Building a ventriloquist puppet is fun and not too difficult. Soft puppets are becoming very popular with ventriloquists. You can make a professional quality puppet with foam, fleece and common art supplies. Here I will discuss the steps and materials that will allow even a beginner to build a wonderful puppet.
I will focus on a human puppet, although everything here will also be applicable to making an animal or other puppet.
Table of Contents
1. You Need A Pattern
You will need a pattern to build a puppet. You can make your own pattern, buy a pattern or use a free pattern from online. If you buy a pattern, you can still modify it to make it your own.
The problem with free patterns is that few of the patterns I have found online will give you the taller head best suited for building a human puppet. Most of the free patterns are for round head puppets.
You can certainly follow the steps here and build a ventriloquist puppet from a round head pattern. Your character will, of course, have a round head.
I made the little girl puppet to the left from a free round head puppet. No, she is not a full body puppet, although I could have easily added the legs and shoes.
You can get a FREE puppet head pattern here at: https://puppetbuildingworld.com/free-puppet-patterns-for-foam-puppets/
I recently built this puppet. You will notice this fellow has a taller head, and a lot more character.
This pattern is one I created. He has the look of a lot of the puppets being used by professional ventriloquists.
As you work with puppets and various patterns, you will start to get a knack for how the head patterns are made and also the modifications you want in yours.
You could take a round head pattern and “stretch it” to add height.
If you are just starting out, I would recommend buying a pattern, but more experienced builders may want to create a pattern that fits their idea for a finished figure better.
Jack Kemp has an excellent pattern on his web page for making a human puppet.
Jack Kemp’s “oblong head pattern” has what I consider the perfect shape for a human ventriloquist soft figure.
You could also take a stuffed toy and rip all the seams to get a pattern for your puppet. If the toy is small, you would need to trace the pieces that make the head on paper and then enlarge them to the desired size.
You will want to sketch out your idea for the finished puppet before you start building. If you are buying a pattern, or using a free pattern, freehand the shape of the pattern for the head on your sketch pad. Then elaborate from there to get an idea of what you want the finished puppet to look like.
If you are making your own pattern, draw out your character first and create the pattern to make your puppet match your sketch.
Some puppet makers will sculpt their idea out of clay. The clay is then covered with small pieces of masking tape. Once covered, the tape is removed in one piece. Darts are then made in the tape so the tape will lie flat on a piece of card stock to make the pattern.
Only make the pattern for half of your sculpted head, then make mirror copies of the pattern to make your head.
2. Necessary Materials
The basic materials for your soft ventriloquist figure are foam and fleece. You can find the foam and fleece is use on my Tools & Materials page.
The materials you will want to have on hand are:
- Antron Fleece
- 1/2″ foam
- Contact cement to join the foam pieces together.
- Felt or craft foam for tongue, eyelids, and other miscellany
- Spray adhesive
- 18 gauge wire for fingers
- Plastic spoons, ping-pong balls or other materials for eyes.
- Scissors and razor blades for cutting fleece and foam
- Fur, feathers or other material for hair.
- Various craft supplies
You can purchase inexpensive fleece at JoAnn Fabrics and other fabric stores. Most professional puppet builders, though, use Antron or Muppet fleece. Antron fleece has a nice pile that hides seams very well. I have also covered foam puppets with latex, not using fleece at all.
3. It Starts With The Foam Head
Trace your head pattern on to your foam. You can use a sharpie marker, or a disappearing ink marker used for sewing.
Cut the pattern out with a razor blade or old scissors. Do not use your good sewing scissors on foam. Foam dulls scissors and razor blades very quickly. You will want o keep a good supply of razor blades on hand.
Once you have cut out your pattern, use contact cement to join the pieces together. Be sure to apply the glue to both pieces to be joined and let it dry to tacky before assembling.
4. Build A Sturdy Mouth For Your Puppet
Your puppet’s mouth is the part of the puppet that will get the most work and the most stress. It is important to build a strong sturdy mouth if you want your puppet to last.
Mouth plates can be made out of a variety of materials. Plastic, cardboard, rubber gasket and wood are all used by different builders. I totally avoid cardboard. It is hot inside a puppet and sweat can break down cardboard quickly.
My favorite to use if foam core board. It is foam, covered on both sides with paper. It is popular for posters and science fair displays. Foam core is durable, yet easy to cut and work with.
Corrugated plastic, like that used in yard signs, is also a popular material with builders. Adam Kreutinger cuts his mouthpieces out of plastic storage bins. When using plastic, you may need to rough up the surface with sandpaper to get good adhesion with the glue.
