I just watched Being Elmo, an amazing documentary about puppeteer Kevin Clash’s — and Elmo’s — journey to stardom. If you haven’t seen this movie, you must. For writers, it’s fascinating to see how Clash developed the character of Elmo. Another puppeteer gave up on Elmo and literally threw Elmo at Clash in disgust. The movie shows some early clips of Elmo talking in a caveman voice, a far cry from his modern-day, high-pitched sing song.
Clash started making puppets as a precocious 10-year-old, using materials like the lining of his dad’s trench coat (whoops!). He truly was a curious kid, and his family nurtured his talents. Kevin’s dad shrugged off the trench coat incident, which amazes me. I try to channel Kevin’s dad as I watch the boys get into everything (and I mean everything).
When Finley noticed some holes in my socks, I thought making some sock puppets might be fun. After all, the boys enjoyed making paper-bag puppets in the past. I let the boys select buttons for eyes. They both picked red stars,which I sewed on. Then they picked yarn for hair, which we glued on. Cooper picked some psychedelic blue hair, while Finely went with brown with touches of blue. Then we made shirts and scarves out of fabric scraps and attached them with glue.
So far, the boys have been having a great time playing with Puntoff (Finley’s) and Rocko (Cooper’s). Puntoff’s favorite thing to do is bite my finger. He’s a silly one.
Kirsten W. Larson 
I love this! (The thought of Elmo with a caveman voice? oh my.)
May Puntoff and Rocko go on to many great adventures.
Caveman Elmo certainly was funny, and not nearly as endearing.
Yeah! I love making sock puppets! So glad your boys do too! Still have a collection of ‘individuals’ ready for the making (as does every household I imagine!)
They love to have puppet shows. They make me set up an old baby gate as their stage.
We watched being Elmo the other night! It was an interesting documentary and my husband and I were blown away by how supportive his parents were. The sock puppets are a great idea 🙂
All I can say, is I think I would have had to work really hard not to go ballistic over the trench coat. But apparently Kevins’ parents spotted his unique talents early on.
To think… the world almost missed Elmo! I haven’t made sock puppets in a while. Thanks as always for the great ideas!
Likewise, Hannah. And I still am laughing over your lightbulb post. Too funny!