Quick question on the mouth plates......

[Animal31]

Hi all,

Been a fan since day one, and I want to thank you all for some really great hints and advice that I've found thus far. A recent purchase I made on a replica puppet really has inpired me to make my own original, but my question is about materials for the mouth, what would you recommend for say a Kermit type muppet compared to something larger like an Oscar or Cookie?


Thank you all in advance!

 

[D'Snowth]

For a puppet like Kermit, gasket rubber is always recommended for that flexibility... as for puppets like Oscar or Cookie, I honestly have no clue, I was always under the impression that they simply have cloth mouths.

 

[Animal31]

Thanks for that! Gasket rubber, where would I find that? I would totally agree with you on Cookie, but Oscar or even Ernie seem too padded in the head not to have something for support, no?

 

[spcglider]

Gasket rubber is a good choice, especially for a kermit-like mouth. I tend to use cereal boxes for the palette. Its cheap, light, plentiful, and usually lasts just fine as long as you're not using it for the actual mouth hinge. I let the fabric do that job.

-Gordon

 

[D'Snowth]

I tend to use cereal boxes for the palette.

Seriously? As great as your puppets are, I would've assumed you used something sturdier/stronger/better quality than that.

But then again, we all know that even the best of puppets are made from the simplest of materials...

For expressionless mouths I tend to use cardboard myself, but usually from the kind of cardboard used to keep calendars flat in their packaging, or if you get a device from the store and the cardboard from the boxes. All my new puppets had mouths from a box I had gotten my computer table in years ago and they've worked great.

 

[spcglider]

Well, the cereal box palettes don't stand up to a ton of abuse, but then again, I don't do live shows and we treat the puppets as gently as possible in performance.

I like how light the material is. It takes contact cement really well. And when its sandwiched between two pieces of fabric, it holds up just fine. It also has a really thin profile, so the puppeteer's hand is that much closer to the surface. And like I said earlier, its just the palette. I don't use it for the hinge. If it was in the hinge, it'd be pulverized in a day.

You're right in that it doesn't express like a soft palette would, but that hasn't been too much of a concern so far. I've never been very comfortable with soft palette puppets. Either building or performing. I should really try to get past that.

-Gordon

 

[D'Snowth]

I'm just the opposite, I'd like to try and experiment with soft palattes, because I really would like to add some expression to my puppets' faces, especially since when I write my shows, I tend to write actions that require flexibility, like if a puppet were to expression annoyance with a smirk, or a scrunched up face similar to Kermit, etc. I haven't tried gasket rubber, but I would like too... I've found that craft foam doesn't help shape very well; I experimented with it with a puppet once, and after several smirks and such, the puppet's mouth began to lose shape, and looked like it was in a permanent sneer. Of course it probably wouldn't hurt to use thinner foam rubber for the head construction either.

 

[Animal31]

For a puppet like Kermit, gasket rubber is always recommended for that flexibility... as for puppets like Oscar or Cookie, I honestly have no clue, I was always under the impression that they simply have cloth mouths.

Gasket rubber, where would I find that? With Cookie Monster you're probably right, I would agree that the mouth is simply cloth. But with something like Oscar or even Ernie, where the head is foam or whatnot, I would think there would have to be some sort of reinforcement. No?

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I've used cardboard in a pinch. I don't really build many puppets now, but at work I usually suggest making soft, flexible mouthplates out of high-quality felt. Larger mouth plates can be made from 1/2 inch foam (flexible), styrene (hard) or corrugated plastic for really large mouths.

Ice cream containers are a good substitute for styrene I've heard, but I don't eat much ice cream.

 

[practicecactus]

I've used foam backed vinyl and it works great. Some bin scavenged offcuts I had that was used for marine roof lining. It was already together, but it'd be as simple as gluing a thin sheet of foam to some vinyl or leather and bob's your monkey's uncle.
I made a simple sock puppet style test puppet once, with the kermit plushie head pattern, and glued it down on the inside of the black material I used for the mouth and it's rigid enough but still flexable to do the kermit face scrunch, and I used it on a cat puppet with a foam head. It keeps it's rigidty really well on that one cause I made a leather lip around the bottom edge of the mouth. For a large mouth puppet like Oscar, you could even glue a wire into the edge of the mouth, between the foam of the vinyl and the foam of the skull-head ...if that makes sense.
It's nice and cushiony on the fingers and I lined the inside with leather [because of the sweaty hand problem], but you could just as easily use the same vinyl used to make the outside mouth palet.