I was inspired by my puppet making lesson with my class to start creating puppets of my own from characters that I have previously developed for my novel and short stories. I started with pipe cleaners, twisting them together I formed the head, torso and legs.
Once that was established, I wrapped another pipe cleaner around the torso for evenly spaced arms. I strategically wrapped cut pieces around the arm for the fingers. Now you have to decide how much weight your character needs to hold up and that will determine the design of the legs. I added a layer of pipe cleaner twisted around each leg to make them more sturdy.
Fortunately I already have some character designs sketched and I know what my character looks like and the clothing I will have to design. I decided that I want to cover the pipe cleaner in fabric to act as skin and then cover the character in other material for clothes. This allows me to have options and if I want to change the puppets appearance I can do that.
Using extra material I cut and hot glued pieces of material together to suggest clothing. I didn’t attach it directly to the doll because I want to be able to change it later. I will eventually use clay for the facial features so they can me manipulated and animated using a stop motion app. 
I will finish up my characters and then build a set for them in preparation of making practice stop motion.
This is a close up of Taki so far. I used pipe cleaners for the hair so I can manipulate it and animate it. I will also redo the snake. Im not happy with how it is coiling around. I think I used too much material or glue. The second attempt will be stronger.
Instagram: TakeyaArt
Tumblr URL: takeyaart.tumblr.com
Youtube link: https://youtu.be/JT_Qrwk7Yp0
Website link: http://www.takeyaart.com/
Thank You to Creative Pinellas for giving me this opportunity!
