Puppet-in-Progress: From the foam up

[Bear Man]

What is that flag made from? Is that velcro?

Nah, it's just a small square of leather - the same stuff that I used to make my finger loops for the mouth plate. It's your standard sort of craft-leather, I think the fact it's got one rough/suede side also helps it to "grab" hold of the inside of the palm pocket, further avoiding the need for any double stick tape in my opinion.

 

[D'Snowth]

This is all very interesting. Typical, once I inserted the rods into the wrists, I would hot glue where the rod went into the wrist, and yet somehow, the hot glue never created a permanent seal, and the rods always eventually worked their way loose; on the one hand, this allowed me to remove rods as necessary, but on the other hand, since there was never anything inside the hands holding the rods into place, the rods tended to slide around in the hands a lot creating some awkward-looking hand gestures. Then again, I never was a particularly good puppet builder.

 

[WemblinFool]

I make puppets on commission.

Watching your progress on making all of these puppets is truly awing! Are you currently taking commissions for them?

 

[Slackbot]

Watching your progress on making all of these puppets is truly awing! Are you currently taking commissions for them?

Sorry I didn't reply to this, oh, over a month ago. Unfortunately, due to arthritis in my hands I can't do the hours of intensive sewing that puppets entail, and due to a much longer commute I now have very little free time. So, I haven't been able to make any puppets for some time now.

 

[pizzaroger2003]

Sorry I didn't reply to this, oh, over a month ago. Unfortunately, due to arthritis in my hands I can't do the hours of intensive sewing that puppets entail, and due to a much longer commute I now have very little free time. So, I haven't been able to make any puppets for some time now.

Well, hope your hands get better. Also I haven't been on here for about 2 years.

 

[Diego Fiorucci]

Here's the current puppet in progress. I've tried to make his face more flexible by thinning the foam in the cheeks, snout, and lower jaw from the inside. The results are encouraging.

It looks wonderful! What did you use for the mouthplates inside?

 

[Diego Fiorucci]

I got my order of 50mm balls from from pingbongballs.net in decent time, and they look good. You can see a seam if you look hard, but really it's hardly noticeable. I used them to re-eyeball Red, and they made all the difference:

They cost about $2 each in a pack of 24, which is pretty pricey for plastic spheres. But when I consider what I spend on ostrich feathers, it's not all that bad.

That's incredible! Great work! I'm just beginning into making puppets.

 

[CoOKiE]

What material did you use to make Gobo's vest?

 

[D'Snowth]

BJ Guyer suggests a pretty large (1/2 inch) square flag at the end of arm rods that he then places double stick tape on before slipping into the palm pocket - I tried that with my arm rods and they work perfectly even without the double stick tape...

I know it's been a long time, but I'm bumping this thread to say . . . I tried this method, and the results were not satisfactory. I don't know if it was the particular kind of double face tape I was using (Scotch), or it was the fabric (faux fur), or what, but the taped arm rods wouldn't stay in place in the long run, and in fact, they keep coming loose relatively quickly after being inserted into the wrist.