Guide To Puppet Building Resources
Puppet Building Patterns and Kits
A great way to get started building puppets is to buy a puppet pattern or a puppet making kit. Traditionally there has always been a lot of puppet patterns and kits available on the net, but most of them were terrible. Fortunately, this seems to be changing and the last few years have produced a number of really great patterns and kits by some really talented puppet builders.
Here are some of the best kits and patterns available:
Banana Buddies
Muppeteer John Kennedy's "Banana Buddies" kits are great for kids and beginners of all ages. Each one comes with two precut banana sponges, instructions and materials for eyes and teeth. The kits are just $13 US each and a volume discount is available for large orders. You can also learn how to make Banana Buddies by picking up John's excellent book Puppet Mania! Rating: 
Both the Banana Buddies kit and autographed copies of Puppet Mania! are available online at www.puppetkit.com. |
Baxter The Dog Puppet Kit 
Popular Christian puppeteer/builder Dave Privett recently released a neat-looking full kit for making his adorable Baxter The Dog puppet. For $80 U.S. you get the patterns and all the materials necessary to build the Baxter puppet, which normally costs $450 when you buy him from Dave fully assembled. Rating: n/a
The Baxter the Dog puppet kit is available online from www.playsoup.com. |
The Foam Book Puppet Kit
New from the folks that brought you The Foam Book and The Foam Book Videos comes The Foam Book Puppet Kits. Each of these includes everything that you need to create your own puppet "The Foam Book way." Two different kits are available - a basic kit of puppet building materials for $99.95 US and a deluxe kit for $149.95 US that includes the same materials as the basic kit plus a glue gun, contact cement, spray glue and more. Rating: n/a
The basic and deluxe Foam Book Puppet Kits are available online from www.greysealpuppets.com. |
PuppetProject.com Patterns
Puppetproject.com currently offers three different patterns for making professional-looking foam puppets - their "Rotondo", "Punto" and "Ovale" patterns as well as a basic "sock puppet" pattern. They are also a good source for small quantities of the reticulated or "Scott" foam preferred by many professional puppet builders. Rating:
For more information visit www.puppetproject.com. |
Puppets For Goodness Sake
PFGS sells good "starter" puppet pattern and kits and their prices are very reasonable. You can purchase either a complete puppet making kit or just the pattern, which can be adapted to build all kinds of hand and rod foam puppets.
The PFGS pattern is available online from www.puppetodyssey.com. Both the pattern and kits are available directly from Puppets For Goodness Sake. For more information or to order email them at puppets4gs@aol.com. Rating: |
Puppet building patterns and kits are rated 1-5 out of 5
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