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Paper mache marionette |
A completed paper mache marionette with strings
Make a beautiful peasant girl, an Arabic belly dancer, a handsome prince or an evil witch….maybe even all of them
if you have the time! As far as I know, there isn’t another tutorial
like this on the web at the moment. I searched high and low as I wanted
to make a marionette for my daughter at Christmas. This is the end
result. Don’t be put off by the long list of materials too. Most of them
you will probably lying around the house anyway. X
Materials used;
Newspaper
Plain Flour
Fork
PVA glue
Matt modge podge*
Bowl
Tin foil
Plastercine or blue tac
Coloured wool for hair
White/beige wool for stringing body together
A4 white paper
Pencil
Compass
Small thinnish screwdriver
Transparent nylon string
Scrap of fabric fabrics
Acrylic or gouache paints
Coloured chalk*
Rounded wax file*
Scalpel
Sandpaper (fine-medium grade)
Glue gun
Small soft play ball (like in the pack of 100 you can buy)
Needle and cotton thread
Ribbons/buttons/appliqués for decoration*
Small twisted piece of wire
Four pennies
Paint brushes
Fine black marker
Thin 60″ plank of wood
Saw
Hammer
No nails bonding glue….
and two nails : )
Pins
*optional
1. The first thing we need to do is construct the marionettes body
parts…which are the head, the torso, the 4 arm pieces, 4 leg pieces,
hands and feet. The head is modelled around the plastic ball, and the
structure of the body consists of tin foil, Plasticine and coins.
2. Start modelling the torso from the foil. We are aiming for a shape
like in the picture below. Start with the neck which needs to be fairly
long as half of it will not be on show when attached to the head. Make
sure the foil is compressed tightly so it is sturdy. Create the rest of
the torso around the neck. Slightly bend the body so the back has a
slight arch. Roll two Plasticine balls to make the chest (As big or as
small as you like!) Make a hole through the side of the neck, just below
the shoulders and at the bottom of the body.
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Paper mache marionette torso |
Step 1 – Making the paper mache marionette torso
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Paper mache marionette torso |
Step 2 – Making the paper mache marionette torso
3. To make the limbs, simply work your tin foil around a screwdriver
compressing it down, building it up and compressing tightly again. Two
of the arm and leg pieces need to be longer and slightly larger than the
others to make the body look in proportion.
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Paper mache marionette limbs |
Step 3 – Making the paper mache marionette limbs
4. The hands and feet are made of the tin foil wrapped around the pennies (the penny is needed for weight) with space to make a hole to attach to the arms and legs).
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Paper mache marionette limbs |
Step 4 – Making the paper mache marionette limbs
5. When all these pieces have been made, we need to cover them with
papier mache. Mix the flour and water into a runny paste and tear strips
of paper. I always start with the puppet head first as this will take
longest to dry. We need quite a few layers and it needs to be just under
a centimetre in thickness. Smooth any wrinkles out with you fingers.
Place it in an eggcup and leave next to the radiator overnight. Cover
all other body parts in the same way. Don’t worry about covering the
holes…these can be ‘poked’ through when dry
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Paper mache marionette head |
Step 5 – Making the paper mache marionette head
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Paper mache marionette body |
Step 5a – Making the paper mache marionette body
6. When everything is completely dry, we need to open up the head
with a saw or scalpel (sounds harsh doesn’t it!) Start cutting a
straight line right the way around. Make a mark across the cut before
you pull the head apart so you know where the pieces should be when
gluing back together. When separated, prize and discard the ball. Either
with a scalpel or file make a hole for the neck like in the picture
below. There needs to be enough room for the head to move around the
neck. We also need a smaller hole at the top of the head for the neck
string to be threaded. Glue back together with PVA or use a glue gun.
7. Open up all other holes that were covered when papier mache’d, not
forgetting the torso. Using your screwdriver to make holes at the top
of the hands and feet too.
Step 7 – Making the paper mache marionette torso
8. Next we need to paint the puppet and add all the details. For the
facial features, I drew the eyes and mouth on white paper, cut them out
and stuck them directly onto my puppets face with PVA then added colour
and sealed with modge podge. The eyes were drawn using a compass with a
diameter roughly the size of a penny with a smaller pupil and eyelids.
