What's the Name of That Tree?

What's the Name of That Tree is based on an African folktale.  I first read this tale in a book called The Name of the Tree by Celia Baker Lottridge.  Since I decided to set my show in the Ghana, Togo, Benin area I chose animals that would be native to that area.  Cape Buffalo was a must, because of it's fabulous curly horns.

Here he is under construction:

His head is made of a Styrofoam ball, nose is a piece of cardboard with wadded up newspaper at the end. All is held together with masking tape.  I was going to make his horns out of papier mache as well, but they were too heavy.  I ended up sewing them with muslin fabric.

The papier mache was great because it became very hard and sturdy when dry.   I used Jonni Good's  paper mache clay recipe. She's got several other good ideas and recipes on her Ultimate Paper Mache site.

Cape Buffalo is a rod puppet (or stick puppet?). The rod is actually a piece of thin pvc pipe and his body is the top of a kitty litter jug.  Since I don't know how to sew a puppet body, he just has draped fabric for his body.


My co-worker, Bry, painted the eyes and I think it added just the right touch. If you click on any of these photos you'll see a larger version.

The woman who lives at the foot of the Togo Mountains:

One of my favorite mediums is Styrofoam. I don't know what the "crunchy" type of foam is actually called, but it's easy to shape and mold.  I've also learned that a rasp is good for sculpting this type of foam.

Her eyes are made of small pieces cut from little Styrofoam balls.  Her neck and shoulders are made from a milk jug.  Hair is made from strands of very wavy yarn stuck into the head with bits of wire.  

Her hair is pretty awesome, but I think she needs some arms - or broader shoulders, at least.

Honey Badger don't care!

Once I found out that Honey Badgers live in the east central part of Africa, I had to have one in my show.   He's made of Crayola Model Magic, another of my favorite mediums. The only disadvantage to Model Magic is that it's not very sturdy.

Honey Badger is a traditional hand puppet. 

You can't tell from the photos, but his body is just the typical hand puppet shape.

Wise Tortoise:

His shell is a large piece of green Styrofoam, cut into an oval and sculpted into a shell with a knife and rasp.  His head and tail is one complete sock. His legs are the toe sections of four socks. He has marbles for eyes. 

His shell was covered in fabric and coated with Mod Podge for protection and to add a nice sheen.

I suffer for my art:

Finally, I have to say that I learned my lesson. Don't cut styrofoam (especially little pieces) with a bread knife. Use the proper tools.

I had to have two stitches.  

Hippie Guy

This hippy guy was never used in a puppet show. He was just a demonstration model for a kids puppet making workshop.  But I think he's got a lot of character for being a nobody!

Head: styrofoam ball. This ball happens to be green.

Eyes: google eyes, glued on the styrofoam head.

Nose: button

Mouth: a piece of red yarn, glued on.

Hair: super bulky yarn.  The predominate color is brown, with some blues and purples. The yarn came with all of these colors in one skein.  Some feathers are stuck in his hair for effect.

I stuck the yarn into the head using pieces of wire. I unwound some of the yarn to give it a more hair-like look.

Body: dowel stuck into a piece of fabric, then into the styrofoam head.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Jumpstart's Read for the Record in 2009 featured the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  We decided to present the book in sort of a puppet show in order to draw a larger audience.  Necessity is the mother of invention, isn't it?  I had to come up with a small caterpillar, a large caterpillar, a butterfly and some food props.

What says caterpillar to me?  Dryer vent hoses!  Little caterpillar, big caterpillar and the butterfly's body were all constructed in the same way.  The body is a small hose covered with some cool plush green fabric I'd been saving for just the right puppet.  The head is a small styrofoam ball painted with Colorations Activity Paint from Discount School Supply.  This paint is not specified for styrofoam, but it's great. You can see how bright the red looks.  The Hungry Caterpillar's face is so iconic that it didn't matter as much if his body didn't completely resemble Eric Carle's illustration.  I just sewed the green fabric into a tube, added fabric feet and slipped it over the dryer tube.  The head was hot glued on the open end of the tube.  Antennae is fun foam and the eyes and nose are felt.  


The butterfly's wings are a pair of children's costume wings spray painted green with fabric paint.  His legs are not the stuffed fabric legs of the caterpillars. Instead, I used brown pipe cleaners.  His antennae are green pipe cleaners.

This show was performed without a puppet stage. Instead, I told the story as I manipulated the puppets.  A Powerpoint slideshow was the background ("by the light of the moon..." and "One Sunday morning the warm sun came up...").

The Annunciation

These were made for preschool Sunday school. I wanted to tell the story of the angel Gabriel's visit to Mary. I'm such a last minute person, I had to use the materials I had on hand. I think I whipped these out in one day.The heads are made of Styrofoam eggs. Maybe they were balls instead of eggs... I can't remember.   I love Styrofoam because I can push it and pinch it into a face.  The "body" is simply a Popsicle stick covered with cloth and pushed into the Styrofoam.

The faces were painted with acrylic paint and the eyes were just googly eyes. Mary's hair is yarn - easy to do because of her veil.
Because I didn't have much colored fabric, I used muslin for the main part of the body and a small piece of blue for her costume.

For Gabriel, I had wanted blonde hair and a white, shining gown. But I only had red doll hair and the most shimmering piece of fabric I had was green.  He looks more like the Ghost of Christmas Present instead of the Herald of Good News, but I think he is pretty special looking. Gabriel's face was painted with a more translucent paint than Mary's. I wanted every part of him to look as if he was filled with light. His wings were tulle stiffened with hot glue. If you click on the picture and then click again, you can see the design made by the hot glue.