Shadow Puppet Tutorial #3: Cutting out the Jacob puppet

simple Jacob puppet, non-moving arm

This tutorial will show you how to make an expressive moving-arm shadow puppet and provide a free template for making the puppet.

For this tutorial, we will make Jacob, a Bible story character.

I edited The Story of Jacob from Genesis into a shadow puppet script, you can access the script here.

For performing the show, you will eventually want to make 2 Jacobs, one facing to the right and the other facing to the left.  You can see in the script which way he needs to face for each scene.

To cut out the puppet, you can access the printable template here.

Simple puppet:  If you want to make a simple puppet with no moving parts, cut out the puppet body on the solid lines, including his hand and wrist all as one piece. You won't need to cut out the other 2 arm pieces. I use scissors on the easy parts and finish the tricky parts with an exacto blade. See my previous post for pictures of the cutting process.

Moving-arm puppet: If you want to make a moving-arm puppet, you will need 2 small brads(preferably in a dark color) from a craft supply store. Cut out the puppet body with no wrists or hands (follow the dotted line), and cut out the 2 extra arm pieces separately. Put the 2 arm pieces together at the elbow joint. See dotted lines on template.
Elbow joint: Pierce through the upper and lower arm pieces and attach the brad. Don't pierce the body with this brad!!! Make sure the elbow bends freely.
Shoulder joint: Pierce the upper arm and body pieces with the brad; attach the upper arm to the body as shown.
The smooth heads of both brads should slide on the theatre screen (facing the audience).

Either way, your finished puppet will have just 1 hand. I don't recommend trying to give him 2 hands, it  makes the puppet too complicated.

Jacob template with optional moving arm

After you are finished cutting your puppet, check the script to see which way it needs to face. You will attach drinking straws to the puppeteer side of the puppet.  Before attaching the straws, it's a good idea to protect the cardstock. You can either laminate the whole puppet,  or just put a piece of shipping tape on the puppeteer side to protect the cardstock from repeated taping and untaping. (I don't permanently attach the straws; I tape them on just for the show and then remove them again when I put the puppets away. ) After protecting the card stock, tape on the straws for your show.  See my Puppet Theatre Tutorial for pictures of this.

 I hope you have fun with this! Please let me know if you have any questions.

Shadow Puppet Tutorial #2: How to make Shadow Puppets from cardstock

One of my Bible character shadow puppets

Here's a tutorial on how to transfer the design and cut your own shadow puppets from black card stock. I have been making shadow puppet shows since 2006. These puppets will fit my table top theatre, the link to the Shadow Puppet Theatre tutorial is here.

What you will need:

-Black card stock or poster board ( I'm using Recollections 65 lb black card stock from Michael's)
-White transfer paper (carbon paper)
-Pencil
-Sharp scissors
-Xacto knife
-cutting mat 'self healing'
-template or drawing

cardstock-- this package is 25 sheets of just black. I also use lightweight poster board for very large puppets.

 Transfer paper: (white carbon paper) you can't beat this stuff. I bought this little packet for under $2 about 10 years ago and hundreds of puppets later, I'm still using the original sheets. It also comes in black for your other projects.
Notice this paper has 2 sides, the whiter side is where the carbon is.

For the cutting: Oops!! I forgot to put my sharp scissors in this picture! I will show them to you later. For shadow puppets, I do most of the long cuts with scissors, and switch to the Xacto knife as needed.

People needing magnifying glasses: you know who you are.  I'm right there with you.

Okay, here we go!

1. Lay a piece of transfer paper over your black card stock. Make sure the whiter side is DOWN, touching the card stock.  Lay your template on top of the transfer paper. Make sure the entire image fits onto the transfer paper and card stock.

Making sure the puppet's feet will fit on there!

2. Trace over all the template lines with the pencil.

3. The image will be a white line on the black card stock.

4. Time to cut! Start with scissors. Take your time with the hands; they are so important. If you are doing moving-arm puppets, the emotions and actions are shown with puppet hands, so get them right. I usually cut the hands into 'mittens' first. Then go in and trim the fingers with either scissors or blade. You will feel like you are giving a puppet manicure!

first cut of a moving-arm puppet's forearm

cut into a 'mitten', ready to cut out the fingers

Thistles paper cut and free template

More thistles...

I dug through my stash of Origami paper and found a luscious dark purple, so here's another Thistle paper cut.
I'm really craving grasses and wildflowers because of all the snow we have been having lately. 

© Susan Small 2014

This was quick and fun to cut out. Here's a free template you can use to cut your own thistles. If you arrange the thistles like my finished example, the image will be about 5x7". You can print out the template from here. 

