Laser-cut Hand-puppet Head Controls With Rotatable Eyes

Whatever character you want to create in your puppet, as long as it has a place where eyes will sit or a head of whatever shape is supposed to be, the controls described here inside a cardboard egg (from Easter decoration, mostly) will provide a very safe and adaptable core to the figure.

In the following we show how to assemble laser-cut "Nordberg" Controls for approx. 18 cm high cardboard-eggs. They can be adjusted or produced in other sizes, too. The original Nordberg Controls were developed for 24 cm-eggs (resulting in approx. human adult sized heads), these here are considerably smaller, that means they lead to smaller puppets - less storage problems, less material needed!

Please note that much smaller sizes than the one presented here will become fragile and hard to handle as eye-control-mechanisms etc would hardly find space and would need to be extremely small and delicate.

The controls have been invented and developed by Mattias Nordberg, details have been developed further by Oskar Lennmarken, Jakob Dittmar has assisted and tested, as well as he uses these controls for puppet building on his character design-courses at Malmö University.

The ai-file for the laser cutter is provided at the end of these instructions. Please note that this built is published as CC SA BY NC. Absolutely feel free to use the template etc, but please do not sell it for profit!

for the head:

1 cardboard-egg of 18 cm height, various bits and pieces of cardboard, string, whatever (for details on the head)

for the controls:

3 mm MDF (medium density fibreboard) or similar sheet material: 25 x 25 cm

2 mm MDF or similar sheet material: 14 x 12 cm

super glue or contact glue (wood-glue works, but not that well)

for the eyes:

2 wooden beads or balls

2 dowel rods, between 3 to 6 mm diameter

a bit of rubber or plastic hose, approx. 6 cm

for movable lower jaw:

fishing line or nylon thread

Warning:

The material for these controls are boards from pressed fibres - sturdy but breakable in the direction of the fibres / lengthwise.

Be careful to not block pieces against each other when sliding them into each other.

You need to push pieces into place with force but you need to be aware of blockages beyond the friction of the tightly cut slots.

Glue later!!!! You can assemble these controls without glue.

Pieces will sit snuggly first but will wear out quickly with re-assemblies or when placing them differently.

Glue them only after the final placement of individual parts of the controls is established!

Draw your figure in actual size: frontal view and profile.

Plan the head in relation to the cardboard egg’s size.

Plan for changes to the cardboard egg’s shape!

Decide on the eye’s placement.

Build the head’s shape, develop its profile and glue the parts of the head to each other.

Put the controls into the head. DO NOT GLUE THEM IN, YET!

Place the eye-balls.

Build in the control for the eyes.

Shape and build the lower jaw.

Set in the fishing-line that moves the lower jaw.

Glue in the control after you have double-checked that it fits well at the eyes and mouth!

In the following we show how to assemble the Nordberg Controls for appprox. 18 cm high cardboard-eggs. They can be adjusted or produced in other sizes, too. The original Nordberg Controls were developed for 24 cm-eggs (resulting in approx. human adult sized heads), these here are considerably smaller.

Please note that much smaller sizes than the one presented here will become fragile and hard to handle as eye-control-mechanisms etc would hardly find space and would need to be extremely small and delicate.

Whatever character you want to create in your puppet, as long as it has a place where eyes will sit or a head of whatever shape is supposed to be, the controls described here inside a cardboard egg (from Easter decoration, mostly) will provide a very safe and adaptable core to the figure.

Carefully plan and prepare the head of your puppet before you set in the Nordberg Controls! Plan carefully and adjust the cardboard-egg accordingly: where are the eyes to be placed, what forms are intended for the chin, the nose, the forehead?

After you have prepared the shape of the head, build the controls and set them into the head. Only when the controls and eyes and mouth are set to your satisfaction, glue the controls into the egg / head!

You do not need a symmetrical face design, but it makes placing the controls into the head easier.

If you want to change the shape of the egg:

Glue the egg shut. Let glue dry/ harden. Mark the lines around the egg that you want to cut.

Cut, sand the edges and glue together in the desired angle / new shape.

Take your sketch of the head, take the cardboard egg and plan carefully:

how do you have to change the form of the egg to suit the sketched head best?

Where will the eyes be? Where the nose? Where will the mouth be?

Measure and mark carefully on the cardboard egg!

(images: Hans-Jürgen Fettig Rod-puppets)

Put the egg’s halves together, NO GLUE yet, sand its laquered shell,

mark the middle to simplify the placement of eyes, nose, etc on the egg.

Double-check the placement of the eyes, mark their centres with pin-holes or a very thin drill.

