Scuba Marionette - Part 1

My nephew, Daniel, has a puppet assignment from school. He wanted to make a full sized scuba diver puppet! I thought maybe a marionette would be easier both to make and to manipulate (not to mention transporting it to school).

I explained that fewer moving parts = faster to build and easier to manipulate. Daniel identified the most important movements, which were the kicking legs and forward arms. We started with

newspaper for the basic shapes. Then we

started covering them with paper machie. The scuba air tank is a water bottle and the face mask is the bottom of a plastic salad dressing bottle

and

the top of the water bottle. The joints are floral wire inserted under the paper machie.

Daniel did a great job (and Mom and brother Andrew too)

and we got as far as covering the marionette with a coat of primer. Next we'll figure out the stringing and add the paint

(mostly black wet suit) and add the final touches like painting

on his face, attaching the swim mask and making the air hoses.

We had a great afternoon working together! We don't know what his teacher will think, but as far as we are concerned this is A+ work.

To be continued...