How to Make a Toy Stick Giant

This is a stick giant. I made him in the Fall to be in some stories. He looks scary and strange, but he is friendly and kind.



When my son saw my stick giant, he wanted to make one, too. You need some promising-looking sticks, (I used gnarled sycamore sticks I found on the ground,) a pruning saw, a drill, some sandpaper, and some string or wire to fasten the stick giant together.



My son picked out a stick which seemed to have a face in it. (I can't see the face yet, but that's okay.)



I sawed the body and head segment. Let your child decide how big everything should be. You should just be the assistant. My boy wanted to make sure his stick giant was very tall, much taller than mine.



Here are the pieces: a body/head segment, and then two pieces for each arm and leg.



We drilled holes in the sticks, through the body at the shoulders, through the body at the hips, through the arms at the shoulders and elbows, and through the legs at the hips and knees.




Now sand the cuts. I like to leave the bark on the sticks if possible.



It got dark, so we went inside and my son assembled his stick giant using fine gauge copper wire. I watched. I like for him to figure out how to do things his own way. When I made my stick giant I used embroidery thread. String would also be fine.



In this picture he is threading some wire through an arm, across the body, and into the other arm.



He wanted to attach an eye hook into the top of the head so that he could control his stick giant like a puppet with a long piece of wire.




It came alive in a rather eerie and funny way once he lifted it by the wire on top.



Today we took the stick giants outside. I think I can see a face in his stick giant now!

He climbed a tree and made the stick giants do acrobatics.

This little friend of ours was mesmerized by the two stick giants.

The expression on her face in this picture makes me chuckle. She seems to be thinking, "What is this strange critter?"


If you want to read a story about stick giants, look under Beth's Stories in the column to the right.