Home > Our Learning Progress > DIY Glove Puppetry Puppets in My Puppets > Instruction in How to Make Puppets' Heads



After our last visit to My Puppets, we were amazed that the puppets' movable eyes and mouths and their beautiful heads were sculpted, so we decided to visit it again. We asked the sculptor Mr. Xu to give us a more detailed account of it.

He told us that there were two types of woods for Glove Puppetry buyers to choose from: the ones that were for performances and the ones for collections. The previous ones were lighter so it would be easier to operate. They were mainly Selangan Batu and Picea asperata. The latter ones, to extend the span of preservation, used camphorwood, the texture of which was hard. It could be stored for fifty or sixty years. After picking the right ones, the sculpture began with the shape of the heads and the feature of the faces. As to how to make the puppets open and close their eyes and make the mouths move, they needed to be given joints and go through other process.

The lower lip was paired off and given a gimmick for the mouths to be able to move. To make the eyes move, the heads of the puppets would be dissected and hollowed out. They would hollow out two holes for the eyes and gave them enough space to put in another gimmicks to operate eyes. Lastly, they would use a string to connect eyes and the mouth so when the operator pulled the string, the eyes and the mouths of the puppets could move. The puppets could open, close their eyes and mouths like real human beings.

After finishing the work stated above, they used the ten major ways to complete making the heads.

Sculptor Xu Jian Zhang's elaboration made us realize that it was a time consuming process and it requires exquisite work to finish making a puppet. We really admired his professional ability.