In my first installment of my explanation about the method I chose to underscore my 2nd Bar Mitzvah I ended with an explanation of how, while a teacher in the NJ State Village for Epileptics I followed directions by Bil Baird who wrote an article on how to build marionettes. I will not follow up with speculations for how his article got into Woman’s Day, but I was grateful for the information and precise directions on how to make an articulated puppet that one worked from above on strings attached to a “control” and directions on how to use that control to move the puppet below.
Those first two marionettes had no heads. I carved the bodies and extremities from wood and used no cloth to make clothes for them. I just followed the directions and proudly walked my finished product into the school’s office and received appropriate oohs and ahhs. My carving of wooden hands at the end of lower arms turned out well and attaching them to shoulders was done by using bits of leather tacked into the wood of the upper arm and shoulder. The same process was used after I carved feet (actually shoes) and used leather to make the joints. The most difficult parts to create were the elbows and knees in which the lower limb was carved with a thin protrusion that fitted into the upper limb which had a slot and the two parts fitted together. In each joint there was a wire (usually a straightened paper clip) which served as the moveable joint. Mr. Baird made use of an ancient joint but with his artistic approach made realistic knees and elbows. I was pleased with the results and from that time on (without any particular story or show in mind) I made a whole family of puppets of the stringed variety.
Now, hand puppets are the easiest to make and from time to time knowing I was going to see family or friend’s children, I would craft from different materials from paper bags, gloves and little dresses to fit a whole hand with the index finger inserted into heads either carved from wood or made of paper mache. I also experimented with using sawdust and glue and this worked except that when the glue dried in a bed of sawdust the head usually had a flat back.
At the State Village, where I worked for a year, there was no opportunity to hold a show except to demonstrate my skills as a puppet master. It was when I was able to use the school’s workshop that I built a butterfly kite with six feet wings that actually flew like a butterfly. I don’t know how much this added to the student’s knowledge but it gave wings to my fingers and from that time to this, I find making puppets satisfying. I left the puppets and the butterfly at the Village when I went on to my next job in Elizabeth, NJ in Madison Jr. High. (Continued)