Children's puppet theater has always been popular with the little viewer. Each performance causes indescribable delight in the little ones, for whom the fact that the dolls come to life and start talking is magic. The little one will be especially interested if the glove puppet is made together with the parents with their own hands.
The Importance of Puppet Theater in Child Development
Most often, puppet shows are common in preschool institutions for children. Puppets play a huge role in the life of a child. They become the first friends with whom the child begins to communicate. The movement of a favorite character brings joy to the child and an ordinary day becomes a holiday for him.
But such performances are not just entertainment for children. With the help of puppet theater, educational and cognitive processes occur. At the age of 4-6, a child's character is formed, interests in the environment appear. It is then that you need to instill in the child a sense of kindness, hard work, the ability to be friends and tell the truth.
With the help of a puppet theater, you can find a common language with a child who does not talk to strangers. Such a child will trust the doll more. He will laugh at its jokes, give a hand or allow himself to be touched.
Important! Regular communication with a puppet character will help a preschool child get to know the environment and teach him to be brave when interacting with peers and teachers.
Older children are taught to perform puppet shows themselves.
- Thanks to the theatre, children become accustomed to art and develop their imagination.
- Over time, they begin to show talent for drawing, music or sculpting.
- While playing with dolls, the child vividly imagines what the character is going through and thinks about how to act correctly.
- He expresses all his emotions through gestures and facial expressions.
Most often, the finger theater is used, which is called bibabo. The glove puppet on the hand is distinguished by the emptiness inside and is called so because it is used as a glove, while the head is put on the index finger of the hand, and the middle and thumb replace the character's hands. The other fingers remain inactive and are gathered into a fist. How to make such a toy can be found in this article.
What kind of glove puppets can you sew yourself?
In order to organize a puppet theater, you first need to think about where to get actors. You can make the characters yourself, having carefully thought out what kind of puppets you need to make for the performances.
The most common remain:
- fox;
- hare;
- English Frog Kermit;
- parsley;
- bear;
- wolf;
- three little pigs;
- shark;
- Christmas tree;
- Father Frost.
In addition, you can make a bun, a grandfather and grandmother, a chicken. With the help of these characters, you can not only act out scenes from famous fairy tales, but also come up with your own scenarios.
What you will need for the work process
To make a glove puppet, you will need to prepare the following materials and tools:
- nylon stocking;
- thick fabric of the required color, measuring 30×60 centimeters;
- filler;
- threads of the appropriate color;
- needles;
- sheet of cardboard;
- sheets of paper;
- PVA glue;
- scissors;
- paint brush;
- gouache.
Master class on making glove puppets
The making of any doll begins the same way. The base consists of the toy's head and clothes.
Head
First of all, you need to make a cylinder that will serve as the doll's neck. The toy's head will be attached to it. This same part is necessary for controlling the character.
- To work, you will need to cut a small strip, 8 centimeters in size, from a sheet of cardboard and roll it into a tube.
- To prevent it from unrolling, the edges are well greased with PVA and fixed.
- When making a cylinder, the inner diameter should be tried on the index finger so that it is convenient to control the toy later.
Attention! If the doll will be controlled by a child, then the base should be tried on the child’s finger.
In order for the toy's head to hold well on the base, thin strips are cut from a sheet of paper at one end of the cylinder; the size should not exceed 3 millimeters. The edge of the base is smeared with glue and strips of paper are wound, processing them with PVA. The seal should be no thicker than 4 millimeters. After this, you need to allow the glue to dry. To do this, put the part in a warm place.
To make the head, you will need a nylon stocking and filler. You can use cotton wool or synthetic fluff as filler. Cut two identical pieces of stocking, no longer than 20 centimeters. Carefully sew up one edge, forming it into a semicircle.
Many will ask why not use a nylon sock with a factory seam. The fact is that to fix the product on the leg, a tightening elastic band is used, which will not allow you to make a quality toy head.
