Heidi Makes A Marionette Project Book Report

The project was assigned to Heidi in March, and was due near the end of April. She was to choose a chapter book, then do a report.

The report consisted of a number of requirements, plus she also had to create a puppet based on a favorite character from the book. The book she chose was from the series "The New Prophecy WARRIORS" The book she picked was "Moonrise".

The requirement for making the puppet was "TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY".

It generally gave suggestions for either a paper bag puppt, or a sock puppet. But, Heidi felt that a paper bag puppet was TOO 1st & 2nd grade, NOT 3rd grade. And, even tho' sock puppets were cute, it was NOT "TO THE BEST OF HER ABILITIES". Heidi likes science, and she's a Girl Scout.

So, she decided to make a marionette.

Making a marionette takes more time, and effort, but also some understanding of very basic geometry, weight, and so on... but, she had a VERY big challenge. She wasn't making a bipedal (2 legged) marionette. No! Her character was a cat, which was a quadruped (4-legged). So, of course, Mom needs to help out.

Now, if you try searching Google, or YouTube, or anywhere else online, you WON'T find a tutorial on how to make a quadruped marionette. ONLY bipeds. So, much consideration was in order. Plus, we don't have much funds. So, you can see what we did:




Making A Quadrupedal Marionette Cat:

Materials we used (since we had very little funds) was a foam egg, old marionette T-bars, fishing line, and Crayola Model Magic. We also used pipe cleaners.

Now, keep in mind, the AC Moore in Hanover Mall, has nearly NOTHING in the color gray. But, this cat is a GRAY cat. So, we couldn't make a neck for the puppet. AC Moore had NO gray pipe cleaners, No gray faux fur, no gray flocking powder, and it also have NO doll eyes in ANY other color other than brown or black. So, we had to paint the black teddy bear eyes blue, to match the character. So, this project was EXTRA work.  

 
Crayola Model Magic is very light, so we used it very much for the bulk of the project.

 
The feet were made from old wooden circles used for old marionettes. They were strung up, with beads & fishing line, then the gray Model Magic was applied to the surface, and shaped, then hung up to air dry, which makes it lighter.





The body was a foam egg that was covered with gray Model Magic

 

The head was made from Papier-mâché. Then, sculpted with Crayola Model Magic, stapled, and strung up with fishing line, and beads through the T-bars. The process took a very long time, with much patience.

The cat's name is: Cinderpelt

 

Making Heidi's Book Report Cover:

 Heidi went through several designs for her cover, but had to start over many times.


Finally, this was the cover she did.

We added glitter to show the snow. But, we used the 1980s style glitter way, by applying the glue, then putting glitter on it.

NOT glitter glue, which doesn't look as good, and is lazy.

The cover art was created in her sketch book, then torn out, cut, and glittered.

When all of it was dried, it was placed inside of the entire book report folder. You can get them at Office Max, or Staples, or any similar store.