Cat puppet

We made a mouse, a cat, a pig and a rabbit….

 

Pink pig puppet

 

Rabbit and mouse

The technique is a little different from the classic papier-mache; it’s easier and quicker. We used kitchen foil to shape the head, the ears and the muzzle. We covered with tissue paper because it’s easy to tear and glue on – and you don’t have to color it afterwards as the colors are bright and pretty enough.

You will need the ‘neck’ of a plastic bottle, some aluminium kitchen foil, some diluted PVA glue and tissue paper.

Tear large pieces of kitchen foil and start shaping the head. Leave the neck uncovered so it will be easier to attach the fabric body.

Use foil-covered pieces of cardboard for the ears. Attach them to the head and continue to shape with new layers of foil.

Press well with your fingers to minimize bumps.

To make the pig’s snout, we coiled some foil and glued onto the head with sticky tape. Then we continued shaping the head with new layers of kitchen foil.

When you’re ready with the foil head, tear little pieces of tissue paper in the desired color. Dilute some PVA glue and pour it in a suitable container (we used a plate). Dip each piece for a second and glue it to the head. Take care to cover everything and smooth over the kitchen foil bumps. You may even add some dry pieces at the end as they will soak glue from the lower layers. You can also use a brush to cover the tissue with diluted glue.

We used one sheet of tissue paper for each head (there are 24 sheets in each package).

Leave the heads out to dry – about 1-2 days.

Now for the fun part, decorating the heads. We used thick cardboard, foam sheets and felt.

 

This is the pattern for the body (without extra space). We used felt but any sort of fabric will do. The hardest thing is attaching the head to the body. You may use glue or silicone.

We saw this idea some time ago, when we travelled to Bucharest 🙂 My niece’s teacher at the Russian Embassy school had made such puppets for the kids, but she’d used the classic papier-mache technique. I borrowed the bottleneck idea and simplified the method a little bit. 

see also:

papier-mache