Stringing up the marionette in this way will give you the option to pop the head right off the marionette and have him bend over to pick up the head. Then you can return the head right to the neck where it belongs!
Cut yourself three pieces of wood or wooden dowel. They don't have to be super strong just strong enough to comfortably support the full weight of the marionette.
The two larger pieces are 16 inches in length. Tape them together to form an X like you see in the picture. The third piece is about 7 inches long.
This is how we string it up.
The Dropping Head
First let's wire up the head and this is how we make it so it can fall off then come back on. These two strings go to the solo piece of wood that is about seven inches long (One string to each end). One string goes to the top of the head and is tied in a knot. The other end of the string goes to a curved piece of wire that you attach to the hoop on the bottom of the head. Insure that this curved wire and the string can slide through the neck hoop easily.
Here is those two strings attached to the top solo bar. Put the length of the strings so that when the head is upright in the normal position that wooden bar is horizontal.
There are four strings that we do next. These are the two knees and the two wrists.
Connect strings from 2 and 3 to each wrist of the marionette. And connect strings 4 and 5 to each knee of the marionette. In this picture you see a number 1. Ignore this string for this configuration. That is the head string for the simple configuration.
Crouching Over (Add this last)
We add an extra string to the marionette to get it to crouch over. The string is on a ring and it is attached to the spine of the skeleton, from the back side. So, to get the marionette into the crouched position you pull the ring then place it on the hook you see on the stick on the right.
These next three pictures show how to make it and how to assemble it.
Use two toothpicks to make a little slot in of the V sections. Tie a ring to a string.
This is the standing position. With the ring here against the toothpicks the skeleton is standing up.
To make the skeleton crouch you pull that ring and hook it on the hook you made about 8 inches up from the X. Now it will stay in the crouched position. To get him back to standing to take the ring off the hook and let it go back to the toothpicks.
And that's It! Your marionette is done. Be sure to send me a picture. And have fun!!
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