Homemade Puppet, take #1

[ChameleonHound]

I'm hoping that by posting some things that I've made and am extremely proud of, I can remind myself to do some more crafting (I've moved recently, and don't really have the energy to get back into it, you know how it is. I did find a cool new craft store, but I digress...)

So, here is the first of three puppets I made for a class back in college. This one is a rod puppet with a hand-carved wooden head, made to play the classic role of Faust. I had a great time putting him together, but it took awhile.



There is a wooden dowel (not shown) that runs from his head down his torso to give me something to hold onto. The body, pants and feet I made from scrap fabric I found, and the arms under the sweater are made of a piece of flexible nylon rope. The hands I made from sculpey.

The sweater, oh, the sweater... that was my first attempt to knit in the round free-hand, and I've never made a sweater of any size before. Thankfully it's small enough that I could just stitch the gaps closed afterward
It took me so long to knit that I actually sat in other classes and worked on it.
Oh, and the yarn came from a sleeve of an Irish wool sweater that I found and unraveled, and dyed with coffee grounds. Another first. I found a great tute on how to dye with natural ingredients, which you can find here: http://www.etsy.com/storque/how-to/how-to-make-natural-dye-with-the-etsy-labs-2490/

Here's a close-up of his head:



It's kind of patterned after a version of Faust that we watched in class, combined with the character from the movie Up.

I really think there should be more puppets in the world, and I hope this inspires you! Thanks for looking!

[jennythor]

i love him
and i totally agree that there should be more puppets in the world

[Alexus1325]

He is creepy in the most endearing way.

[DarleneC]

He's looking at me like I did something wrong LOLOLOL He is just darling. Reminds me of some grumpy old men that I know

[Tropic_Rose]

He is so cutely grumpy. My daughter says he reminds her of Squidward from Spongebob.

[SpookyPooky]

Wow, this is amazing! I love it!