Giant Backpack Puppets

I made these giant wearable puppets for a play, they were 4 of the Big Friendly Giant worn by kids in the play. This technic can be used for any type of characters, from alien to bug, monster, zombie etc...

MATERIALS

-1 Large Chinese opera mask or any large paper mask

-Shop paper towel, tissue paper or newspaper for papier-mâché

-White glue

-Insulation foam and other type of foam (re-use packing foam)

-Pool noodle

-Paint

-1 - 1X1X8 wooden stick

-2 thin garden bamboo sticks or small dowel

-1 old backpack

-Fabric of choice for body

-Fake fun fur for hair

-Plain white cotton for hands

-Wire for hands

-Polyfill stuffing for hands

-Gaff or duct tape

-Zap strap (or quick straps)

TOOLS

-Hand saw

-Drill

-Glue gun (lots of glue sticks)

-Sand paper (220 or higher)

-Paint brushes

-Measuring tape

-Utility knife

-Scissors

-Sewing machine or needle and thread to hand sew

-If you want the mouth open, cut it before starting the papier-mâché

-Tear pieces of shop towel or newspaper in strips of about 1" X 3"

-Create a papier-mâché adessive by mixing white glue with water, the consistency should be like cream.

-Papier-mâché the mask, you can make small chunks to create facial features like enlarging the nose, layer the papier-mâché etc...

-Add 2 layers of papier-mâché, let dry between layers.

-If you have an open mouth, you can make teeth with insulation foam (pink foam works the same as blue one)

-Cut and shape the teeth using utility knife and sand them with fine grit sandpaper like 220 or higher

-Draw or photocopy a large hand, the size and style you want

-Cut your hand pattern

-Double your fabric and pin the hand patter on it

-Sew the hand slowly

-Flip the hands right side out so the seam are inside

-Start filling the hands with polyfill stuffing, don't fill too tight

-Cut pieces of wire twice the length of each fingers, bent each wire in half so it's the length of each fingers

-Insert wires in each fingers as you keep filling the hand and fingers with stuffing, stuff as much as desired and bent wires to desires hand shape

-Time to paint the face! Start with light color and add as you go. Use small brushes for details. Add water down grey or brown to create shadows around the nose, eyes, eyebrows and under the bottom lip.

-Paint the hands as well in any desired colors, I made mine looking dirty because if the theme of the play.

-Paint the teeth and any other items you plan to add.

-Using a hot glue gun, add fake fur

--Use hot glue to attach the teeth on the inside of the mask

-Cut the wood the desired height of your puppet, don't forget that part of the wooden stick is going to be inside the backpack so calculate the height carefully.

-Cut a smaller stick for the shoulders

-Cut a notch in each stick where you will create a cross, the small stick goes perpendicular onto the large stick, add a bit of white glue and put a screw so keep it solid (see first photo), you can also wrap gaff or duct tape there in a x wrapping way.

-Cut the pool noodle lengthwise in half

-Find the center of your piece of pool noodle, glue and tape the pool noodle on the shoulder part of the stick (see photo) so the long arms are on each side.

-Attached the hands to the pool noodle. Add the hands on the ends of the pool noodle as if you were putting gloves on the pool noodle. Use hot glue and close the hand cuff with tape.

-Add the smaller bamboo sticks or small dowels where the hands are attached to the pool noodle. I did this by cutting a small hole in the pool noodle at the base where the hand is taped and hot glue it, plus I added tape to make it very secure.

-Find the center of your fabric and cut a small hole to slide the stick through the fabric. It's a good idea to add tape around the opening of the fabric to prevent the fabric to tear or fray. I used jersey t-shirt fabric so I didn't need to hem or sew it as it doesn't fray.

-Cut an opening at the base of the mask the size of the stick and slide the stick through it

-Cut a piece of foam in a small block shape depending on the mask shape you made and cut an opening in this foam block for the stick to go in.

-With hot glue, glue the block in, let dry

-Put hot glue in the opening of the foam block (make sure your glue gun isn't at high if you have low-high setting) and slide the stick through the opening at the bottom of the mask and into the foam block.

-Add lots of hot glue around the foam block, around the base where the wood stick is inside the foam, around the inside of the mask where the wood stick passes through, go crazy with hot glue in there.

-Fill out the backpack with foam, I like to re-use packing foam that comes in boxes of electronics and such, or buy a piece of Styrofoam etc... The goal is to fill the bag tight but light and leave a vertical opening in the center of the bag to slide the puppet stick in it. (You can also venture into a different type of armature, building a wooden base and using the backpack straps)

-Use glue to secure the stick inside the foam of the backpack

-Use a zap strap to close the zipper tight around the stick. If you have a backpack with double zipper, bring each zipper toward the stick in the center and zap strap the two together. If you have a backpack with one zipper, make a hole at the top of the backpack a bit bigger than the size of the stick and use the gaff tape or duct tape and tape a nice finishing around the opening to keep it solid. You can also do this with the double zipper backpack but I found it quicker to just use the double zipper and strap it shut.

Have someone wear the backpack and cut a slit for your head to stick out or you can make this part the way you want, you can have a costume, have just a slit for your eyes etc... Let your imagination run wild!