The Process
I began designing nine animal puppets late November in 2022. I would not finish the construction of the puppets until mid-April in 2023. This has been my largest and longest project yet. I used multiple layers of scrap plywood and routed the animal shape. I added a dowel for a handle and hand-made wheels out of more scrap plywood. I painted on multiple layers of paint and added final touches like feathers to the dove and decorative doorknobs to the ends of each dowel. My biggest issue was the squeaking of the wheels, so before each performance, I would put baby-powder in between the wheels. I learned many new techniques and enjoyed the process thoroughly.
The Process of Cinderella's Puppets
This page was the very first draft of the puppets.
This was the final look I wanted for the puppets, but not the final construction design.
I used a jigsaw to cut out the original shape and used a router to cut out multiple shapes.
This process was very new to me and required a lot of confidence.
A single wheel took two layers of plywood, each puppet needed 4 wheels. I cut out 60 circles (twice) just for the wheels. This alone took days.
This was the finished puppet before a base layer of paint.
All of the puppets lined up with their base layer of paint, ready for their first trial run with the child actors.
The line up of the final puppets.
The final puppets on stage.