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Very nice, but each eye is looking in a different direction. I would suggest trying to refocus them so that they both appear to be looking at the same point, (usually a point about 18-24 inches in front of the puppet). Other than that, it looks great!

I have used The Foam Book's technique of using polyfoam glued into tubes, and glued to the mouthplate, then covered with fabric. Often though I won't use tubes but instead make a "finger pocket" that all my fingers go into. This can be especially helpful if the puppet might be used by a...

The first thing a lighting desgner has to know is what is being lit. How big is the set? Is it an "open" stage or a proscenium? Does it have to troupe or is it to be a stationary show? What kinds of puppets are being lit? Marionettes? Hand puppets? Others? Combinations? Will it be performed in...

I also know of several puppeteers who wear simple cotton gloves on their hands before putting on their puppets. It's a whole lot easier to throw a glove into the washing machine than most puppets!

I dunno, looks kind of like a Clayton to me...

I brought Garth to the same auditions Fozzie mentions. I actually packed him in my small carry-on bag. I did remove the arm rods (spring steel; very small hook ends and dowel handles) and packed them first, running them from diagonal corner to diagonal corner where they tensioned themselves and...

Please, oh please, if you have notions of writing a book, make sure that your spelling and grammar are correct. A casual look at the above post reveals at least 9 spelling errors and 21 grammatical errors. If you want a book to be taken seriously, these are important issues. I do not mean for...

Many, but not all mouse pads are neoprene. And a lot of those are a neoprene pad but with a plasticized coating on the mouse surface. They're certainly worth looking at.

You can find gasket rubber at your local Home Depot type store in the plumbing section. What I used for Garth (in my avatar) is neoprene. It's about 1/4" thick with red lycra bonded to one surface. It holds its shape extremely well, but is flexible too. With it I can perform exactly the type of...

I think your puppet looks great! To hide the seams on the one I built with Antron (http://home.mcn.net/~fantom/pages/alp1.html) I simply used the tiny metal head of a pin and carefully picked out the nap of the fleece. I did do all the sewing by machine. The pictures of the sewn pieces show the...

I believe that if your material is genuinely entertaining and worth watching no one will say, "what a shame about the arm rods..." As far as I'm concerned it would only ever be an issue in film/video. If a character is to be realistically immersed in the "real world" (and what is that...

Does this mean that you'll have to start drawing him with a scarred lip? :)

Well, yet again I am in complete agreement with Buck. The wooden eyes would certainly work, but ounces count with hand puppets! It really does not seem like it would be the case, but experience had taught me that just a couple of ounces can make fatigue set in much faster than usual. Also if the...

A quick-fix that I have used in the past is to stuff the upper cavity of the head with polyester fiberfill which then acts to wedge my fingers between the mouthplate and the head. It does add a little bit of weight, not much (I know this is an issue with MM's eyes and all) but it at least...

I agree, Buck. When the rudimentary questions have been asked, the archives of answers are more than worth the research. The more specific a question is, the more likely it is to receive responses that address those specifics. I think we all love helping one another as much as we can, but by the...

He's really coming along nicely! I might suggest that before you secure the eyes permanently you set them so that they are both focused on the same spot. As they are in your photo the right eye is looking a bit to the right and the left eye to the left. Also the focus mught be just a bit high...

When I sew fur I do it by machine. I brush the fur away from the edge, use LOTS of pins and watch how it feeds through the machine very carefully. After sewing I trim the seam allowance as close to the seam as I can to reduce bulk. Then I use the head of a pin to pick the fur out of the seam...

Hmmmm.... I don't recall telling that particular story before, but I'm sure it's entirely possible!

Plexi has been used as arm rods, and usually ineffectually. Plexi, or actually acrylic rods tend to be pretty brittle, and they do catch, reflect and refract light every which way calling undue attention to themselves.

Here's how I mock up a puppet When I built Garth 2.0 I experimented with paper patterns first, glueing (or stapling if I was out of patience) them up to make sure that size and basic contours were correct. From there I glued up a foam skull using the same thickness, but lower grade of foam...