Warrior PuppetEver wondered what an eighteen foot tall trojan/romanesque warrior puppet made almost entirely out of cardboard and hot glue would look like? Well, go no further. This was a joint project between myself and my students to teach them how, using a very limited budget.
I started building the head and out of simply cardboard and hot glue, and then had students mimic what I was doing as we went along. In doing this, students were given a tutorial on how to build out musculature using strips of cardboard. We used broken yardsticks to help structurally, and by the time we got to the body the project was being built 100% by students. The inner frame was made of a cross section of 2'' PVC pipe. Students used left over Christmas fabric found in the art closet to make the arms and legs from. Once the puppet was complete we ran into some issues transporting him (he would barely fit out the door) but this problem was solved by transporting the puppet in two pieces. The puppet was displayed at the the homecoming pep assembly to great fanfare. His head was dismounted and displayed in the art room for some time, but the following year was cannibalized to make other projects. This is a prime example of how, under the right direction, students can build even large projects with limited resources. |