Dog Puppet Nose?

[Rowlfy]

Hi, I am starting a puppet show and I am currently building puppets. It's and all dog puppet show called Gone to the Dogs. Any ideas for a nose?

 

[Animal31]

I guess it would all depend on what the dogs look like? There are hundreds of options out there from blocks of wood to premade plastic ones from craft sites. I'm guessing each dog will be different, so therefore the noses (sizes) will be as well.

Any pics you can post to give a better idea?

 

[davidmartiste]

Ditto what Animal31 said. These plastic 'doll' noses come in all shapes and sizes from fully shaped noses to just ovals, depending on the look you're going for. For larger puppets, I was also taught by Matt Ficner to use sculpey clay that you buy in craft stores. I'm no sculptor but, I've gotten pretty good results. To firm it up, you can bake it in your toaster oven per instructions. My sculpey noses thus far include these two characters. The second was painted with a gloss paint to give it that wet-nose shine:

 

[Rowlfy]

Ditto what Animal31 said. These plastic 'doll' noses come in all shapes and sizes from fully shaped noses to just ovals, depending on the look you're going for. For larger puppets, I was also taught by Matt Ficner to use sculpey clay that you buy in craft stores. I'm no sculptor but, I've gotten pretty good results. To firm it up, you can bake it in your toaster oven per instructions. My sculpey noses thus far include these two characters. The second was painted with a gloss paint to give it that wet-nose shine:

Thanks for the help! Great looking puppets, two!

 

[davidmartiste]

Thank you Rowlfy. Best of luck on your project!

 

[Rowlfy]

Greatly appreciated.

 

[kumakami]

davidmartiste: your work is just beautiful, thanks for the tips...was follow this thread due to a cat puppet I'm building. never thought about sculpey, will have to try that next time.

 

[davidmartiste]

davidmartiste: your work is just beautiful, thanks for the tips...was follow this thread due to a cat puppet I'm building. never thought about sculpey, will have to try that next time.

Thanks ever so much kumakami. I still feel like I have so much learn. Happy if any of my tips can help.

 

[TheCreatureWork]

The Sculpey or Fimo clay is great but you have to watch- if you are doing a big (huge) nose I recommend first getting some tin foil and molding the basic shape of your nose; then cover the tin fold with the sculpey/Fimo and mold to get the right look. If you place a huge piece of sculpey/Fimo in the toaster oven I find it won't "cook" all the way through and some parts will be soft. This way the tin foil will heat up in the inside of the nose and you'll get it hard all the way through.

Some puppet builders also use Plasti Dip- they cut a foam nose out of reticulated foam and then dip it about 5 times in Plasti. It is costly though and time consuming.

I tried both methods and fully recommend Sculpey/Fimo