Widen the holes for the eyes with drills, a punch, or knife.

After you have made the eye-holes, glue the egg shut before you adjust its profile (see further below).

Endless options and variations possible – what suits your figure best?

Depending on their diametre of the spheres, the eyes protrude through their holes or not: the smaller the eye-ball, the more it sticks out.

It is essential to test different sizes before fixing the eye-sockets to the controls!

Decide on the size of eye-balls! Make sure they and their sockets will fit between the horizontal supports / oval plates of the control - see below!

Check if all parts are there:

Handle & Central uprights:

2 handle-shapes

1 base plate

2 central uprights (ladders)

1 top distancer (anchor shape)

Horizontal Supports:

2 horizontal supports

3 fixing disks (slotted circles)

Eyes:

2 semi-oval plates

4 eye-sockets

Jaw:

2 rings

1 lower jaw bracket

Firmly but carefully push the upright ladder-like parts through the base plate.

Top end of controls:

Slot the anchor formed top-distancer into the tops of the uprights / ladders.

Place a disk on it. 

Push the two grip-shapes into the base plate: slot in at the end of the plate and between the two uprights. This part of the controls will most likely not be subject to changes and can be glued early.

From the grips lower end, the body can be hung with or without shaping a neck between head and body.

There are two horizontal supports, they are of differing length.

You can place them wherever they fit best into the head-shape.

Place a slotted disk on each rounded end of one of them.

In the image here the oval plate is used as upper jaw, but this is optional!

Remember to leave room for the eye-balls and their sockets!

If you mount the eye-sockets on the oval plates, make sure that slots remain for these on the central ladder!

The lower jaw bracket’s two inner end-edges are placed each in one ring.

The ring is slotted over the base of the control’s central uprights.

If the jaw can be moved easily within the rings, place these and glue them in place. If they are jamming, you need to carefully shorten the inward-pointing ends of the E-shape, only a little!

After you made the holes for the eyes, glue the halves of the egg together and adjust the egg to the profile of your puppet. The egg can be cut and glued into all kinds of shapes to get close to the profile you want for your puppet.

For giving it a profile: TWIST A PART OF THE EGG…

Make sure to mark the cut-lines around the egg, cut them as straight as possible to allow for easy assembly of the new form (no matter what angle you cut!)

Plan for the placement of the controls inside the head. Mark the right cut-out at the back of the head – cut it open. Put the controls carefully into the head. Do not glue them in yet!

Decide on the size of eye-balls!

Make sure they and their sockets fit between the horizontal supports / oval plates of the control.

The sockets for each eye consist of two flat shapes with a circular hole in, one above and one underneath the ball. Carefully sand the edge of that hole on the inner side / towards the eye ball.

Put dowels into the eye balls. Grill pins will do. It the eye balls have no holes yet, drill holes into the exact centre of the spheres. Put in dowels / grill pins. Do not shorten these!

Put one eye ball into place, slide in one of the socket-pieces above or below the eye ball and clamp it to a horizontal support or oval plate.

Carefully move the socket-piece until it fits exactly.

Slide the eye’s other socket-piece into place, clamp it, adjust its fit if necessary.

When both eyes are placed, you can glue the sockets into their place.

Shorten the dowel rods / grill pins so much that they can be connected in front of the control’s handle.

Connect them with a piece of rubber or plastic hose - or a bit of wire.

Check the direction of the eyes / pupils and adjust their axis accordingly. Depending on how far the eyes are to sit in their holes. the sockets are placed behind the egg’s shell. If smaller eye balls are to sit snug in their holes, the front of the sockets needs to be shortened. With larger eyeballs this is not needed!

In the illustration furthest to the right, the eye on the right sits exactly within its hole, the eye on the left is placed a little behind the the hole.

Cut the hole for the lower lip - and possibly chin.

Either slide the lower lip etc inside the head or in front of it. To guarantee the lower jaw’s movability either cut really parallel or widen the hole towards its lower end.

You can use one of the oval plates for the lower jaw.

Cut it to shape. Make sure it fits onto the lower jaw-bracket at the side of the controls!

Glue it onto the lower jaw-bracket.

Set in a string / fishing line into the middle hole of the lower jaw to open and close the mouth with.

Thread it through the controls and fix it to the handle so that you can move the jaw by tightening the string with one of your fingers.

GLUE THE CONTROLS INTO THE HEAD after you have double-checked that it fits really well at the eyes and mouth!

DONE!

Now add the body.

The ai-file for the laser cutter is provided here, too. Please note that this built is published as CC SA BY NC. Absolutely feel free to use the template etc, but please do not sell it for profit!