Hi, I'm interested in making soft puppets, but all I can find are insruction for hard puppets. Can any one point me in the right direction.

You want the Verna Finley tapes/DVDs - they even come with a pattern. Verna was one of the top puppet makers around. You can sometimes find the tapes or DVDs on eBay.
Tom

I found some very interesting sites online with both printed and video instruction when I was researching this a couple of months ago. The two best I found were a video tutorial on the MAKEzine Blog (called Foam Puppet Making, in two parts, embedded right on the site), and a nice page of instructions and materials/tools needed at Puppetbuilder.com, a site run by Nick Barrone. These should give you a pretty good idea on how to start.

Bear in mind that making a "good" puppet is not an easy task, and will take time and practice, like anything else. I chose to put my time and effort back into my show and routines, and decided to leave the puppet building to guys like Wanlu, Steve Axtell, and Puppets 4 Jesus, three of the best and most reliable sources I have found.

Good luck !

Mark

Tom,

Do you know how to contact Verna ? I found out she was supposedly right up the road from me, in southwest Florida, less than one hour away. I tried to email her several times, but they all bounced back. I could not find a phone number or anything else on her. Is she still with us ?

Mark

It’s very difficult to reach Verna and her videos.

So, I suggest you to go to puppetsandstuff.com and puppetmakers.org to learn about soft puppets

Verna's videos are available, a quick search found:
https://sslserver.com/kingdom-karactors.com/newstuff.html

I am in no way associated with the site so I can't vouch for them, but I remember seeing them on another site too. You may want to check with Lee Cornell at Ventriloquism101. He may know how to get them.

I have no idea how to contact Verna. She retired from making puppets as far as I know. Sorry Mark!
Tom

Thanks Tom ! That looks like an interesting site.

I did some more research and found that there is a person named Bill Scott in Pennsylvania who is authorized by Verna to sell copies of the videos that include the plans for both human and animal characters. You can get the recordings in either DVD or VHS format, and the price for video and plans together is $50.00, ($10 less than the site you gave the link to).

I emailed Bill, and he said he only charges what it costs him to make the copies, no profit for him. The price includes the US postage. He said he will make the copies and send them on demand, or in other words, when someone sends him a check or money order, he makes them and sends them out. He does not keep any "in stock".

His address :

William Scott
1042 Warren Road
West Chester, PA
19382

Hope this helps those that are interested....

:bigsmile:

Mark

I should have said "Patterns" instead of "plans" in the last post !

They are on 11" x 17" paper.

Gotta get my terminology straight !

Mark

Mark,
I remember hearing about him. I bought the two VHS tapes Verna put out with the intention of making my own puppet, and never opened them. (No time.) I ended up selling them on eBay for $25. I understand they are great, but it will take time and a learning curve to create your own pieces.

Now I've got to dig out the Mike Brose kits I bought and figure out when to make them...
Tom

I was actually just thinking about making them for fun. I would still buy the puppets I would perform with.

From time to time, there are Finley videos in Ebay.

You can also check out YouTube for other puppet making videos...

These are awesome for soft puppets: http://www.projectpuppet.com/
The patterns are great for beginners and teach a lot of foundation.

I made my first one last month, you could have a nice puppet in about 3-4 evenings of work.

Wanlu,

I used my Bob Tomato and Larry Cucumber puppets for the first time in Bible class yesterday. The kids really loved them!

Our lesson was GOD MADE YOU SPECIAL and really dove tailed perfectly into using these two characters. I will try and send pictures soon. Our digital camera broke a few weeks back. I am sending to the repair soon.

THANKS again for a job well done! I will be in touch in the spring about more custom puppets once I have a little more money!!