My First Puppets: George and the Dragon.

I started to gain confidence in using papier-mache as a medium once I had built a ship's figure head and prow for my son's 5th Birthday.

The boys favourite story is Chris Wormell's George and the Dragon. I thought I would have a go at making a puppet so that we could re-tell the story for real. Here is the result.

They have debuted at school and John and I told the story to his class at story time.

NB we got Chris' permission to use his story before going ahead.

When I first started making puppets I searched the web for help and found Puppets and Stuff, run by Shawn Sorrell.

Puppets and stuff

This is where I go if I need help, for inspiration or just for a chat.

Dragons have always been a favourite of mine and I have drawn pictures of them for as long as I can remember. Now I found that I could build them in papier-mache and give them animation.

The upper Dragon is an Ice Dragon, he is finished in tissue paper and silvered acrylic paint and varnish.

The lower is Rex the Recycled Dragon, also finished in tissue paper. He now lives in Ilkley but I haven't heard yet whether he has developed a Yorkshire accent.

Favourite Dragons

George and the Dragon: Chris Wormell.

The Winter Dragon: Caroline Pitcher.

Smaug: JRR Tolkien

Eustace Scrubb: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Of course having made several Dragons I decided to have a go at my first figure marionettes.

The Snow Queen works on the same principle as Sicilian character puppets. Using a central rod for the head and strings for the hands.

Pete the Problem Pirate was cast on a plasticine form that mimicked a wood carved figure. This caused certain problems when forming the joints. However after much cursing he came right, although with dodgy knee. Like all busy pirates he set sail and he now lives in New Jersey

Emily's Mermaid and the Little Mermaid:

I have always had a fascination with myths legends and tales of the sea. it was only a short step to constructing my first mermaid marionettes. Both of these were made using the same methods as the dragons. The strings are strung through the eyelets used in picture framing.

I posted a tutorial on how I made the mermaid puppet on one of my other favourite sites: Papiermache.co.uk

Mermaid Tutorial