Interesting Puppet Building Video

D'Snowth

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And when I say "interesting," I mean that in the insincere-yet-polite/backhanded sense of the word.

But anyshoe, I've seen this video on YT before, and thought I'd share it here - not necessarily as a reference for puppet builders to actually use, but just for puppet builders to take a gander at to see how those kinds of generic/stock puppets that Rick Lyon has trash-talked before on his site:


Notice this guy does one of the biggest no-nos that puppet builders can do: he machine-sews everything. Totally wrong. All professional puppet builders (and at least people who like to try to do this stuff) will tell you to sew the cover fabric of your puppet by hand for more accuracy and to ensure as minimal visibility of the seams as possible.

Notice too that this guy puts together the fabrication first, then puts together the foam skeleton . . . I've never seen puppets built that way before, and it seems to me that the patterns have to be precise if your going to put the covering fabric together first before you construct the foam skeleton.

I will admit though, this guy also does something that I've been notoriously guilty of in the past when building my puppets: up until recent years, I never really bothered with darts and segments and such for the skulls, which always resulted in the skulls looking incredibly flat, so I would take whatever I could get my hands on and wedge them into the insides of the skulls to give them the shape that they lack: this guy takes the same mistake I've made in the past, and makes a bigger mess out of it by taking the foam scraps, stuffing them inside the skull, then gluing a "plug" to the opening of the skull; admittedly, I guess the works to the point that you don't need straps or anything on the inside of the mouthplate to keep your fingers in place.
 
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