Bunsen Honeydew mouth

[Melonpool]

Has anyone ever had any success making a Bunsen Honeydew-type mouth?

Most of the puppets I've made have been more of the Kermit type mouth palette style that opens and closes, but I was thinking about trying more of the "Slit in foam" type on a few new puppets.

Anyone know what the mechanics look like?

Steve

 

[shtick]

I'd like to know as well

 

[SesameKermie]

Me too. I'd also like to expand that into a tutorial on foam carving heads. IIRC, Bunsen was originally completely carved.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I'm pretty sure that Bunsen's head was sculpted (or at least the original puppet's was). You can sculpt heads from a block of foam, then sand them down to get them smooth. A belt sander works best for sanding, but you have to be very careful using it.

You can also create heads like that by sculpting, casting and molding a head, but that is a complicated process.

 

[practicecactus]

I guess you mean how dense the foam is or rather how much is carved out from the inside. Does look like there would only be minimal foam removal inside, maybe very thick all around because of the way the head seems sturdy and doesn't flex.

 

[Melonpool]

Actually, what I meant was what the inside looked like. I've tried in the past and the mouths never seemed to work right. I'm pretty used to using "D" shaped pieces of gasket rubber that are gaff taped together for the mouth palette. This creates a mouth similar in construction to Fozzie Bear's.

But how is Bunsen's mouth palette constructed?

Steve

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Are you patterning the mouth so that it is naturally open or closed?

 

[Melonpool]

I haven't started yet. I would think that it should be patterned open (since it's easier to close a mouth than open it). My thought would be that it would have a much larger mouth palette behind the skin of the puppet, but they would be joined at the lips. I don't know if I'm on the tight track or not, though.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

One more question...how is the head constructed? I'm just trying to picture this in my head.

 

[Melonpool]

My plan was to make it out of scott foam then cover it in fleece. It's all very theoretical at this point. Here's the character I want to build:

http://www.melonpool.com/?p=5891

My thought would be that her mouth would look better as a Honeydew type of mouth as opposed to the regular Kermit type (to make her more like a girl and human than my regular puppets).