Why not make something all by yourself from waste materials you can find at home?
Gather all the old socks, socks with no mates, old saris and waste cloth pieces you can find around the house and let's make some really unique and fun puppets.
The basic materials you will need for this is as follows: old socks/saris/cloth pieces, coloured markers, coloured paper, buttons, scissors and glue.
How you want your puppets to look completely depends upon your imagination and you can make them as unique or as simple as you want.
The simplest way to begin is to take a sock and pull it over the hand, the one you do not use to write. Draw a face using a coloured marker and remember that your thumb and forefinger will naturally make the “mouth” of the puppet.
Glue on buttons for the eyes and nose. Take a piece of coloured paper, in pink or red and cut it in the shape of a tongue.
Glue this onto the mouth of the puppet.
Here's doggy
Another really simple sock puppet that you can make is a dog puppet. Pull the sock over your hand and make a mouth for the puppet with your thumb and forefinger. Draw a face and glue on the buttons for the eyes and nose. You could sew the buttons onto the sock, with the help of an adult. On the coloured paper of your choice, draw two dog ears and cut this out. Stick these onto the sock using glue. Do not forget to stick a pink or red coloured tongue onto the mouth.
Ratnamala Nori, the founder of the Nori Art and Puppetry Centre situated in Durgabai Deshmukh Colony, has been actively recycling and reusing material to make puppets and use them as a means to reach out to people in various fields.
She believes that one can make puppets with the easily available material like cardboard boxes, bottles, old greeting cards – all types of recyclable material in short. “For example, take a plastic ball that you do not use anymore. You can use this as the head of your puppet. Make a hole in the ball, the size of your index finger. Make the facial features of your puppet using sticker bindis, coloured paper or simple draw it using a sketch pen.
Take a large coloured handkerchief or any square shaped cloth and insert your index finger through the middle of it and into the hole in the ball. Mark the positions of your thumb and little finger on the handkerchief and make holes. Your thumb and little fingers can act as the hands of your puppet.”
By downloading and printing simple templates that are available online, you could make a huge variety of dolls, ranging from male and female dolls to animals and their babies. You could also make your own template, it is really not a difficult thing to do. Trace the outlines of your template onto the cloth twice and then cut it. Stitching all around the edges but do not forget to keep an opening through which you can stuff your doll.
For the hair, unused yarn can be used or you could also cut dark-coloured cloth pieces in long strands and sew them onto the doll's head.
Sock puppets and rag dolls are a great craft project that you could do alone or with friends. So dig up all the craft trash in your house to see if you could make a puppet today. For some added fun, make up a story around your puppet and perform it for your family and friends.
