Puppet Name: Major The Rabbit Magician

Pattern: None

Materials: Cardboard, Paper Mache, hot glue, foam clay, poly fill, felt, cut fabric, sponge, armature wire, paint, magnets (ceramic)

Arm type: Double Rod

Features: Removable ears, removable arms

After completing the first incarnation of Blizzard, I felt that it would be refreshing to try my hand at another character I had been meaning to turn into a puppet. His method of building is similar to Blizzard, taking into account improvements that could have been made to the building process. These processes later carried over to future upgrades of Blizzard

His weight is slightly lesser due to being primarily built with lighter materials. The more narrow muzzle helps to hold the performer’s fingers in place when in use, making control easier. Due to his ears being longer, the performer must be careful to not let them collide with objects lest they fall off. His arm rods also tend to bend when enough force is placed on them due to the unsuitable thinner wire used. the sponge in his arms also do not have notches cut into them, making then difficult to bend. It takes a lot of getting used to in order to perform this puppet.

His head is a cardboard skeleton with paper mache and foam clay surround it. Paper mache is used as a first layer as it is inexpensive and lays over gaps easily. It is used to increase the surface area of the skeleton for the foam clay to rest. The Foam clay is used to further bulk out the head and sculpt shapes. The ears are sculpted from foam clay separately and connect to the head by a magnetic contact. This not only decreases the area of the puppet when not in use, but also allows hats to be placed on the head. Thin wire attached to the hat surround the head’s contact points, securing them to the head when the ears are connected.

The body is a felt tube stuffed with poly fill, with a smaller tube acting as an entrance hole inside. Although I wanted to put the entrance hole on Major’s back so that he could have legs, I decided against it as it would then require the performer to bend the arm upwards to perform the puppet. The hole being place at the bottom made it so that the performer would only have to hold the arm upright to perform the puppet, making the experience more comfortable.

The arms are two colours, grey felt tubes used for the arms, white for the hands. This meant that additional stitching was required to construct them. Melamine sponge was used to give the arms shape. However, due to their relative stiffness compared to normal sponge, they require notches to be cut into them to allow the arm to bend, something that slipped my mind during construction. The hands are armature wire and the tips of arm rods sandwiched between foam before being stitched into the white felt. The arms rods were built using thicker wire, stuck into a cylinder of chopsticks and painted black.

Despite the numerous caveats in design, Major is a great puppet that can be performed after some practice. Usual portrayals of him are as a flighty and excitable magician, who loves risk-taking and chaos, moving at a fast and unpredictable rate.

Major is the first and currently only puppet I have performed with in front of a live audience. During my school’s National Day Celebration, I was a contestant for ‘Fairfield’s Got Talent!’ Performing Major, we sang ‘For Forever’, a deeply meaningful song about the friendship of two boys. Although I did not win, I was delighted at the wonderful reception my performance received. Many of my peers were intrigued by Major, asking for pictures with him. It was an unforgettable experience and I became motivated to continue building and performing in the future.