Felted Puppets

Here are some felted puppets my kids made about a month ago.


Jeff (age 7) made the dog and it hasn't left his side since, except for a short stint at the textile session I presented in Saskatoon.

I get alot of requests for a felting tutorial and I have been reluctant in the past because there are lots of them out there as well as some terrific books.


These puppets are a little different so I thought I'd give you a mini tutorial about them.

When felting you need some wool fleece, I get mine from a weaving shop near Calgary called Shuttleworks.  I always tell potential felters not to buy their fleece from the craft or fabric stores as they tend to have outrageous prices for very little fleece.  I buy plain white fleece and then I dye it myself with Kool aid.  You get wonderful colors and your fleece will smell like the Kool aid flavor as well which the kids find pretty cool.

To dye your fleece place one packet of kool aid into a canning jar and add a cup or two of boiling water.  The amount of water you add depends on how much fleece you are dyeing.

Stir till the powder has dissolved.

Stuff some fleece into the jar.

You want to make sure it is completely immersed.

Let the fleece sit for a while.  Half an hour or so...when you go back to check on it you'll find that they dye has been absorbed by the fleece and the water will be clear.

Now to start felting you need some fleece.  An old towel to work on, some textured type mat to felt on to help build friction,  ( I use sushi mats, bubble wrap, or the anti slip shelf liner with the bumpy surface), some soap either dish soap or bar, some warm water, and some fine netting.  An old lace curtain from the dollar store will work or some tulle.

When felting you want to have that textured mat to lay your fleece upon and then the netting to lay on top of the fleece.  The netting helps you suds up the fleece.

Now when making an item like a puppet, purse, slippers or a vessel you need to felt around something.  It needs to be able to withstand the water and soap.  For something that is felted flat for a pocket.... like a purse or slippers you can use a piece of heavy plastic, something like the sound insulation layer they use for hardwood floors or that white spongy plastic they use in packaging around electronics and such.
  I have used rocks to felt little vessels like the one shown here in the picture, but I find rocks heavy for the kids to work with you also need a pretty big rock to make a decent sized puppet.

For these puppets I used these plastic cups I had bought a few years ago for Christmas.  They were cheap and they had a nice textured surface so we didn't have to use an extra texture layer.

To start you layer on your fleece.  It's hard to show in a picture.  You don't want each layer running in the same way but criss crossed over multiple layers.  For the puppets we used about 5 layers of fleece.  You can see what I mean about layering from this photo of a flat design.

    Once you have your layers on wet with some warm water and soap up your fleece.

For the puppets we used a bar of soap as it was easy to just rub it on directly.

When the fleece is wet and soapy place your netting on top and start your rubbing or friction.  I usually find it takes longer than the books say. The puppets probably took 20-30 minutes of rubbing to get the fleece to felt.  I let the kids take breaks and we just added more water and soap when needed.  If you find a hole starting to form just add some extra fleece and rub into place.

The tentacles for the squid puppet were formed by rolling lengths of wet fleece, forming little "dreadlocks".  We then felted them into place on the puppet body.

When the fleece is stuck together and you can't pull it apart it's done.  Roll your cup into a dry towel and roll back and forth several times.  Leave on the cup to dry.

When dry you can remove from cup, trim the puppet on the bottom and sew on some eyes, tongues, ears, etc.

If you find a hole where the fleece "moved" during felting you can just add a stitch or two to close it.

That's it.

Unfortunately I didn't take a lot of pictures during the felting process so I hope you can get the idea from what I have posted.

Puppet Box

My kids really enjoy the Halloween book called "Big Pumpkin" so I thought we could make a little puppet box to go with the story.

Now you can make a puppet box to go along with any story or poem or "just because".

You need a box to get started.  We are using a Kleenex box but you can use a cracker box, shoe box, or any box you have lying around in your recycle bin.

Using scissors cut out a window to view your puppet show.

Carefully open one side of the box.  Don't tear it as you want to be able to glue it together again.

I'm giving the outside a coat of gesso to prep it for painting.

You don't have to paint yours you can easily cover it with paper if you wish.

Now measure out the sides, back, top and bottom on paper.  These will be painted and then inserted into the box for our back drop scenery.


I usually write the name of each on the back so I don't forget which is which.

Now paint your scenery.  While you have your paint out paint some sticks for your puppets.  I buy these wooden stir sticks from the dollar store (250  for $1.00).

When the scenery has dried glue into place thru the open end.  You'll have to hold off on the last side though.

Re-close the open side and glue into place.

