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How to Make Articulated Puppet Eyes

Puppeteers use puppets with articulated eyes for greater animation and expression. Articulated -- or moveable -- eyes for a hand puppet are made using basic mechanical skills, and the eyes are operated through manipulation of a trigger inside the puppet head. More sophisticated, free-standing puppets are operated by radio control or cable animatronic mechanisms. You can make articulated eyes for your puppet yourself, using a design that will allow the eyes to either roll from side to side or top to bottom, as a blink.

Things You'll Need

Needle-nose pliers
Wire cutters
Ping-pong balls
Ice pick
Flame
Coat-hanger wire
Glue gun
Glue sticks
Self-sticking felt dots
Marker
Puppet head
Eyelashes, optional

Instructions

- 1
  Mark a dot on one side of a ping-pong ball. Make another dot on the side opposite the first dot. Mark two ping-pong balls in this manner.
- 2
  Heat the tip of your ice pick over a flame, such as a candle or gas-burning stove burner.
- 3
  Pierce each ping-pong ball with the hot ice pick on each of the dots. Use just the tip of the ice pick to avoid making the holes too large.
- 4
  Cut a wire coat hanger to remove the hanger. Twist a loop into the center of the length of coat-hanger wire. This loop becomes your eye-blink trigger.
- 5
  Slide one ping-pong ball onto the wire and push it close to the trigger. Wrap the wire extending out from the ping-pong ball into an arc over the top of the ping-pong ball. Cut the wire where it meets the trigger. Slide the other ping-pong ball onto the wire on the other side of the trigger, wrap the wire in an arc over the ping-pong ball and cut the wire close to the trigger.
- 6
  Glue the cut ends of the wire to the top of the trigger using your hot glue gun and a glue stick.
- 7
  Push the trigger of the blinking eyes through the foam of the head in the area above the nose where the eyes are located, if a foam head is used. If the head is fabric, cut a small hole and push the trigger through.
- 8
  Cut a 7-by-4-inch rectangle of fabric that matches the puppet head and lay it across the ping-pong eyeballs. Glue the fabric, using hot glue, to the wire arcs over the ping-pong balls. After the hot glue is dry, push the trigger up so the arcs touch the fabric and hide the ping-pong ball eyes. Trim the fabric so only the fabric needed for eyelids is left. Glue the fabric onto the head at the outer edges of the fabric.
- 9
  Stick self-sticking felt dots onto the front of the ping-pong balls to make eyes. Glue eyelashes onto the eyelids, if desired.

Character Toys