The resulting cover needs to be filled with filler, forming it into a ball. Synthetic fluff is perfect for this purpose. Thus, the first stage of making the head can be considered complete.
Important! Sintepuh is the best material for making a toy head. It allows you to create an ideal surface.
The finished, dried cardboard cylinder needs to be installed in the center of the ball. After that, a thread is inserted around the edge of the cover using a sewing needle and pulled slightly. This is how the head of any character is made.
Cloth
The doll's outfit is important. Each craftsman makes it according to his own taste. Some prefer to make products based on fairy tales, others sew fashionable clothes for their dolls. The main thing is that the craftsman's soul is put into the work.
To cut out a glove dress for a doll, you will first need to imagine how exactly the puppeteer will hold the doll and in this position trace the hand, placing it on a sheet of paper. The right hand is traced in the same way. After this, the general outline of the blank is drawn and the drawing is cut out. The pattern is ready.
Now it needs to be applied to the fabric folded in half, outlined, adding 1 centimeter for the seam. By cutting along the outline, the craftsman will receive two necessary parts at once. The seal can be sewn by hand or stitched on a sewing machine.
The dress is put on the thick part of the cylinder and is pulled tightly with a thread to the very base. In this way, the outfit is fixed on the doll. Now the basis of the doll character is ready, all that remains is to attach a face to it.
Fox
To make a fox doll you will need to use orange faux fur. Scraps of white and black fleece. For the toy's clothes you will need some cotton fabric, which will serve as a lining.
The pattern is made according to a previously described scheme. A piece of white fleece is sewn onto the chest. The dress blank is turned inside out and the lining is sewn on. After this, the piece is turned inside out, with all corners carefully straightened and crocheted.
The blanks for the muzzle are cut out of the same orange fur. In the pattern, it is necessary to make an allowance of no more than 5 millimeters. The blanks are sewn together with the fur inward, and then turned inside out, put on the prepared head of the doll and fixed.
In addition, the tail and ears are sewn on. The nose is made of black fleece. Finally, the eyes are glued on. The doll is completely ready.
Bunny
The base head is covered with white fabric. The ears are cut out of white and pink scraps. The pink blanks are inserted into the middle of the ears.
Cheeks filled with synthetic fluff are sewn to the head. A nose is made from a red button and eyes from black buttons. You can decorate the bunny by tying a bow around its neck.
Parsley
To make Petrushka, you will need to take the second blank from a nylon stocking, put it on the finished doll's head and form a nose using synthetic fluff. To prevent it from falling apart, strengthen it with stitches. After that, generously cover the head with PVA glue. Then paint the head with light pink gouache, having mixed it with PVA beforehand. Allow the paint to dry and draw a wide mouth on the face and mischievous eyes.
After this, you need to form the hair from threads, then sew a cap. Fix them on the head. Hands are sewn to the dress, tightly stuffed with filler. The glove doll Petrushka is ready for performances.
For reference! The Petrushka doll can be used in almost any production.
Bear
The bear hand puppet is made similarly to the fox, only in this case you will need to take light brown, yellow and black fleece. Having sewn the head and dress from brown fabric, pieces of a certain shape are sewn onto the ears, paws and chest. The cheeks are also made from yellow fleece, a black fleece blank is sewn onto the nose. Ready-made blanks of eyes are glued or black buttons are sewn on.
The Wolf and the Three Little Pigs
Toys for staging the fairy tale wolf and three little pigs are made according to the same pattern. The head for the glove toy wolf is sewn with gray felt according to the same pattern as the fox. The dress is sewn according to the same principle.
The piglets' heads are formed using a second cover made of nylon stocking, as for the toy Petrushka. The ears and snout are formed from synthetic fluff and the surface is covered with PVA glue and gouache.
Knowing how to make a toy base, you can create any character for a puppet theater. It is imperative to invite children to work. The process of making a doll will give them pleasure.
