Advice, Recommendations, and Suggestions Needed

[D'Snowth]

I'm working on a new puppet and I would like your all's advice, recommendations, and suggestions about something... I want to give him a mouth like Kermit and that of early anything muppets (where you can sort of scrunch up their mouths and make it look like they're smirking). How should I tackle this? What should I use for the mouth plates?

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Have you read Sean's mouth plate tutorial? That would probably do the trick.

http://swazzle.com/blogs/2006/03/puppet-building-tutorial-ratchet.html

 

[Pork]

greetings, I'm new and would like a bit-o-advice about how to get started in creating my own puppets...any advice would be great.
thanks

Anna

 

[Tim]

You might also try Foamies that come in a sheet. I've glued fabric to the side intended to be seen. It's lightweight, durable, flexible and comes in different thicknesses. I'm working on a rat wight new that has a grumpy sneer and was able to pull the corners of the mouth downward with Foamie shapes glued at the corners inside the head.

Just a thought.

 

[D'Snowth]

I have to say this is pretty interesting... I never though foam-like materials could be used for mouth plates, I'd think it wouldn't be sturdy enough, but maybe you all are right; does anyone else have any suggestions?

 

[Buck-Beaver]

The advantage of the method you see in the Puppet 101 tutorial is that you get all the flexibility of a piece of foam but the gasket rubber pieces provide stability.

 

[D'Snowth]

So would you recommend gasket rubber instead?

 

[Phantom]

Two words...

Glorified Sock Puppet

Oh, wait that's three...

 

[wes]

I used the gallon buckets that Ice cream comes in and it does real nice. I use it on several puppets I made and it make a great smirking face. the stuff's really flexible!

 

[D'Snowth]

I used the gallon buckets that Ice cream comes in and it does real nice. I use it on several puppets I made and it make a great smirking face. the stuff's really flexible!

You know, I've made my puppets before with such simplistic materials... I'll take your word for it, but there's one more person I'd like an opinion from, and I think I'll PM him.