Steps to building your puppet’s mouth:
- Draw your pattern on your moth plate material.
- Cut out the mouth plate pieces.
- Connect the two pieces with a strong material to make a hinge. I often use denim, but T-Shirt cloth or other cloths work fine. Some builders make their mouth plates from thin wood and attach them with a leather strip and rivets.
- Cover the part of the plates that will not be seen with cloth. Again T-Shirt cloth works great. Be sure the mouth is closed when covering the hinge, otherwise your mouth will not close properly.
- Cover what will be the inside of the mouth, visible to the audience, with felt, craft foam or other cloth. Lay the mouth flat when gluing this on.
- When covering the mouth plate and hinge inside and out, I will coat the surface with spray adhesive then lay a piece of fabric larger than the mouth over it. Once dry, I trim it down for a perfect fit.
- Build thumb and finger tubes to control the mouth. I build finger tubes out of foam. The foam has a little stretch to it and will help the puppet fit a variety of hand sizes. You can also glue or rivet an elastic strip on the top and bottom of the mouth for the thumb and fingers.
- When I use foam finger tubes, which is most of the time, I then like to cover the tubes with another layer of fabric for strength.
Attach the mouth plate to the top and bottom pieces of your puppet to put the head together. If you are using a pattern that does not have separate head and jaw pieces, glue the mouth plate in the center of the mouth, then into the corners. You can then finish gluing the mouth in place.
5. Cover Your Head With Fleece
For a simple round head puppet, you can make a pattern for the head covering from the puppet pattern. If you have added cheeks, eye ridges, and other features, you will need to drape the fleece onto the foam.
Start your fleece at the corners of the mouth and bring it up over the head. You can use spray adhesive or hot glue to push the fleece firmly into crevices and around features.
You will want the stretch of the fabric to go from ear to ear, not up and down. Stretch the fleece enough to remove unwanted wrinkles and attach the fleece to the head. At some places, you will need to lift the fleece up to get a smooth finish. This will give you little peaks you will trim off, leaving darts in your fleece.
Sew the darts closed. Do the same on the jaw of the puppet, working down. Then sew the top and bottom pieces together on the head.
Try to place darts on the back of the puppet and in places where hair and other features will cover them.
Features like ears and noses are added after the head is covered.
6. Build Your Body Before You Add The Neck
Since the neck attaches the head and body together, you want to have the body built first to make sure you have the proper length neck. Too long of a neck and you get a giraffe looking puppet. Too short and you will lack movement in the head and the chin will be right on the chest top, looking very unnatural.
Your body can be as simple as a foam tube. Make a foam tube and then add 4 darts at the top of the body to bring in the top, leaving plenty of room for your hand to fit through.
If you want your hand to enter from the bottom, the tube works fine. For ventriloquism work though, you will want to either put an entry in the back of the puppet or cut a horseshoe shape out of the bottom back of the body. Make this cut high enough that the finished puppet rests easily on your arm with your hand and the head at the right height.
7. Build A Great Neck For Your Puppet
Your puppet neck is basically just a cloth tube. It will run from the entrance for your hand, at the bottom or back of the puppet up to the mouth, allowing you to easily slide your hand into place.
You need three measurements to make a puppet neck.
- Measure around the top part of your puppet head, from one corner of the mouth to the other. Measure across the hinge of the mouth plate. Add these two numbers together. This will be the width of the fabric across the top of your neck.
- Measure the circumference of the bottom of the puppet, if your hand will enter from the bottom. If entering from the back, measure your opening there. This will be your neck’s bottom width.
- Measure from the top of the body to the hand entrance. To this, add 6-8 inches, depending on how high you want the head to stick up out of the body. You may make your neck longer than necessary and then adjust the length after the neck tube is sewn. Just be sure to trim from the bottom.
Once you have your measurements, cut out your fabric and sew a tube. There is your neck tube. You may want to make your tube a double cloth with a lycra or cotton liner on the inside.
Before cutting your fleece for the neck, be sure the stretch of the fabric goes across the neck and not up and down. A vertical stretch can result in a giraffe neck on your puppet.
8. Cover your Body with Fleece
Covering the body is as simple as making a tube the same size as the body and sliding it on. Make the body fleece about an inch longer than the body. This will allow you to bring it over the top and bottom of the body. Glue in place.
9. Attach The Head, Neck, and Body
When attaching the neck to the head, you want it to fall straight down, not angle out. Glue the neck to the bottom of the top head piece and across the mouth hinge.
