Our handyman made a wonderful stand. Used a plywood base (size is up to you). Then he screwed an assorted number of dowels into this base and added a "ball knob" (I don't know the technical name for these things) to the top. All was sanded, painted and coated with polyurethane ( I think) and when done, the puppets just slip on top of the dowel and stand tall and proud. It works very well and is a wonderful decorative feature for our drama room.

Wire Shoe Storage Rack

We used a wire shoe storage rack--the kind that hangs on the back of a door.

We mounted ours on the wall. It holds a lot of puppets.

It looks cool and is easy for the kids to use. Best of all it was inexpensive (free in our case--member donated it) and did not require a carpenter.

Hope this helps.
Angie

Photos found on Pinterest.

More Puppet storage ideas for handle bag puppets

Note: Handle bag puppets are constructed according to directions found in the book by Kurt Hunter, Puppets, Kids, and Christian Education. (ISBN-13: 978-0806664095)

Here's a photo of this type of puppet. You can see the "handle"(indicated by the arrow) and a bit of the "bag."

The question about storage of these puppets was...

(we used the excellent directions in this book to construct our puppets) however Kurt does not say anything about storage.

Just wondering about a better way to keep them than jumbled into a box

Replies...

by Jaymie Derden on 1/28/13

We store our paper bag puppets (stuffed paper bags on a paint stick) in a large basket, stick down. There are enough of them, that they fit firmly in the basket and stay upright). Another thought is to use firm styrofoam. We store our spoon puppets in a block of styrofoam with holes made to insert the spoon handles. Your puppets look more top-heavy, so you might need to stack several layers of styrofoam together. Another thought would be some sort of metal rack with a square grid (seems like I've seen something like this in cooking store??? or maybe a hardware store?) -- the handles could fit down in the holes/squares.

Later that same day Jaymie added...

I saw an idea tonight in Wal-Mart. it was a plastic crate, but instead of square holes it had circles. Turn it upside down and stick the puppet handles in it! Bet it would work!

Luanne Payne (our queen of resources!) found a link to this item at Walmart in Canada. The US link to the same item at Walmart is here. (If the link goes dead search on the Internet for "STOREX Large File Crate"). Sears also sells them.

Luanne also noted...

They are stackable so you could even stack two on top of each other and have the handle bag puppets stuck in all four sides, as well as the top, of the crates so they would hold a lot of puppets.

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Water Bottles as Puppet Stands

We have a tall older, not very deep, cupboard to store most of our puppets.  But no room for the larger puppets.  So our people puppets sit on top of the cupboard.

For the puppet stands we just use empty 1 litre pop or juice bottles filled with water.  For the larger puppets heads we just slid a cardboard toilet tissue roll over the bottles lid, this helps to hold their head upright.

The puppets can be carried from the room they are in, to a table by the stage leaving them on their bottle holder until needed, then simply lift off.

They look great sitting on top of the cupboard and attract attention of anyone entering or passing by the room they are in (actually the back corner of our movie theater).

By having them on the bottles and not stuffed in a cupboard they retain their shapes nicely and their clothing doesn't get wrinkled.

The puppet stands are recyclable, cost nothing, are easy to grab the puppet you need quickly without having to search through a cupboard or storage bucket.

Hanging Baskets for Small Puppets

We also have hanging above the cupboard, on each side, mesh hanging baskets (ours came from Ikea, but they can be found online at different retailers).

Ours are divided into three sections, with a small entry hole in each section.

We stuffed our small people and animal hand puppets in these.

Keeping pigs (prodigal son), sheep (lost sheep), etc. together in a section for ease of finding.