Animals to airplanes, they're paper-and-paint puppets

Sunset, Jan, 1986

From designing and construction to putting on a play, children can participate in all stages of production of these simple paper puppets on a stick. Between performances, the puppets make striking decorations when placed in simple wooden stands.

Materials for each puppet cost about $3. Here's what you'll need:

* 2 to 4 square feet of butcher or white shelf paper (found in grocery, art, variety, and hardware stores)

* Shredded newspaper

* Craft glue

* 1-1/4- by 18-inch dowel

*1 8-ounce jar of gesso (each puppet requires about 4 ounces)

* Acrylic paints

You'll also need a pencil, scissors, stapler, a 5-1/8-inch needle, and flat, thin paintbrushes. Your cost should be about $3 for each puppet.

To attach movable parts, use dental floss and beads or buttons. Create hair with cotton twine. For an optional base, use a 3/4-inch-thick piece of scrap wood with a 1/4-inch-diameter hole drilled through it.

A coat of gesso applied before painting makes the figures stiff and more durable. Each puppet takes 2 to 3 hours to make. Children can draw their own characters, but they'll need adult supervision to finish the project.

Start by drawing a design for a puppet. Place a sheet of butcher paper over the design and trace it in pencil, keeping the outline simple. Place another piece of butcher paper beneath the tracing, then cut out the two pieces together.

To continue, follow the steps detailed at right. If tears occur when you're completing step 2, patch with paper and gesso.

To accent a puppet's three-dimensional quality or to keep a large one erect, trace and cut each of the parts separately. Some of these, like the plane fuselage and wings, you can staple together before applying the gesso. Others, like the movable legs, can be attached after the gesso dries. To make more delicate features, such as hands, you can cut them from light cardboard and glue in place.

Art teacher Don Getner of La Jolla, California, developed the technique that's shown here.