Introduction: Bird Finger Puppet

By The Maker Studio @ Science City
About: The Maker Studio is a museum makerspace at Science City in Kansas City, MO. To see more of our creations follow us on Instagram @The_Maker_Studio or @ScienceCityKC

Make your own bird finger puppet (or make more and have your own flock). You can choose to copy a bird you might see outside in your area or make up one of your own.

Supplies

Step 1: Build the Head

Cut out the bird head from the template but keep your scraps, you may need them to make details later on. The template has two strips on the bottom, cut the thin strip off (this will be glued onto the head later on, so keep it around).

Now, add detail. You can find a bird that matches your template color (blue in the pictures) and make the design based off of that. The example bird is a Blue Jay so it has lots of black and white details. Use the template head to trace onto the black or white paper to make the shapes you need. If you use a removable glue stick you can temporarily stick down your details and then remove them to adjust them as needed. Keep sketching, cutting and gluing your details until your bird look like you want it.

Step 2: Shape the Head

First, add on the small strip by gluing it onto the bottom of the face like in the first photo. Next, glue the beak together, this will give the bird a 3d form. You may need to wait a few minutes to make sure it is good and set before handling the puppet again. After it is dry, it's time to fit the puppet to your finger. Wrap the small strip around your finger and glue it in place, holding it down as needed. Then wrap and glue the larger strip. Add any other details needed like a crest.

Step 3: Add Wings & Tail

First draw out your wing shape, then layer two rectangles and cut out the shape. Keep the layered rectangles stacked as you cut out the feathers if you want the wings to be identical. Draw and cut out the tail. Lay them all out with the head to make sure you like how they look.

After your wing and tail shapes are good, add on details. You can layer lots of different colors and shapes as you go. Once the details are all done and dry, glue them onto the head. This can be tricky so you may need to glue one thing at a time and wait a few minutes in between to make sure each item is completely dry.

Once it's all dry, you can use your puppet! Make more and have a flock of finger puppets!