When the glue has set up enough you can glue in that last side piece of your scenery.





Draw out your puppet characters.  I am using heavy watercolor paper but you can use cardstock or light cardboard.


You can use my template if you wish.  Big Pumpkin

Add some color and cut them out.

I wanted the puppets to last so I added a coat of Mod Podge.

While the puppets were drying I added some color to our box.

If you want to add some extra scenery and give your puppets a place to hide in the wings you can paint a piece and then cut out a heavy paper strip.

Fold paper strip in half and tape or glue onto the back of the extra scenery.

Secure into place in the puppet box.

Now it's time to add the puppets.  Cut a hole into the side of the box for your puppet stick.

Glue or tape the puppet onto the stick.  Now you could do this while the stick is free from the box and then slide the end into place but i prefer to attach the puppet with the stick already in place so I can get the puppet in place at the right height and position.

and that's it.  Now the kids can play along as we read our favorite Halloween story together.

Before I go remember this diorama I made 2 years ago, Mini Pumpkin Diorama.

I got an email a few weeks ago from fellow art educator, Maria Tavares, who after seeing my version got inspired to make her own.

She sent a few pictures and I couldn't wait to show you.

I just love the knitting ........

and hers lights up too!!

Absolutely terrific Maria.  Thanks so much for letting me share this with everyone.




Why not give a puppet box or a pumpkin diorama a try and I'll see you next time!

Paper Mache Puppets

Aren't these great.  I especially love Jeff's (age 7) mutant one eyed attack chicken........

and Ryan's (age 10) blue lizard man!



It's great when a project gets done.  This one took a few days so the kids were glad to get it completed.

I first did paper mache puppets with my daughter's Grade 3 class for Halloween. ( that was 5 years ago)  We made spooky monsters and creatures, because it's Halloween I find the kids can just let their imagination soar when coming up with ideas.

Materials Required:

- sticks
- paper towels
- foil
- white glue
- Kleenex
- recycled container to hold glue mixture
- paint
- mod podge (optional)
- string
- scrap fabric
- odds and ends to embellish with

Take a stick, about pencil length and wrap a ball of foil on the end.

Mix up a glue/water solution at a 1 to 1 ratio.

Using paper towel strips dipped in the mixture start wrapping the head.  You want to cross over strips randomly, smooth it down and make it tight, and wrap some strips down onto the stick to hold the head in place.

Every once and a while use a dry strip..it will soak up the excess glue.

Put some Kleenex in the glue mixture and use this to mold your facial details.

Set your heads aside to dry for a few days and turn them once and a while.


Paint with acrylic or tempera paint.

If you want you can add a coat of mod podge for a nice shine.

All our puppet heads ready to go!

Tie a length of string around the neck for the arms, you could use yarn, anything flexible.

Cut a rectangle from some scrap cloth. you want it to be twice as long as you want the puppet's body to be and as wide as you want it's arms to be.

Take your length of fabric and fold in middle, then fold lengthwise and cut a notch in the center of your fabric.

This is where the head will go.

Slide stick into hole and pull in string, lay it out like this.

Wrap stick with some stuffing, scrap fabric, whatever is around to add some bulk to your body.

You can trim your fabric a bit too at this time getting a triangular type shape.

Now you want to add some glue at the neck, under the hands, and down the sides.  You can use tacky glue, I used hot glue.

Alternatively you could also sew the fabric in these places.

I thought I took pictures of "making the hands" but I guess I forgot.  Cut out 4 hands, use felt, craft foam, fabric.  Lay one down, add a drop of glue, place end of one string arm in the glue and then place another hand on top sandwiching in the string.  Repeat for other hand.

You can add feathers, hair, and embellishments at this point.

This is the back of Jeff's chicken puppet.

Attach a string, I'm using fishing line, around the neck of the puppet.

Find 2 sticks from outside that are about 6 inches or so and cross them in the middle, wind some pipe cleaner around them and then secure in place with hockey tape or duct tape.

Near the end  of one of the sticks tie on a small loop made from pipe cleaner, tape down.



Now attach string from your head to the center cross of your sticks.

Measure out a length of string that is double the length from where your puppet's hand is to the sticks, an extra hand comes in handy here, someone to hold the puppet upright while you are measuring.

Tie one end of your string on one hand, here I threaded one end onto a big needle and feed it thru the felt hand, knot it tightly a few times.

Feed the other end of the string thru the loop you made on your stick and down to the other hand, attach in same manner.

Now your puppets are ready.

Here Mutant Chicken and Lizard Man
battle for world domination!





See you next time.