A puppet can be anything. A puppet can be a piece of string. Do you understand? A puppet can be a sock on your hand!

Anything Can Be a Puppet an on-line workshop on puppetry by Tim and Tanya Chartier

Don't ever run with scissors! But, hey, why not sit down and make a puppet out of them? Yes, just move the blades like a mouth. The scissors can tell someone how to make a craft or cut a pattern.

Just about anything can be a puppet. Tim often teaches a workshop called "Anything Can Be a Puppet" and generally walks around the room picking up odds and ends. Watches turn into birds, combs walk over to wallets, shoes yawn, and everyone begins to look at the world a little differently.

At the top of this page, there is a picture of "Err" and "Gerr" from Tim's puppet show. They are colorful socks. Yet, they perform a sketch that brings laughter and some thinking from audiences all over the United States! All it took was two socks to make these puppets, and some fun ideas and some practice to create the sketch.

Anything being a puppet is a very old idea. For centuries, people all over the world have been making anything into puppets. To the right, you see a Javanese shadow puppet made from carved and painted buffalo hide. (Now, you know what to do if someone gives you buffalo hide to make into a puppet!) The shadow puppets interpreted plays based on Indian mythology. This puppet represents the monkey general Hanoman. (Canadian Museum of Civilization Treasure Gallery)

Puppets are also used today. Puppeteers create them in many different ways. Some puppets take only minutes to create and some take much, much longer. Below is a puppet that is sculpted in clay and then cast in latex! To know how these types of puppets are made visit Puppets in the Making by Steve Axtell.

Puppet in Progress	Hey, I'm done!
"Larry the Cucumber" © 98 Big Idea Productions Thanks to Axtell Expressions

Talk about playing with your food! That's part of what puppeteering is about--playing. In puppetry, you use your creativity. When Steve Axtell sits down to sculpt his puppets, he has a blob of clay. As he plays and works with the clay, puppet characters emerge. An important part is that Steve is willing to sit with a blob of clay and play.

Puppets can be really big too! You can make huge puppets in many ways. Let's see a few from Sara Peattie & The Puppeteer's Cooperative

Use Foam	or cardboard
Play a cat with a friend

There are many options and a lot of opportunities to work with friends and family. It can be fun to work with others and to learn and be creative together.

Now, it is time to make a puppet from odds and ends! Then, you can make a puppet anytime and with just about anything. (Be sure you have permission to use it though!)

Let's start with a pencil or pen. This is like a rod puppet. It can be a fun object to use, and you can often find one. Now, what can you do with it? You might have a lot of ideas. You may not. Picking up an object to use as a puppet is like sitting down to that blob of clay. In each case, you play and use creativity.

Let's play with this object together. Pick up your pencil (or pen) and make it walk. Have your pencil look to the right and the left. Now try making your pencil laugh, cry, and sigh. Now try a few gestures on your own. Next, take a moment and think of anything else your pencil might "become." How about a pogo-stick, a space creature with a removable head (in the case of a pen with a cap), or _____(fill in this blank over and over again!)______.

Now, let's work bigger! Try a broom or mop. Can you made it walk, jump, or bounce (softly) across the floor? Can you make it sob, giggle, or cough? Can you see the broom doing it? That's the trick. When you finally do see it yourself, then you are on your way to making it look "alive" and real! Part of the fun is discovering what movements work with an object.

Gidget faces the hairdryer	In Tim's show, a simple, furry, red finger puppet named Gidget is a favorite. In part of the show, Gidget faces a hairdryer. The hairdryer actually doesn't work anymore. But with a few mouth sounds and some movement, it looks like Gidget is getting blown by the hairdryer! Why? Hmmm...that's part of the show!
The two puppets to the right are named Hunda and Leeshlanda. Tim calls them the Potato Heads. Notice, Tim simply holds the heads with his hands! You could put a face on a small ball and have your own Potato Head! It's that simple!	Leeshlanda and Hunda

Tim has a lot of other puppets, too. Some other pictures are on the Web, too! If you look at them, think about how you could make a puppet similar to Tim's. Remember, you can use anything! Your puppet will look different than Tim's. That's part of the fun and uniqueness of puppetry. So, if you want to see more of Tim's puppets, click here to See More Pictures

That's all there is to it. Just pick up an object and start playing. What can you see the object being? How about making a basketball look around like an eyeball? Or, having a pair of shoes dance all on their own and then trip on themselves? Just pick something up and create!

Would you like to share some of your ideas for puppets? What did you use or create? To let Tim and Tanya know, click here.

Have fun and be creative!

© Tim and Tanya Chartier