(upbeat music)
- Hi, I'm Jiéyì.
I am an artist and a teaching artist.
And a teaching artist means
that I get to share some of my artwork with people like you.
I like making art a lot of different ways.
Sometimes I dance, sometimes I work with technology.
And one thing that I really love is working with paper.
So today we are going to be exploring paper magic,
to make paper puppets like these.
So the first thing that you wanna do to make a paper puppet,
is come up with an idea of what your character might be.
So I'm gonna go ahead and put these away for a minute,
so that we can start brainstorming.
You'll want a piece of paper, a blank piece of paper,
like this is great.
But if you don't have paper, that's okay.
You can also use notebook paper,
or even cut up a piece of a plastic bag, or a paper bag.
So for mine, I want to make, I think, an alligator.
And so I'm gonna start,
by just drawing my alligator normally.
So I know that I want my alligator to have, like, a head,
with a nose,
and a tail,
and we're gonna have a couple of legs.
I think that I want my alligator to have more legs
than normal alligators do.
So this alligator is gonna have three legs,
but it's actually six legs.
(upbeat music)
So this is my alligator,
and I just have it right now in just pencil.
Because I know that this is just the first step.
The next part is thinking about how to make it
into a character with moving limbs.
So now it's time to think about
what the different parts are.
So, in some of our previous ones,
we have a lot of different kinds of moving parts.
This alligator's a little bit different.
It even has a moving jaw.
So I could do it that way and add something different,
or a moving tail.
This one, the head is just one piece,
and I have my legs and my tail.
So I think again, with this one,
I'm going to make one piece for the head,
a piece for each of the three legs,
a piece for the body, and another piece for the tail.
So I'm going to keep this out,
while I think about what the different parts are,
and get a second piece of paper.
On my second piece of paper,
I can start drawing out what these different parts are.
So I'm gonna start drawing just my alligator head.
And I'm leaving a little bit of extra room here,
'cuz right here is where I'm going to fasten it
to the body.
And then I'm going to draw my alligator body
right here.
And I'm gonna draw my alligator tail,
right here.
And I'm gonna draw some of my alligator legs.
Kind of funky, huh?
Seeing it in all these different parts.
The next thing that you wanna do is add all of your details.
So this is where you would start coloring it.
You can color it with colored pencils,
or with markers if you have them.
One of my favorite ways to color is with paint.
I have a few that I have already started working on.
So, I'm gonna show you this one of a robot cat,
and another of an alligator that is already painted.
So the next thing to do is to cut out your different pieces.
So I'm going to cut out my tail.
(upbeat music)
So I have my head, my body,
my tail, and this alligator only has two legs.
And now, I have to think about how to attach them together.
So I have all of my parts cut out.
And there's lots of ways to attach things.
Sometimes people will use a hole puncher,
and brass fasteners,
but it's totally okay if you don't have this as a tool.
Other people will use wire, or string,
or even twist ties.
So I'm gonna start with the one with a hole puncher.
So with the hole puncher, I already made this hole,
but what I did,
is I lined it up and punched straight through,
and I did the same thing over here.
And then I would line these two up,
and then put my brass fastener through.
And sometimes I like to twist it back a little bit,
so that's a little bit tighter.
And now I have a moving leg. For my next one,
I wanna do it a little bit differently.
So for this one I'm gonna use a paper clip,
like this, to make my hole,
and this paperclip I just bent out a little bit,
and poked it right through the paper,
so I have a little bitty hole right there.
And then I am going to try
to put this twist tie through that hole.
This hole is pretty small so we'll see if I'm able to do it.
So I'm pushing it through,
and with this one, I have this piece on top.
And I think that for this one,
I actually want the joint to be hidden.
So I don't want this to show up on top.
So when I wanna do on this one instead,
is I am going to tape down right here,
where I want this to be,
so that the tape is
right where the joint should be.
Like this, and then I am gonna bend this twist tie up,
and feed it through the hole that I made.
And with this one, I can just sort of
make this into a little spiral in the back, like this.
And now I have a moving limb,
and it doesn't even have something on top like this.
You can do the same thing,
with string by tying a knot in the back of it,
or with wire.
So for this one I am going to feed this through,
and I want this piece to be on top again.
So I am making a hole with my paperclip again.
I'm gonna make my hole just a little bit bigger,
by poking just a couple more times,
because I know the string is gonna be a little bit harder,
to feed through.
With my string, I'm gonna cut a small piece of it.
And again, what I wanna do is, since this piece is on top,
I am going to put it right here and tape it down.
And then I am gonna take my piece of string and thread it,
through this hole, like this.
And on the other side what you do,
is make either a big knot,
or you can tape this piece down again.
You wanna make sure that, when you're taping it down,
you're taping it down just a little bit away from the hole,
so that it's still able to move.
So it looks like this in the back. And I have a tail,
that is able to move with my string through it.
Another thing that you can use is wire.
So, you don't have to use wire like this.
If there are old appliances in your home,
and you have help from a grownup,
you can cut up the wires from those old appliances,
and take the plastic off of it and use those wires as well.
This one is a pretty thick wire,
but some people like to use a wire that's very very thin,
because it helps keep everything really hidden.
When I use my twist ties,
this is lifted up a little bit from the paper.
And I kinda liked that look,
but some people want it to be really flat.
So again, with this one,
I would use my paperclip to push a hole through the paper.
This wire's a little bit thicker than my paperclip.
And this is gonna be attached right here.
I'm going to take my wire and,
tape it down.
Then bend it up,
like this.
And then push this wire through the hole,
that you just made,
like this.
And again, I would make just a little twist,
in the back, like this.
And now I have an alligator, with moving limbs.
So this is one way to make them.
There's lots of different designs that you can try.
Making a robot cat is pretty cool.
And some ones that I have already made before are,
a different kind of extra big alligator,
that also has a moving jaw.
This alligator is pretty similar
to the one that we just made together,
or this one is a dragon with two moving legs,
and a moving head.
This robot cat has so many joints.
There's an extra joint right here for the elbows,
and for the knees and for the tail.
Another dragon, or a pumpkin with wings.
I'm really excited to see what kinds of creations
you come up with.
Thank you so much for playing with me.
I'm Jiéyì and I'm an artist, and I love working with paper.
(upbeat music)