Dire Straights!

[Meep]

I was curious about how this was going...incidently what college up here are you going to?

So far things are developing slowly. Between my Design History midterm last week and an 8 page essay for sociology, I barely had time to try to gather information for the essay portion of the assignment.
However, this week assignments are sparse and I'm digging through Jim Henson: The Works as we speak. T
he Beaker puppet is at a conceptual level only right now. But I have a fairly solid idea of what needs to be done (I hope!)
My mum works at a lab so she's going to get me some petri dishes, tubes, beakers, glass stir sticks, ect. So that I can set up a good 'stage' around my Beaker : )
As for what college I'm at, I live in Edmonton, dunno if you're familiar with my city at all, but the most artsy-oriented college here is Grant MacEwan. I'm taking a program there for 3 years. This is only my first year, but I'm happy with it so far : )

Yeah that was a lot of talking... lol


-Meep!

 

[Buck-Beaver]

If you're in Edmonton and interested in puppetry you should consider looking up Wendy Passmore of W.P. Puppet Theatre down in Calgary. She's a great lady and very connected and knowledgable I am told. WP has a web site at www.wppuppet.com.

Another great company in your area is the Old Trout Puppet Workshop.

 

[Treelo]

Hi ToastCrumbs,

Do you by any chance remember what material the workshop uses to create the black eye pupils? I'm also curious about the material used to create the "tonsils" of the puppets.

I've seen Muppets that date back to the early 80's, and it looks like they've been using the same material for the eyes and tonsils for many years. It has a velvet-like texture on the surface, and appears to have some type of self-adhesive backing.

Thanks so much for the info!

 

[Ryan]

Hi ToastCrumbs,

Do you by any chance remember what material the workshop uses to create the black eye pupils? I'm also curious about the material used to create the "tonsils" of the puppets.

I've seen Muppets that date back to the early 80's, and it looks like they've been using the same material for the eyes and tonsils for many years. It has a velvet-like texture on the surface, and appears to have some type of self-adhesive backing.

Thanks so much for the info!

Hi Treelo (BTW, are you working on the Macy's SS float again this year?) This is just guessing, but I am going by what Terry Angus used on my Candy puppet (Terry, sorry if this is a secret, but I didn;t think you'd mind). Her Eyes are the scratch pad circle stickers that you put under chairs in wooden floored rooms so it won't scratch up the wood surface. The tonsils are black leather. Hope this helps, as Candy was made with some materials Muppets uses. (again, sorry, Terry!)

 

[Treelo]

Her Eyes are the scratch pad circle stickers that you put under chairs in wooden floored rooms so it won't scratch up the wood surface. The tonsils are black leather.

Hi Ryan -

From what I've seen, the material used for the pupils and tonsils is entirely different from felt circles and ultrasuede, which is what many builders use.

Whatever it is the workshop uses, it comes in sheets big enough to create the tonsil shapes. It looks like they use a hole punch on the same material for the pupils, and then cut a small dart so the pupil will lay flat against the eye.

Any additional info would be fab....

 

[froggiegirl18]

hey hope your project goes well..let us know how it comes out!

 

[FISH'N'WOLFE]

Hi Ryan -

From what I've seen, the material used for the pupils and tonsils is entirely different from felt circles and ultrasuede, which is what many builders use.

Whatever it is the workshop uses, it comes in sheets big enough to create the tonsil shapes. It looks like they use a hole punch on the same material for the pupils, and then cut a small dart so the pupil will lay flat against the eye.

Any additional info would be fab....

It was mentioned a while ago in the forum that the pupils for the Muppets are punched out of that sticky-backed sheet lining for kitchen cabinets and drawers

 

[Ryan]

I have a related question..I know Jim bought the entire Wacky Stacks inventory (for eyes) in the 70's for pupils, but are they still avaible in stores? I've had no luck finding them. I also haven't figured out the real purpose for them.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I have a related question..I know Jim bought the entire Wacky Stacks inventory (for eyes) in the 70's for pupils, but are they still avaible in stores? I've had no luck finding them. I also haven't figured out the real purpose for them.

Jim actually bought the entire inventory in the 70s because the company was going out of business. Wacky Stacks were a stacking toy that were only available for a few years in the late 60s/early 70s. They haven't been sold in stores for about 30 years. Sorry!

Always a chance you might come across a set on ebay.

 

[Torarin]

As far as i've seen they're mostly made from felt and plastic. Some plastic ones are actually molded and were made on a lathe so that they become slightly curved. Flat plastic ones and felt ones are just puched out with hole punches and glued on. Some might be made of cabinet sheet, but i doubt many of them are. As for tonsils? Not sure what you mean, if you mean the black fabric that's behind their tounge, you can't really say it's all one fabric. Kermit looks like it's some thin felt, and most other muppets have something looking the inside of a sweater (Sorry, kind of hard to explain).