My 7 Favorite Puppet Building Tutorials

I learned to make puppets from DVD and online tutorials. There are a lot of free tutorials online, and you can learn a lot from most of them. Since I take my puppet building seriously though, I am willing to invest in other learning materials. The tips and techniques I have learned from the various programs are worth more than the money spent. There are so many things that make your build go smoother and give you a better finished product. No one source has them all.

By studying different builders and techniques, I have been able to develop my own style. I don’t want to make Barry Gordemer’s puppets or BJ Guyer’s puppets. I want to make unique puppets that help me develop my brand.

My favorite 7 Puppet Building Tutorials are:

• “How To Build A Hand Puppet” by BJ Guyer. 3 DVDs, need to be purchased separately.
• “The Foam Book DVD” by Drew Allison. This set really helped me when I was just starting to build puppets.
• “Making Lifelike Puppets” by Noreen Young.
• “Making Sculpted Puppets With Verna Finley.”
• “Puppet Construction and Character Creation” by Barry Gordemer
• Adam Kreutinger’s YouTube tutorials. Adam has shared a lot of information online.
• BrunoKids Puppets sells a couple great puppet patterns that include instructional videos. A very unique puppet style.

I love BJ Guyer’s classes on puppet building. They are available on 3 DVDs and are very detailed.

• How to Build a Hand Puppet and Rod Puppet Part 1 – Understructure by Stan Winston School of Character Arts
• How to Build a Hand Puppet and Rod Puppet Part 2 – Fabrication
  by Stan Winston School of Character Arts
• How to Build a Hand Puppet and Rod Puppet Part 3 – Final Assembly and Building Character
  by Stan Winston School of Character Arts

The Foam Book DVD by Drew Allison is an incredible 2 DVD set. It covers everything you need to build a great rod arm puppet.

The DVD set is based on Drew’s book “The Foam Book.” I have both, but the DVD is far and away the best way to learn if you are a visual learner, like me.

“Making Lifelike Puppets” by Noreen Young is a great DVD. It includes instructions for sculpting and casting latex puppets.

“Making Sculpted Puppets With Verna Finley” is the best DVD set available on making soft sculpted puppets. Verna’s puppets are treasured by professional ventriloquists. Her soft-sculptured puppets are similar to Mary Ann Taylor’s puppets. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to find these DVDs. If anyone knows a source, please let me know.

“Puppet Construction And Character Creation” by Barry Gordemer. This class, offered by Curious Mondo, is the newest of all the tutorials I have listed. Barry has some interesting ideas including a unique way of putting a thumb grip in a puppet. The class includes patterns.

BrunoKids Puppets sells a couple of great puppet patterns that include instructional videos. The puppet patterns are easy to build, but what really impresses me is the cartoon style eyes Brunokids makes out craft foam.

Adam Kreutinger has a wide variety of puppet building videos on YouTube. Beginners and pros will learn from Adam. Adam also sells patterns for many of his puppets as well as offering a few free patterns.

There are also a wide variety of books available on puppet building at your local library. Be sure to check them out.