A poppet is typically sewn cloth stuffed with herbs chosen for the working, or wax molded by hand, or, in an older and more literal form, a root, mandrake being the classic example, whose natural forking shape already resembles a human figure and was sometimes carved further to enhance that resemblance.
The personal link that makes it work
Whichever material is used, a poppet is generally made by the practitioner themselves for a specific working rather than bought ready made, because personal items connecting it to its subject, a lock of hair, nail clippings, a scrap of clothing, a photograph, are considered central to what links the object to the person it represents. That personal, purpose built construction is precisely what separates a poppet from the commercialized Vodou doll of popular imagination, a comparison the object's own tradition and Vodou practitioners alike reject.
A deliberately temporary object
Unlike an amulet or talisman kept for ongoing protection, a poppet made for a specific working is frequently destroyed once that working is considered complete, burned, buried, taken apart or otherwise deliberately ended rather than retained. That planned destruction is part of the object's design rather than a sign of failure or disposal of unwanted waste.