Make Your Own Rod Puppet!
You will need:
- 1 wooden or plastic kitchen spoon
- 1 piece of fabric 12 inches square (more or less; you can use a piece of fabric or a cloth napkin, handkerchief, small scarf etc)
- A small rod about 1 inch long (an unsharpened pencil or single chop stick both work well)
- Masking tape
- 1 index card (or other heavy paper)
- Colored markers
- Some yarn
- A pair of scissors
1.
Take the fabric and pinch it in the center. Cut a very small hole at the top of the pinch. (You can always make it bigger, but it's really hard to fix if you cut it too big to start!)
2.
Poke the end of the wooden spoon through the hole.
3.
Turn the spoon upside down and tape the fabric to the spoon with a small piece of masking tape.
4.
Turn the spoon right side up again, and wrap strips of masking tape around the bowl of the spoon.
5.
Take a corner of the fabric and tuck the smaller rod under the fabric and close to the edge. Tape the rod in place.
6.
Draw a hand on the index card. It can be a simple mitten shape and should be about 1½ inches or 2 inches across.
7.
Use glue or a little bit of tape to tape the hand in place.
8.
Take the markers and draw a face on the bowl of the spoon. Don't start the face too high up! You will be adding hair to the puppet later.
9.
Cut the yarn into pieces about 2" long. Take a 2" strip of tape and lay flat on the table sticky side up. Stick one end of each piece of yarn to the tape.
10.
Pick the tape up and stick it to the top of the spoon to give your puppet hair.
© Carolyn Smith 2000
www.pizpuppets.com
