Bluebird Puppet

In the Summer of 2010 I was a puppeteer in a theater production called Rapunzel: Beginnings and Beyond.

Originally I was brought on to puppeteer some talking vegetables in Mother Gothel’s garden. That’s me with the Greenbean and Head of Lettuce on the left.

After reading the script and attending some rehearsals, it became apparent that a bluebird puppet was needed for the production. I had already had some sort of bird head in the works so I decided to finish it out so It could be used for the show. This also gained me another puppeteering credit as I was now Calliope the Bluebird.

So after some long hours of craftiness I ended up with this.

Being one of my earlier puppets and the short amount of time I had building it I was mostly using random assortments of fabric,foam and feather boas I had on hand. That’s a craft foam beak and plastic spoons for her eyes.

I believe I used the Pinhead Puppet Pattern from Project Puppet. Which is a great site to get simple easy patterns for the beginner puppet builder who might not know how to make one from scratch.

Over all she turned out pretty well and served her purpose for the three nights of the production. I used one of those plastic bird whistles filled with water to simulate her tweeting sounds.

There’s a lot of things I would do differently now with this bird puppet, most if which are concerned with overall inner construction and better materials, but for the amount of time I had  I was pretty pleased. Though I must say my bird puppets are getting a lot better.

Click here to meet José the Parrot!