Eye Ball's

[OverUnderAround]

I have a puppet that someone made for me that uses the electrical tape for the pupils. The only thing I don't like about it is that it doesn't conform to the shape of the ping pong ball perfectly so there are little gaps around the edges. Does the hairdryer trick work on electrical tape?

I myself have never tried the hair blower, but if you do want to go with electrical tape one thing that helps a wee bit is to cut a slit in the circle. From the center to the edge. Then place the electrical tape circle on the ping-pong, smooth it out and it should conform to the shape of the ping-pong. The slit will probably make some of the electrical tape circle overlap itself, but with an Exacto knife you can cut off the excess and have the edges of the slit meet perfectly.

 

[OverUnderAround]

As for Ping-pongs, many come with the manufacturers name inked on the balls. To remove the ink, clean the balls with nail polish remover.

 

[Jinx]

I use sign vinyl. It is only 2 mil thick and self adhesive. I used to work in a sign shop so it was extremely easy for me to plot cirlces of various sizes. I made some in 3/8", 1/2", 5/8" and 3/4" so I've got plenty for different sized puppets/eyes.

if you were to go to a sign shop you would ask for an "RTA" (ready to apply) plot vinyl in black. It does come in matte and gloss finishes. I prefer gloss. If you needed a computer file to take to them I could easily make one for you.

When you receive the RTA it has a masking tape-like sheet on the top. (it is semi-transparent) You cut out the pupils you need, then peel off the release liner from the back. Carefully apply the pupil to the smooth surface and burnish it down with firm pressure. Then you carefully peel off the masking from the front and voila, a perfect pupil!

If it is rather large and does not lay flat to the compound contour of the eye form, you can either apply heat or make small relief cuts as mentioned above.

Garth's eyes in my avatar are made in this fashion.

 

[Lab Rat]

i think the hairdryer should work on electrical tape it depends on the size of the pupil the bigger they are the more pesky they are to lie flat i always spray my puppets eyes with car paint and that glossy finish is better to stick the pupils on to.

 

[TopperFraggle]

Yeah, the hairdryer works on the electrical tape. Thanks guys!

My other puppets all seem to have felt eyes. This looks just fine. I'm not sure which I prefer. It looks like most of the muppet show puppets, at least the non main characters, had felt eyes. Those felt pads for the bottom of furniture do work just fine and come in many sizes at Craft stores. I've actually taken to just cutting out the circle of felt and hot gluing it on, which works fine too.


Another note about eyes: I found some clear plastic bulbs at Michaels. They are in the Wedding section and I guess you're supposed to fill them with candy or something, as a wedding favor. Anyway they come in 2 pieces and there's a ring on one, to be used to tie ribbon or whatever to. This can always be cut off or hidden. Anyway, I intended to just paint them on the outside to make my eyes. What I did instead is sprayed the inside. This gave it a smooth white color still but kept the outside shiny, much shinier and glossier than the paint would have been. It probably grays it down just a bit since you're looking through the plastic at the paint, but the difference is negligable. Then I affixed the felt pad to the outside. Gave it a nice look. Not for every characte, but I'm making an elderly man so it kinda has that watery eye look that fits.

 

[ravagefrackle]

wes just about any of the suggestions here will work really well, i like the adhesive felt circles myself, thier pretty inexpensive as well,

a grmmet tool is great, and you can order them in many sizes, but it cost money , and they eventually get dull and you have to have them sharpend which over time will make them slighty larger than they were when they started, or you can buy a circle template at a art store, and hand cut them,

i might suggest searching the forums , this is a topic that has been discussed many times here

 

[Punch'n'Judy]

"flat felt with an adhesive backing"

As point of reference it's official name is 'contact paper'.

J

 

[OverUnderAround]

"flat felt with an adhesive backing"

As point of reference it's official name is 'contact paper'.

J

If we are talking about the same thing, here in the USA, 'Contact Paper' is a one sided sticky vinyl paper, the opposite side of which is usually decorated with some kind of pattern, such as flowers for example. Some of it's uses are for lining shelves and is usually found in a hardware store. And they usually come in long rolls of different lengths, maybe 15 feet long.

Flat felt with and adhesive backing is more for crafts and is found in sewing and fabric stores. And I have only seen it in 12 inch squares. This type of self sticking felt can usually be found on the bottom of lamps and candle sticks for example, to not scratch a surface.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

The felt circles that are meant for the legs of furniture that some else mentioned earlier in the thread work very, very well and are less work than cutting out small circles from felt (although you can certainly do that too). They're also thicker than felt which gives the pupil extra dimension which is kind of a nice effect.