So the organisers at Reach Out wanted three classes for their Youth Week activities, and got some funding to do it. I thought that instead of doing one big build across the three sessions, it would be better to do three types of puppets instead; mainly because that way if people find the type of puppet boring, they get to try to do something else next time.

The day started off badly, with me not only running out of time printing handouts (and realising last minute that the printer I was using - we have two - doesn’t actually collate pages), but also forgetting the correct turn off, going down the wrong road and getting lost. I was five minutes away, but incredibly confused. (I took ‘Centre Rd’, instead of ‘Centre Dandenong Rd’…)

Sadly, when I arrived late, I also discovered there was only one participant! Well, it was Thursday, middle of the day, and not during school holidays - and since this was a class open to youth only, it kind of makes sense. Last time there were about 15 people, but that was open to everyone, and not just young ones. Luckily, the lone participant, Tony (all names changed to preserve anonymity), was very enthusiastic Betty and Casey, two of the coordinators for the arts centre at Reach Out, also sat in and did some building. Casey’s puppet is above.

We unpacked everything and started making puppets. I chose sock puppets (I was given the opportunity by Reach Out to pick out what would be best to make) because the participants last time really seemed to like the idea of doing a mouth puppet, but also because it was fairly simple to do. Now technically speaking, I’ve never done a ‘traditional‘ sock puppet; as in, cutting a slit in the sock and inserting a mouth. Not being comfortable teaching something I’ve never done before, I went a slightly different route.

I took a pattern from my moppets - unfortunately, forgetting it’s probably too big for a sock, and so we resized it in the class - and cut out a piece of foam from the pattern, including a score across the hinge of the mouth. Then we glued it onto the heel/sole of the sock. Probably not the best method in the world, and if I were to do it again, I’d tweak the build slightly. The glue took ages to dry. Then we just started decorating. This was a lot of fun, also for me, because all the materials and tools were supplied for me, so I didn’t even know what kind of socks we’d have, let alone decorations.

Casey started with a black sock, and was playing around with it before adding a mouth. She thought it would be hilarious to have a huge nose, so she went for it. It sort of developed from there; green balls for warts, blue felting wool (wefting wool as it’s known to some) for hair, green ears, googly eyes… she did have a white wool ‘hat’, but I guess she decided not to use it at some point. The sock itself has stuffing in it to hold the shape.

Betty started with a grey sock, and though you can’t tell in the pic, there’s a yellow mouth into which she inserted a red tongue. She added blue googly eyes to the tops of some shaved-down polystyrene balls, and made ears out of leather and brown soft fabric. A bell for a nose - it looks great, doesn’t it?

Tony, our lone participant, started off well with his sock, but at the point of waiting for glue to dry, seemed to dishearten. He built using a grey sock too, and had googly eyes and black woollen hair. He wasn’t comfortable sewing, and glue took forever. He wasn’t happy with what he made, and I suggested trying a finger puppet (he asked what we did last time and when we mentioned finger and glove puppets, he said he would have liked to have tried that). I made a basic pattern for him, but had problems cutting the felt, and gave up about 30 minutes to the end of the session. I even tried doing a shadow puppet - improvising a pattern, which I shouldn’t do because I can’t draw at all - but gave up with no materials to do it with.

Hence, no photo of Tony’s puppet: he was too embarrassed of it to let me take a photo, even though it looked quite good. He kept saying he should just save up and buy one of mine - having done a check up of my site before attending the class. It was a nice compliment, but it was bittersweet because I really wanted him to enjoy himself and feel proud of his work. I think in his case, the build was a little too improvised for him to really enjoy it; I kept saying things which amounted to "make it up as you’re going along", and obviously for some people that works and for some it doesn’t. Why I was so keen on trying to get him to do another type of puppet is because I know that some builds suit some people and some don’t. 

Luckily, I also brought some other types of puppets with me, and used them as examples to discuss building problems, eyelines, etc. Tony and the others (including the art teacher for the centre, who popped her head in) had a play; I think I’ll keep doing that, because it’s handy to have some other types of puppets around just to show certain things and keep people entertained. It also shows how different puppets can be, and can inspire ideas.

Anyway, Tony was very keen to come next time and give the other puppets a shot, so I’ve got it in mind to do some really easy shadow puppets for him. And even if he doesn’t like building, I’ll have my screen and some of my products with me, so he and others can play. As I was leaving, Casey did mention to me that Tony really was enthusiastic, and even though he wasn’t entirely happy with his sock puppet, that he did enjoy the class (remember, these classes are being offered to people with mental illnesses, so my idea of how much someone is participating is relative).

All in all, it wasn’t a bad class: Casey and Betty really enjoyed themselves, and despite everything Tony came away with some understanding of puppetry. I even made a puppet (seen to the right). I just picked a sock randomly, but actually I like the colours. (A side-on photo is here)I had to sew my mouth on because the glue was too slow to dry. Then when trying to figure out what to decorate the puppet with, I played around with the nose. Betty had come up with the idea to push the toes of the sock into the head of the puppet, make a shorter nose. I did the same with mine, but realised there was a great opportunity to insert something into the concave nose. I immediately thought of a large eye, so added a polystyrene ball with a little black marker for the pupil. It’s a bit weird, but I like it!

Handy link: Previous and first class with Reach Out.