LATEX FOAM FOR PUPPETS article

[Tom75]

Check out the new article on LATEX FOAM FOR PUPPETS at:

www.puppetry.info

go to Puppetry Home Page, you'll find it listed under What's New.

 

[Blink]

Hey Tom75,

Great bed of information, thanks for the post. One question that I have always wonderer about with having a "Core Out Mold" is...after you have put the plasticine inside your outer mold, and poured the the plaster inside the plasticine of the "outer mold" (so that you now have your plaster core), how does the core suspend when you are ready to pour in the foam latex?
For example, when I imagine having an outer mold and an inner core I envision the inner core doing what gravity would have it do...falling down and leaning directly against the inside of the outer mold. I imagine that this would not keep the space that was built up previously by the plasticine (as per the "Coring Out Mold" section of the article).
Would someone have to suspend the inner core inside the outer mold somehow, to allow the foam to evenly fill the space between both the outer and inner parts?

For those of you who are totally confused by my rambling..please read the aticle above, specifically the "core out mold" section.

If it is still confusing I will restate the question. My girfriend says she has no idea what I am talking about after I read my post to her, but perhaps someone out there does.

- Blink

 

[Tom75]

coring out a mold

Dear Blink,

Really good question. For a start water based clay is easiest to use for cores ... it washes out completely with water. And is dirt cheap. Actually, water based clay it IS dirt! (clean dirt, but dirt all the same)

this won't be the best answer, but I'll try a bit, go away and think more and come back. It's difficult to explain without an illustration. (a picture IS worth a thousand words)

Ideally you want to sculpt your head with an extended section below the neck at the outset with 'keys' of some sort to provide you with a 'locking' mechanism already designed into the sculpt for the later core to lock onto / into. Maybe a minimum of 3-4 inches. THis can be as simple as a tube shape the circumference of the neck with added round hollows on the back and on the front (keys) for registration.

does this help?

The Puppeteers of America will be running the article, slightly extended, with photos and illustrations in their next (March) issue. All the more reason to join the P of A if you are interested in this sort of technology.

Thanks for bringing this topic up, as it is important and an I'll be working on several sketches to illustrate locking mechanisms for latex foam puppet head cores.

Happy puppet making!

Tom

 

[Blink]

Thanks for the info Tom.

I would be very interested in seeing the diagrams/drawings of the process when you have them available.

Maybe you can post them sometime soon.

Thanks again,

Blink