Erect ears

[Rax]

Hi, is there anybody who can tell me what's the best way to make (large) erect ears on a puppet. (That is, if there's something like the "best way.")
The ears of a bunny for example, how should you connect these ears to the head without the weight causing them to hang down and disform the top of the head?
Use cardboard, or will it bend? Use synthetic plastic, or will it break?

Hope someone can give me good advice. Thanks.

Gr, Rax

 

[Melonpool]

I usually put wire inside them so I can position them correctly. I make kind of a cross out of wire at the bottom that I can sew directly to the foam skull through a hole in the fur on it's head.

For things like antennae, I make a small cross out of wire with a small 1 inch or so peg sticking straight out of it, then put a long spring (from those deely bopper headbands that you can get at party supply stores) on the wire peg. Then I cove the spring in fabric and sew it all to the skull.

Hope that helps.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Light weight armature wire works great; you want to use a gage that is thick enough that it has some strength, but not too heavy.

 

[D'Snowth]

What kind of ears? !

 

[Puppetainer]

I've only made ears that required something like that once so far. I used a combination of wire and plastic. It was a firm yet pliable steel wire that I bought at a Home Depot sort of store. The plastic was from a large McDonalds drink cup. I used hot glue to glue the wire to the top edge of the plastic ear piece so that the ears would keep whatever shape I wanted them to. Although I've taken note of Melonpool's method of attaching ears. These particular ears weren't a top mounted variety so the stitching was enough to keep them pretty well in place for me. And for this design I didn't mind a little "floppyness".

http://i924.photobucket.com/albums/ad83/Puppetainer/Puppet Gallery/M1outdoorcam7dr.jpg

 

[Rax]

Ah, thanks for all the replies. Your tips will definitely come in handy.

What kind of ears? !

Erect. Does that sound strange? (English isn't my mother tongue.) If I would use that word on a Dutch forum, people would get all kinds of associations. But 'erect' is the first translation my Dutch-English dictionary gives.

Gr, Rax

 

[practicecactus]

I like Melonpool's method of attaching the wire to the foam.
I used a slighlty different method for a cat puppet's tail I made out of wire covered with a foam tube. I attached it to the foam body, by making the base a wire spiral, spiraling from the outside into the center, then up into the tail. For ears, you could just extend that wire back down to another spiral. The spiral give you something to glue down, by covering it with material, so the spiral is sandwiched between something and glued in nicely. I used a small piece of leather but I think any thick or slightly rigid piece would do.