How does the flocking get applied to Miss Piggy?

[LinkLady77]

Wow...that's a lot of work! I guess they use the same technique for Link?

 

[FoxWorthy]

I would love to attempt to flock my own piggy puppet but what holds me back is the difficulty in choosing the right color of flock. I think you could order forever until you get the right color. I think that I will attempt to build my own pig using material with 4 way stretch that look similar to pig skin.

 

[Justin1]

A little more research yielded this:

http://www.craftflocking.com/

You know, for a little over a hundred dollars, you could set yourself up with an electo-static machine and do it just like Henson does!

I make flocked puppets. Made an account on here so I could respond to this thread.

If you try and use a hobbyist flocking machine, the end result will always look cheap. When I first got into flocking, I tried a hobbyist machine at first. I wasted so many foam castings trying to get a good flocked surface before I finally accepted the fact that I would have to buy a professional machine.

Once I bought a professional one, I started getting excellent results. It’s all about the strength of the electrical field. Cheap machines will give you between 5 and 20 kilovolts; however you need at least 50 kilovolts to get a dense coating of flock that stands on end. It’s a very technical process. Temperature and humidity are big factors in how great your flocked surface looks. I’ve flocked maybe 50 times now, and I still have bad ones.

Also, your foam casting has to be almost perfect for a nice finish. If the foam you’re flocking isn’t completely smooth, then all those imperfections will be shown in the flocked finish. Only hairline imperfections are hidden by the flock.

I thought that I could get into flocking for about $150, but the more and more I got into it, the more it cost. I’d say that by the time I figured it out about 9 months had passed and I had spent about $4000.

Here’s one I’m selling on Etsy now:
https://flockinggreatpuppets.etsy.com/listing/1537814767