Sidebottom Fraggle's back! His front, too! Both of him!

[Slackbot]

So I has perpetrated another puppet. This time it's a replica of an existing puppet rather than an OC or comic book design...

Sidebottom's back! His front, too! Both of him!

Sidebottom in profile

This guy is all handmade, and not based on any patterns but what I created myself. His skin is antron fleece, which I dyed, and the fur is gray shag which I boiled and then dyed teal. I didn't dye the pants & hat fabric; that was a random Xmas present from Mom. (Hi, Mom!) With this puppet I tried a few new things: making the thumb perpendicular to the palm, as opposed to "paddle hands", and making his arm rods removable. Heh, I wish I'd thought of the latter when I made Janken; I made two whole right arms for him!

I plan to tweak the costume a little more. Probably I'll applique some felt shapes and stuff on his hat and pants to jazz them up a little more, and I'll add buttons to the pants and give him his black-eyed-susan corsage.

Here's a WIP shot, to show what he looks like all naked and nude with no clown suit on:

Sidebottom WIP

Look at that lovely mop of hair! I hated to cover it up with a hat.

 

[charlietheowl]

Love it! His costume is marvelous and definitely has the wild air that Sidebottom needs, plus his hair mop is excellent. Thank you for sharing!

 

[crazy chris]

FANTASTIC!!!

cc

 

[Slackbot]

Thanks, guys.

For those who have never seen Sidebottom, here's the little potato in action..

 

[ncchuck]

being sick and not able to talk or eat for the last 5 days this really picked me up I love seeing your work thank you.

 

[Twisted Tails]

/You made Sidebottom? Oh my gosh! You are great at making puppets, Slackbot. I LOVE this character. He's fun and oh yeah he can get reckless.

 

[Slackbot]

Aw, gawrsh, thanks!

I had an impressive blonde moment when making him. I made his pants, with the leg holes and tail sleeve and everything, and put them on him... and couldn't work him because I'd forgotten the flippin' arm hole. What kind of dingbat does that? So I went at 'em with a seam ripper.

Since Sidebottom is almost physically identical to Boober (SB has longer hair and Boober's mouthplate is scored at the top to make him frown) I can re-use my Sidebottom pattern for the ol' potato, so I'm making him next. Out of curiosity, would anyone here be interested in an in-progress journal showing how I make him? I'm no pro, but it might be helpful to those new to puppet making.

 

[ncchuck]

Aw, gawrsh, thanks!

I had an impressive blonde moment when making him. I made his pants, with the leg holes and tail sleeve and everything, and put them on him... and couldn't work him because I'd forgotten the flippin' arm hole. What kind of dingbat does that? So I went at 'em with a seam ripper.

Since Sidebottom is almost physically identical to Boober (SB has longer hair and Boober's mouthplate is scored at the top to make him frown) I can re-use my Sidebottom pattern for the ol' potato, so I'm making him next. Out of curiosity, would anyone here be interested in an in-progress journal showing how I make him? I'm no pro, but it might be helpful to those new to puppet making.

I AM VERY VERY INTERESTED in an in progress journal

 

[FrackleFan2012]

So I has perpetrated another puppet. This time it's a replica of an existing puppet rather than an OC or comic book design...

Sidebottom's back! His front, too! Both of him!

Sidebottom in profile

This guy is all handmade, and not based on any patterns but what I created myself. His skin is antron fleece, which I dyed, and the fur is gray shag which I boiled and then dyed teal. I didn't dye the pants & hat fabric; that was a random Xmas present from Mom. (Hi, Mom!) With this puppet I tried a few new things: making the thumb perpendicular to the palm, as opposed to "paddle hands", and making his arm rods removable. Heh, I wish I'd thought of the latter when I made Janken; I made two whole right arms for him!

I plan to tweak the costume a little more. Probably I'll applique some felt shapes and stuff on his hat and pants to jazz them up a little more, and I'll add buttons to the pants and give him his black-eyed-susan corsage.

Here's a WIP shot, to show what he looks like all naked and nude with no clown suit on:

Sidebottom WIP

Look at that lovely mop of hair! I hated to cover it up with a hat.

Wow! That's a great Sidebottom. I saw all of those episodes featuring Sidebottom and it was really fantastic!

 

[Slackbot]

I finally finished Sidebottom. Added buttons to his pants (the original puppet didn't have 'em, but they seemed in character), added his corsage, put some more feathers on his cap, and made a few other tweaks:

Sidebottom's Point

Sidebottom's Side and Bottom

As you can see, he's aware that he's a puppet, and, far from angsting about it like other Muppets do, he takes control of the situation. Power to the puppets!

I mentioned earlier that I was going to add little felt shapes to his costume to jazz it up. I tried that and didn't like the result, so I took 'em off again. Fortunately, I'd stuck them on with double-sided tape.

I really wish I could post some in-action photos. The little spud looks so much better when he's not standing there posing.