Golden Rod Puppets

Steven Widerman shows Hobey Ford shadow puppets of Bil Baird's which were inspired by Richard Bradshaw.

Here is my modification on a universal head control for a rod puppet. The control allows for up and down, side-to-side and diagonal twisting of the head or cocking the head. The control can be clicked into a holder which then transfers the side to side and up and down movement to a foot pedal. This was necessary to keep multiple characters alive in a scene. Click on drawing to enlarge then click on the multi arrow icon in that window to get the photo to enlarge a lot further where you can scroll around the photo to see details.

Here is a drawing of a leg control for my miniature rod puppets shown in video and photo gallery

El Coqui the frog is a legendary Puerto Rican folk character. Here is the El Coqui story set in shadow puppetry. The idea was given to me in the form of a shadow puppet after a workshop I gave in San Juan Puerto Rico several year ago. A teacher gave me the puppet he had made and told me about El Coqui and suggested that I tell the story. I got musical help from Ronnie Delerme who performedl soundtrack in several tracks. My hope is to put a Spanish version soon.

A video illustration of a mouth mechanism on a profesional shadow puppet

This is part one of an advanced shahow puppet technique that I used in Rainbow Bridge and other tales. It is not intended for use by beginner puppeteers. Let me know how you like it and if its unclear as it is a work in progress.

My newest show "The Rainbow Brigdge and Other Tales" features shadow puppets that I've created uoing some cool new technology. The material that I'm using is high density poly-ethylene sheeting with black matte finish. It is a plastic sheeting cut-able with scissors and paper punches. The thickness is similar to poster board. I am using heavy music wire for rods with dowell handles and a trigger for the mouth of the puppet.

I made this rod puppet in 1979 see photo album for a detailed story

I made these puppets around 1979 after inspiration of Clyde Hollifield and his monkey puppets, which were 6 inch tall monkey rod puppets. They have amazing articulation (see video gallery). These are characters inspired by Brian Froud and Alan Lee's book "Fairies". I made them with maple (elf), black walnut (Quagmire Ankledeep & Leprechaun), bone (fairie, elves legs), Oak (troll). I showed a friend who said Jim Henson was filming a movie using Froud's work and so went to NYC and visited the studio trying to get a job on the movie with my puppets.

A very nice article.