Bunsen Honeydew mouth

[practicecactus]

Ah, ok. Yeah, you're right, because the inside of the mouth is black, the opening of the mouth can very well be smaller than what's going on behind it, especially given the fact the opening is small and 'D' shape as you say. The hand grip inside inside could be standard enough [flat mouthplate] and more agape than the lips [so you can squash the lips together] but the sides of the handgrip-mouthplate could be attached to the sides of the head inside considering the furthest part into the mouth wouldn't really move.
..if that makes sense.
You'd just have to measure half the width of the mouthplate-handgrip and remove as much foam accordindgly to the inside of the sculpted head half, glue it to one side, then gluing the other half of the mouthplate-handgrip as you join the two halves of the head together again.
I mean that's how I'd do it as a sculpted head. For sheet foam it would be slightly different, but same principles I guess.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Yeah, my first thought would be to carve this, but either way I would try a smaller mouth plate. Maybe something operated by just the puppeteer's thumb and index and middle fingers. You could also design something wide the in back, but narrow in the front as PracticeCactus suggested.

 

[mothballs]

Did you finally figure out how the bunsen honeydew mouth is engineered? I've made several models and I think I'm close but I feel like I'm missing something. (I wish I could insert diagrams here)

It seems like the beauty of the muppets is their highly integrated function and form. And the form usually reveals how the mouth functions. We can see that there are seams at Bunsen Honeydews smile lines. These seams continue down the chin. I wonder if there are also seams in the foam behind it meaning that the chin mouth nose area is a separate triangular wedge. If so, what is the function of that separate wedge? Is it merely a constructional function or is it an operational function? (It must be constructional, no. As the sides of the wedge are firmly anchored to the rest of the head shape, thus closing the corners of the mouth, I'm not sure any additional operational function can be gained by the separate wedge.)

I believe that the Bunsen Honeydew mouth is a small horizontal slit in the foam that gets stretched into a D shape when the mouth plate is operated. The mouth plate material would therefore need to be strong enough to pull the foam from its horizontal resting state into the D shape. And it would have to be flexible enough to close the D shape to become a closed mouth | shape. I think the key lies in inserting a larger length of material into the foam slit, thereby forcing the foam to stretch. The trick is removing that excess so the mouth closes properly. I've tried everything I can think of with foam, gasket rubber, barge and electrical tape but none of these models seem like they'll hold up very long. I'm clearly missing something in engineering or in materials. Or I could be on a totally wrong track. Please help. If you need a visual aid I can email some diagrams.

Thank you,
Mothballs

 

[TheCreatureWork]

http://toughpigs.com/uploaded_images/9-bunsen-744024.JPG

 

[charlie bird]

theres a pattern on how to make the o shape mouth in the book puppet plannet.If you're still wondering.
Thank you

 

[mothballs]

Thanks Creature Work! Nice mouth. And leg! Carving a block of foam was my initial instinct. I actually have an egg shape all sanded and ready to go. But I was looking at it and thought it'd be to dense for movement. I guess that depends on what the mouth plates are made out of. Did you use gasket rubber for that?

Thanks Charlie Bird,
I just ordered the book!

 

[charlie bird]

theres a pattern on how to make the o shape mouth in the book puppet plannet.If you're still wondering.
Thank you
also the pattern in that book does not have a mouth plate,but grips behind the foam slit for the mouth.I don't think it's the best way to do that style of mouth ,but it works
I hope this helps

 

[TheCreatureWork]

This Benson carve was from Tough Pigs Visit to the Muppet Whatnot Workshop in New York...it was in one of the displays.

 

[AveQ]

I would think it would be carved out of a block of Scott Foam as you've said, and as the mouth moves, it would stretch the Scott Foam.

 

[charlie bird]

Thanks Creature Work! Nice mouth. And leg! Carving a block of foam was my initial instinct. I actually have an egg shape all sanded and ready to go. But I was looking at it and thought it'd be to dense for movement. I guess that depends on what the mouth plates are made out of. Did you use gasket rubber for that?

Thanks Charlie Bird,
I just ordered the book!

I'ts a realy good book it also covers smoothing carved foam. It has a whole bunch of types of puppets. They call the one I'm refering to as the podium puppet in the book.He uses simple mateirials ,but you can change them esillly to more advanced mateirials.I hope you like it.

I also know that the puppet that was posted was carved ,but I thaughte this looked pretty simular to those rusults and I thuaght It would help
thank you