for pupils. The mouth is made with two cuts of a razor blade or sharp knife. A piece of white toothbrush plastic is glued in for a tooth. Cut ears out of cardboard or balsa and glue them in place. Glue on a wild wig of tangled yarn  or just plain straw . Paint him with poster paints or, better yet, model airplane dope .

31. BALDY BALL

You need a hollow rubber ball , unpainted if possible. Cut a hole for your first finger  and insert a cardboard finger  tube . Rubber cement will help hold it in place, but it should fit snugly. It is best to paint on the features so as to keep the round, baldish effect. Use rubber cement to glue two tufts of cotton over the ears and give him what little hair he has.

32. RAGGEDY RUTHY

Make a little bag of pink or orange cloth , thrust a finger  tube  into its neck, tie it tight and glue it. Turn the head right side up and sew on a nose and eyebrows of felt. The mouth is best embroidered in bright red. The eyes are big blue buttons. For hair try yarn  or a bit of cotton loop rugging.

33. GORDO THE WIZARD

Prepare a small gourd  with a neck tube as shown. Paint the features and wizard's starry cap with enamel or airplane dope. Add a nose and glasses  cut from construction paper .

Making Up a Play

By now you must have enough puppets to put together a little play of your own. You only need two or three. What if we find Gordo the Wicked Wizard in his laboratory making a mechanical man?—Robert Robot, of course!

Cackling horribly, Gordo presses the button of his infernal machine and brings Robert to life. "Go get me a fair maiden, I command you!" cries the wizard and scampers into his study. Robert looks hopefully about. No fair maidens in sight. But who should wander in just at that moment but Raggedy Ruthy, a maiden anyhow, and fair enough. Robert jumps at her. She screams. They run in circles. A heroic barking is heard. Perky Pup to the rescue! You take it from there. No need to write it down. Just go through it in your mind or talk it over with your partner. Make the story as simple as possible with lots of action, and whatever you do, have fun. That's what puppets are made for.

Rainy Day Stages

A tray  stage can be made out of the bottom part of a dress box  as shown, A. The table stage, B, is made from a pasteboard box , and fixed to the table so that part of the open bottom juts out to admit the puppets. The larger box  stage , C, can be made out of a big pasteboard box  or out of cardboard tacked to a wooden  frame. The operator kneels inside the open back of the box .

Backgrounds  can be painted on cards that fit into the back of the stage and can be quickly changed. Scenery and props , such as trees and furniture , can be attached to the sides of the stage or even placed on the table in front of the stage. Don't worry about a curtain. Everybody knows that when the puppets pop up, the play has begun, and when they pop down, it is over. However, a bow and a thank you at the end do help your audience to know when to applaud.

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