© Susan Small 2014

New Foxes Cut Paper Silhouette

© Sue Small 2014

more foxes….

I have been trying out some lighter weight papers instead of my usual card stock; it is so much easier to cut.
This fox and kits scene was done with my favorite #10 Exacto blade and Hygloss silhouette paper.

New paper cuttings

Summer 2013 --  This year we decided to enlarge the garden, so that's keeping me busy. I'm also working on a few more paper cuttings, and putting some items into my Etsy shop.

doe and fawn papercut

Belted Galloway papercut

Thistle papercut

Christmas Story Shadow Puppets

Here's one of the shadow puppets from my Christmas Story shadow puppet set. This is a simple puppet show I made for a Sunday school class.  I usually work with kids from 4th grade and up for shadow puppets.  This is a good show for beginner puppetteers, since there are no moving parts on the puppets. Figure out ahead of time how the show will flow, which direction the puppets need to face. Assign puppet(s) to each child, and choose a narrator. After you run through it once or twice, let the kids trade puppets and try again. Or put on a show for another class to watch.

If you are doing this at home, invite grandma for Christmas Eve dinner and after you clear away the dinner dishes, set up the theatre, and the kids can put on the show.

Downloadable Puppet patterns are now available in my etsy shop.

The puppets can be used with my tabletop shadow theatre (see my earlier blog to make your own theatre)
The script I used can be found here:     puppet script

Weekly illustration challenge

Recently I started participating in Illustration Friday. 

A new topic is provided on Fridays, so participants have the weekend to figure out what to do.  It's fun to go back and see what everyone came up with! There are some amazing ideas out there. 

 Here's my first 3 submissions: 

"Burst"
Cut paper illustration

"Identical"
Pen, Ink and colored pencil

"Imagination"
Cut paper illustration

Shadow Puppet Tutorial #1: How to Make a Shadow Puppet Theatre

This tutorial will show you how to make a tabletop Shadow Theatre and set up a shadow puppet show.

The tutorial for How To Make Shadow Puppets is here. 

Materials for Theatre:
3 sided cardboard display board
Rotary cutter (or box cutter), cutting mat
Ruler
Masking tape, clear shipping tape
Freezer paper

Other materials:
shadow puppets (paper or cardstock); script
drinking straws
scotch tape
flourescent closet light

Procedure:


1. Lay the display board on the cutting mat;  cut in half.
This will allow you to make 2 theatres.

2.  Fold the display board inside out. The white side will face the audience.
Some boards cannot be folded inside out; in this case, cut the wings completely off and reattach with clear shipping tape.

3. Decide which end of your theatre will be the top. ( If there are any nicks on the edge from cutting, make that edge the bottom.)


4. Cut out a 12x19" rectangle from the center panel to be the screen.
Leave a 2" border around the top and sides of the center panel. The bottom border will be 3 3/4".

5. Cut a piece of freezer paper to be your screen.
The slippery coated side should face the puppetteers.

You should allow about a 1-2" of freezer paper to overlap the edges.
Attach the freezer paper to the inside of the theatre (brown side) with masking tape.



I have used other papers and plastic for shadow puppet screens, but translucent freezer paper is my favorite material.

Your theatre is ready!  You or your kids can decorate the audience side if desired.

 Putting on your show:

 I prefer to use angled lighting (see below) so that there are no sticks showing and no puppetteers showing.

For a clear image, press the puppets gently against the screen.

To keep this theatre from "walking" forward during the show, tape the wings down to the table.

Note the puppet in this picture is laminated; I often laminate my puppets if I expect they will have a rough life. With certain lighting conditions the laminate edges may show very slightly. Adding a second light or an extra layer of freezer paper on the screen will reduce this effect.

Prepare your puppets for the show:

Tape the short end of a flexible plastic drinking straw to your puppet.

Trim straw as needed.

This picture shows a large puppet with a moving arm, so I used 3 straws.

The puppetteer will hold the head & body straws in one hand, and move the puppet arm with their other hand.













Lighting:

The easiest lighting method I have found is a fluorescent closet light. The one pictured is electric but I have also used battery powered lights.

I have used other types of lighting as well. You should experiment to find what gives you the desired effect.


I hope you enjoy your shadow puppets!!



-Sue

cut paper art

Cut paper collages, belted galloways and snowshoe hare.

recent drawings....

Pen/ink/pencil drawings; the mouse drawing was used for a T shirt design.

Union Church Biddeford Pool

Here's the Union Church in Biddeford Pool, Maine.

Reference photos and cut paper collage (a wedding gift for my niece.)