Gasket rubber mouth

[ma0298]

Hi, I've been thinking of making a flexible mouth for my next puppet and I read that gasket rubber is a good choice, my question is, sense I've just used felt for the mouth so far and with the rubber there is no way that you can sew It on to the head so, then how do you attach the mouth plate?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Rymoore21]

I use gasket rubber for almost all of my puppets. The key is to sandwich the gasket rubber between two pieces of felt. Use contact cement (not rubber cement) or hot glue to sandwich the two pieces of gasket rubber (an oval cut in half). To attach: if using fur, I recommend hot gluing the fur evenly around the moth plate instead of sewing. If using fleece, I prefer sewing in the mouth plates. To do this, you must make the felt a little larger than the gasket rubber, then you sew the edges of the felt to the fleece. Hope that makes sense. If not, message me and I will draw a picture for you.

 

[ma0298]

So, what you are saying is that you use the put the rubber and felt like this

"F"
R
"F"
F=felt
R=Rubber
"=extra
And then sew the two glued pieces of felt to the fleece?

 

[Slackbot]

I do my mouths a different way. I use adhesive-backed felt and simply stick it onto the rubber, then sew the lips through the felt but not the rubber. I use contact cement to glue denim to the backside of the gasket rubber, where the puppeteer's hand will be, just so the hand won't be gripping the rubber directly.

 

[Rymoore21]

Here is a rough sketch. Remember to leave seam allowance on the felt. For the back side, you can use any material y you want.

 

[ma0298]

Ahhh, I see so the gasket rubber is like the stiffened felt when you use the glorified sock pattern from project puppet. (what I've used so far)

One other question, does the felt wrinkle when you bend the mouth plate?

 

[Rymoore21]

No. You want to coat the gasket rubber with adhesive so that you have an even "stickiness." Once you assemble the mouthmlate, it becomes one full piece.

 

[ma0298]

Ah, ok I understand now, the sandwiched piece is like just the felt pattern
That you cut out.

 

[Rymoore21]

yup.