Draw a nose and eyebrows on too. Paint all the limbs and torso a flesh
colour. You can also paint the back of the head a colour to match the
hair, the corset and shoes (which I had forgotten about until
later..doh)
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Paper mache marionette facial features |
Step 8 – Paper mache marionette facial features
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Paper mache marionette facial features |
Step 8a – Paper mache marionette facial features
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Paper mache marionette facial features |
Step 8 – Paper mache marionette facial features
9. Now we need to create the hair for our puppet. There are loads of
different styles you can play around with using the wool. Visit my
flickr account
to see more. Use a glue gun to attach the hair. I used 18 strands to
make two long plait in total. Make sure you leave access to the hole at
the top of the head.
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Paper mache marionette hair |
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Paper mache marionette hair |
10. Next I made the skirt. Get a piece of scrap fabric and pucker up
around the base of the torso to determine how much fabric you will need.
Cut out the desired length. Make hems at both the top and the bottom of
the fabric. Feed a string of wool through one hem and pucker the skirt.
Sew back together. Glue the finished skirt to the bottom of the puppets
torso with a glue gun. Alternatively, I have just cut out an old vest,
sewn a rough hem and pulled the thread to pucker it and attached with
the glue gun.
11. With all our bits and bobs done it’s time to attach all the body
parts together. Wrap a long piece of doubled over wool, around a small
twisted piece of wire and feed it through the neck. Tie a knot at the
top of the neck. Feed the thread through the hole you made earlier at
the top of the head. Gauge where the head will sit on the neck and make a
mark on the wool at the top of the head like in the picture below.
Remove the thread from the head and tie a triple knot just under the
mark you made. Feed the thread through the head once more and see if it
looks like its sitting right. If so, make a triple knot at the top, so
it’s secure. Pull the thread taut and use a dot of glue from the gun to
secure it even more. Trim the excess wool off.
12. Repeat the same process for the shoulders and bottom of torso,
triple knotting the wool to secure at each entrance like in the picture
below. Add the thighs and tie a knot at the knee, making sure that the
joints can be easily bent. Add the lower leg and triple knot and finally
finish with the foot. Trim the excess strand off under the foot. Do the
same for arms.
13. You can add your decorations and finishing touches to you puppet at this stage if you like or you can leave till later.
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Adding decorations to the paper mache marionette |
14. Now our puppet is completely finished and the body is attached,
it’s time to string it. There will be 7 strings in total. These will be 2
at the side of the head and one at the back. The other four will be at
the wrists and bottom of the knees like below. Get a sturdy needle and
in the centre of the knee make a hole straight through. Thread your
nylon string through and knot it so it’s secure. Don’t forget to feed
the string through the fabric skirt too. Repeat this step for the other
limbs, hands and feet. Do the same for the three points of the head.
Keep threading your nylon through and eventually you will be able to
tweeze it out of the gap between the head and neck. Secure with knots.
15. When you have strung it completely, we need to make the control
bar. I grabbed a thin scrap wood plank from my garden that was roughly
60” in length which I cut with a hand saw. The main control bar is 22”
and the top bar across is 16” and the second bar, 19”. I glued the top
bar with ‘no nails OVER the control and the second bar UNDER the main
control, making sure all lengths were equal. Then I hammered two small
nails through the centre to secure it.
16. This is a rough guild on were to tack your nylons to the
controls. Tack them with pins by wrapping the nylons around a few times
and pressing to secure. Will try to explain this as clearly as I can but cant promise anything
….
Both wrist nylons are tacked to the front main control bar on top.
The legs nylons are tacked to the first across bar underneath…on either side.
The side of the head nylons are tacked to the second across bar underneath…either side.
The back of the head nylon is tacked beyond on the main control behind the second across bar, as in the photo below.
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marionette control |
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marionette control |
17.
I have left the pins on my marionette because I haven’t got much time,
but you could always hammer nails points to wrap the nylon string too.
Another method is using a very thin drill bit, making points and thread
the strings though and knot them, but its whatever suits you really.
So there we go!!!! We are finally finished! Hope you like them x