“The Secret Keeper” | Puppet Lady

With the eyelid/eyebrow pieces in position.
complete laminated puppet with lower jaw and eyelid/brow pieces in position
shadows with the eyelids/brows in different positions

As I wanted the character to have white hair I had made the decision to make most of the hair as a cut-away so that it would appear as light as possible when I made the previous “in profile” puppet. For this one, however, there was rather more hair to cut as the head is bigger! It was a bit challenging to cut out such curly hair but it felt like less of a slog than the pin-stripe pattern on the Prime Minister puppets!

I found it relatively easy to transfer the profile image of this character into a front facing drawing but realised after drawing it that the glasses the character wears could be problematic when the eyelid/eyebrow pieces are in position as they will obscure the top part of the frames. I worked out, however, that the frames would appear in silhouette as the clear eyebrows pass over the top of them if I made the glasses frames as a solid shape and the eyebrows as a cut away shape. We tried out the eyebrows in different positions to see if this worked and both Tim and I were satisfied that this was effective.

What I am not sure about is whether the shape of the eyebrow/eyelid pieces and the lower lip needs to be changed as the character is looking permanently grumpy regardless of the eyebrow/lid position. I had spent so much time trying to get the puppet right by this stage though that I decided to leave the puppet looking grumpy for now and sort this issue out later if necessary.

I’ve just realised I didn’t include any pictures with the eyeballs in position, as I forgot to take any! So that’s something to look forward to for another time 😊.

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The features from the head are gradually cut out…
The head complete, but with lower jaw still to do.
head with lower jaw separate
head with lower jaw in position
Head and jaw in position on the drawing of the body
The image for the body has been photocopied and stuck onto card and the details start to be cut out. The neck and pivot point for the head are roughly shaped at this stage.
Cut out body with head and jaw in position
I have established the pivot point for the head and cut away all the un-necessary card.
The finished puppet (though without controls added yet.
on the OHP flatbed
The shadow on the screen

I was completely happy with my original drawing of the head for “Our Hero” (otherwise known as the mystery solving librarian or “Secret Keeper” from the title of the series). This is his “at home” lounging round the house look. I managed to blow up the image on my copier so that it was exactly the right size relative to the “in profile” Prime Minister puppet.

Having completed the head I re-drew the torso as the original drawing was a bit sketchy and lacking in detail. I also wanted to show him in a profile rather than 3/4 view. I’m not sure if the finished image isn’t slightly on the skew, but I knew I was happy with it, (whether it was a true profile view or not).

I decided that “Our Hero”‘s character called for a more upright stance than the Prime Minister so decided to create a head nodding action in a different way. The Prime Minister has a head and neck joined together and the whole neck pivots forward and backward on the body. This time I made the decision to have a rigid neck with the head pivoting forward and backward on the neck (I hope that makes sense – if not look at the pictures). It made it a little more challenging to join the joints on the jaw and neck as the pivot points for both were quite close together. I am creating the joints using thick thread (the same kind as I use for the joints on the miniature shadow puppets in my Shadow Puppet Suitcase shows) which is knotted on both sides of the joint.

I secured the jaw shut with elastic in the same way as with the Prime Minister (which still allows the mouth to be opened when he needs to talk). The joint is not very flat because the elastic knot is quite big but the shadow on the screen looks fine.

Please feel free to ask questions or make a comment on the post (there is a reply box right at the bottom) and if you would like contribute towards the project you can make a donation below: