Another question that pops up on a regular basis is the storing of puppets. We are not talking about how to keep a puppet overnight, but rather for the safe keeping of your puppet for 3 to 6 months or longer.
First if possible, lets store the puppet vertically in an upright position. This would be to store the puppet on a stand. It is important that when you put the puppet down on a shaft that goes into his/her head that the top of the shaft MUST have a ball of some sort on the top of it.
This is very important so that the weight of the puppet when bearing down on the shaft does not eventually force the shaft through the top of the puppets head. As you can imagine, this would create the need for expensive repairs on the puppet.
Once the puppet is placed safely on a stand, the next thing is to cover the puppet with something like a pillow case. DO NOT USE A PLASTIC BAG. Some of you will say that this is contrary to the bag we used to ship your puppet to you when you first purchased the puppet.
Very true, but I will quickly explain the difference. When we ship the puppet to you, we put the puppet inside a plastic sleeve. This is done for the puppets protection. For instance, if your package should encounter a large wet object during shipping, it will penetrate the cardboard box and potentially stain the puppet.
The shipping bag protects the puppet from this happening. During shipping, the puppet is usually in the plastic bag for about 5 days at most.
The reason that you DO NOT WANT TO USE A PLASTIC BAG for long term storage is simple. Your puppet, like you must breathe in order to stay healthy. Your puppet is made from many pieces of foam that needs access to air.
Therefore the best thing to put over the puppet is an ordinary pillow case. This will protect your puppet from many different kinds of dirt, while allowing the puppet to breathe while in storage.
That should cover the basics of storage.
We will talk again next week. Stay safe and keep venting.
Steve and JET