The neck will now hang straight down. Glue the front of the neck to the back of the jaw, covering the thumb tube. Then cut a hole for your thumb and glue the fleece around the hole.
Glue or sew the bottom of the neck tube to the bottom or the hand entrance in the back of the body. Be sure to adjust the length of the neck so the head comes up the appropriate distance above the body. This will usually be about 6-8.”
10. Make Your Arms & Legs
Arms and legs are as simple as foam tubes covered with fleece. Arms should be about the length of the body. Once the hands are attached, the total length will look about right. Legs will be an inch or so longer.
Cover your foam tubes with fleece, then sew the tops shut. Glue the tops of the arms and legs to the body after you have hands and feet attached.
For elbows and knees, tie a thread or light wire around the foam before covering with fleece. The appendage ill bend where it is tied.
For more motion in arms and legs, you can cut the arm/leg in two at the joint or just put a notch on the back of the leg or front of the arm. Run a cord through the arm or leg. One end of the cord (shoelaces work great) will attach to hand or foot and the other end to the body.
If attached the legs or arms with a cord, cut a hole in the body. Glue heavy fabric or leather to both sides of the hole, and pierce this fabric. Thread the cord through the hole and knot or glue on the inside of the puppet.
11. Make Your Hands
For complete instructions on making hands and arm rods, check out my article at: https://puppetbuildingworld.com/arm-rods-posable-hands/
Hands can be made posable by adding wire in them. This allows the hand to be posed into specific gestures or to hold props.
Hands can be glued to the end of the arm foam and then the fleece sewed to the fleece of the arm or you can use the cord method, running the cord from the hand, through the arm and attaching to the body. The fleece on hand and arm will still need to be sewn.
12. Will You Add Arm Rods?
You can add arm rods to your puppet to allow the puppeteer to move the arms. You can add one, or two. Young female ventriloquist Darci Lynne uses two arm rods on her mouse puppet, Oscar. On other puppets she uses one or none.
Details and instructions on building arm rods are available on my article HERE.
You can also just add a wooden dowel to the elbow of the puppet. is allows the puppeteer to move the arm without using a long, visually distracting rod.
13. Add Feet To Your Puppet
Feet can be as fancy as a carved foot for a barefoot puppet or as simple as a 3 inch by 1.5-inch by 1.5-inch shape if you are just stuffing it into a shoe.
Notice how the hat, clothing and missing tooth add to his character and already tell you what to expect from this guy.
14. Add Your Facial Features: Eyes, Ears, Nose
Add your nose, ears, and eyes after the puppet is assembled and covered. Eyes can be made out of ping pong balls, plastic spoons, craft foam or purchased online.
Be sure to see my turorial with instructions for making puppet eyes which is available HERE.
Ears can be as simple as half circles covered in fleece. Put thin wire around the edge of the ears and you can bend them and give them a little more shape.
Since ventriloquist puppets are often seen from the side, ears should not stick straight out. If they do they will be hard to see from the side. Rather, tack them back (more like your own ears) and they will be seen from all angles.
Your nose can be as simple as a Styrofoam ball covered with fleece, or you may want to carve a nose and cover it with fleece.
15. How To Add Hair To Your Puppet
For hair, you can use feathers, fur yarn or even a wig. Eyebrows can be fur or even pipe cleaners.
16. Dress Your Puppet For Success
Clothing for the puppet can be children’s clothing or if you are talented, sew your own. Clothing says a lot about your character and it should fit well and communicate something about who your puppet is.
An old man may have plaid pants and a polo shirt where a businessman would have a vest or coat and tie. A younger character would dress more trendy. Children’s Halloween costumes can also be used.
A female character’s clothing will tell you about her, too. Tight revealing clothing would indicate a saucy lady where a more mature woman would have a house dress and apron.
17. Accessorize Your Character
Accessories like earrings, necklaces, chains, cell phones, or other items will tell a lot about your character. A hat also helps indicate age and interests. Glasses can change a puppet’s look and his personality, too.
I have an announcer puppet with a mock headset microphone. The microphone immediately tells the audience this character has something to say.
18. Bring Your Puppet To Life
Now you get to practice, practice, practice. Practice moving the puppet to make him/her appear alive. Puppets should never be still.
Have your puppet look at you when you speak to it and look to the audience when he speaks.
For more on how to communicate life with your puppet, be sure to read my article HERE.
Tom Crowl currently has the best ventriloquism course available. Helpful for beginners and experienced vents. Free lessons and a paid course are available at: Learn Ventriloquism HERE
