I hate hands!

Read the previous post - building the head and body - here.

First of all, a big HAPPY NEW YEARS to everyone!

Ok, so where I left you last, the muppet head had been attached to the body and neck. Now it was time to make some hands. But how? The Foam Book gave a few suggestions: create a hand out of a block of foam; but I didn’t have any foam blocks, nor did I like the look of it for this particular puppet. Flat foam hands, with just a piece of foam cut out in the shape of a hand; but the foam I had was too thin to install a rod inside for this idea. Fabric covered hands - similar to flat foam hands, but with fabric over it. Nope… Stuffed hands - hands made with material and then stuffed. Perhaps, but how to securely attach a rod inside, with all that stuffing in the way? Finally, sandwich hands, with layers of foam and material, sewn and turned inside out.

Initially, I went with a sort of ‘Naomi’ design, a combination of some of the above. It was a disaster! It was so terrible an idea, I’m not going to mention it.

So after two days of working on this disastrous hand, I changed my design, and went with a stuffed hand. It took about three to three-and-a-half days to make one hand.

First I made a hand pattern with paper, and then with my felt.

I sewed two pieces of felt together, as seen on the right, leaving a gap in part of the hand. The thumb is at the top, and the ‘little finger’ is at the bottom. At the center of the hand, at the left end of the stitching, would be the point at which a wire frame would be slotted in. A wire frame inside the hand would allow the hand to be ’shaped’ into gestures. The other end of the stitching is where the rod would be fitted in.

Once I stitched the pattern, I cut out the hand, leaving a hem around the edges. You have to remember to sew the fingers so that they are somewhat separate from each other; otherwise when you turn the hand inside out, the fingers won’t be completely smooth at the joins.

Before I turned the hand inside out, I used the stitching to make a wire frame for inside the hand. Following the stitches, I bent some wire around, starting at that left end of the stiches - leaving a bit of wire at each end of the ‘frame’, I twisted the ends together, and made a small loop. This loop would accept the end of the nylon rope inserted inside the arm.

Now, you turn the hand inside out, and insert the wire frame. Because the frame won’t actually fit into the hand, you have to squash it slightly to insert it - then using a window to create a silhouette, I ensured that each finger of the wire frame slotted into the finger of the felt hand.

Taking some stuffing, I inserted it into each finger, and then into the hand itself. Easy!

But now we have to make a rod, to insert into the hand.

I used some black coat hangers that I had for rods. Bending the hanger into a straight line, I then cut off the ends of the hanger (the curved top). This made a good length for a rod.

Then I got the rest of the doll joint (a circular disc and a threaded rod part - seen above put together). Curling one end of the rod into a small circle, I then fitted it over the threaded-rod part of the doll joint.

I then fitted the circular disc over the top - snapping it down on the threaded rod, it forces the hanger/rod in place and also allows it to swing freely. I actually had to snip off the top end of the threaded rod (the bit at the bottom of the pic), so that the doll joint was flat on both sides.

Now I had to make a handle for the puppeteer to use. There were two options: bend the rod into a triangular shape at the other end, to make a grip; or to insert the end of the rod into a piece of dowel. I’m not a big fan of the dowel idea: if you don’t fit it correctly, the dowel spins on the rod; and it doesn’t offer grip as well as the other idea.

So I bent the rod into a triangular shape, and bent the end of the rod around at the top of the triangle. I then sewed a piece of black-material-covered foam around the handle. This is to provide more comfort in using the rod, since it’s pretty yucky using a handle like this without any padding.

Attaching the rod to the hand is easy - inserting the doll joint (here with the top of the threaded rod cut off, so that it’s flat) into the hand, I slotted it behind/into the wire frame. This was just a spur of the moment idea to hinge the joint onto the wire frame; it sort of gives the doll joint attachment to the hand a bit of reinforcement.

Gluing the sides of the doll joint to the sides of the hand, I then sewed the sides together. As you can see here, I sewed around the wire frame loop sticking out, and also down the side of the hand; leaving a gap where the rod sticks out. But the gap is wider than it seems, to allow the rod to swing at different angles.

Whoohooo! One hand!

I haven’t officially attached the hand to the arm yet (I haven’t finished it off), as I am going to wait until I’ve made and fitted the puppet’s clothing to properly attach the hand.

The final steps are upon us. Doc now has hands, eyes and ears. The eyes were easy: a foam ball cut in half and painted. I backed the halves with some felt, and glued each eye to the head. The Foam Book suggests attaching the eyes last, after you attach the other features, but I find it is easier to create facial features once you have the eyes (which bring out the character of the puppet) secure.

I also went over the paint of the pupil and iris with some nail polish, to give the eyes a bit of gloss.

Did you know? You can now buy muppet-type patterns and parts from my online store! Click here to check it out!

The ears are just half circles of felt, sewn to the head… I’m now working on the hair of the muppet, and I’m thinking of adding some glasses.

In the photo here, the hands are actually sitting thumbs pointing inwards, instead of out (it was just easy to sit him this way). You can see behind Doc is another muppet that I’m working on.

So thumbs up for four days worth of work - once I made one hand, it was easy to make the second. (With three muppets to make, I still have four hands to do).