Puppet Building Books

- Used and Hard to Find -
hey, find my books

Resources:

The following are some of the books that I have in my library that might be hard to find. But each these books is well worth the time it takes to locate. And the Internet has made used book searches much easier. I've had good luck finding books at Powell's and with www.bookfinder.com and www.addall.com/Used. The half priced web site, half.com, frequently has puppet books at good prices.

The Puppeteers of America organization runs a terrific book store, with an online catalog at The Puppetry Store Catalog . You can frequently find used and hard to locate books there, as well as many in print puppetry books.


And Ray DaSilva's Puppetry Book Store in the UK is a treasure trove of hard to find items. Ray's catalog is online, and you can spend countless hours browsing his selections.


Hard to find books



Hard to Find Books for Puppet Building

book
Rod Puppets & Table-Top Puppets by Hansjürgen Fettig

Finally back in print and available through Ray DaSilva's Puppetry Book Store, this book is a wealth of information for designing and building rod puppets. A must have that's worth whatever postage you have to pay to get it.

Puppets, Methods and Materials
Puppets, Methods and Materials

Cedric Flower and Alan Fortney's outstanding reference book shows how to build all kinds of puppets, and goes into great detail about materials you can use. Highly recommended.

book
Puppets: Get Started in a New Craft With Easy-To-Follow Projects for Beginners

The best book I've ever seen for novice puppet builders. Really. Yes, it's a craft book. Yes, it's geared for kids and people who teach crafts to kids. But it shows you how to build hand puppets, shadow puppets, how to sculpt, how to use papier mache, how to build armatures, how to make a mold, how to make a marionette. If you've never built puppets before and want to try it, this is simply a terrific place to start. Sadly, it's out of print, but you should be able to find a copy at one of the used book stores on the web (see above)

intro

Introduction to Puppets and Puppet-Making

Published in 1992, David Currell 's intro to puppet-making is a great place to start, with full color, step-by-step explanations on building shadow puppets, simple hand puppets, a simple moving mouth puppet out of carved foam, rod puppets, and marionettes. Currell also describes simple stages, scenery, lighting and sound. I highly recommend this book for beginners, and especially for beginning marionette builders. It shows a simple marionette, standard stringing, airplane controls and a more sophisticated standard marionette once you've built the simple one.

Muppets Make Puppets

The Muppets Make Puppets

A great introduction to found object puppet building. While its intended age range is children, any budding puppet builder will be able to get great ideas and inspirations from it. I frequently suggest this book to anyone just starting out who wants to play around a bit with puppet building. Great fun!


Hard to Find Production and Performance Books
book
Manual of Hand Puppet Manipulation

Lettie Connell Schubert crams more good advice into 18 pages than other books have in 180. This well written book covers hand puppet and moving mouth manipulation and is available from the Puppeteers of America book store.

book
Puppet Theatre in Performance by Nancy H. Cole

Nancy Cole's book is one of the best books every printed on how to perform with puppets.

Plays for Young Puppeteers
Plays for Young Puppeteers: 25 Puppet Plays for Easy Performance

The latest Lewis Mahlmann and David Cadwalader Jones book. More than just adaptations of classic fairy tales, this book explains simply and clearly how to start performing good puppet theater.

book
Folk Tale Plays for Puppets: 13 Royalty-Free Plays for Hand Puppets, Rod Puppets, or Marionettes


Adaptations of classic fairy tales, with solid advice on performing. Standard "texts" for any students of puppetry and much sought after books.

book

Puppet Plays for Young Players;: 12 Royalty-Free Plays for Hand Puppets, Rod Puppets, or Marionettes

Adaptations of classic fairy tales, with solid advice on performing. Standard "texts" for any students of puppetry and much sought after books.


Hard to Find Books that Inspire the Imagination
book No Strings Attached by Matt Bacon

The inside story of Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Check your Border's books, since these were going for $5 apiece a few months ago in the dump bins. Great pictures, especially if you're interested in animatronics or would just like to know how they do all those cool creatures.

book The Making of the Dark Crystal by Christopher Finch

A book about the first project by the Jim Henson Creature Shop, this not only has pictures of the finished puppets but pictures of them in progress. It shows many details, background characters, puppets not used in the film and original artwork by conceptual designer Brian Froud.

book The Art of the Puppet by Bil Baird

The reference book about puppetry through the ages, a must for any puppeteer's library. Beautiful pictures.




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