Local Resources (Los Angeles)

[TherianPrime]

Okay so I spent most of the afternoon rummaging around the Fabric District looking for puppet making supplies and while I found tons of places that had fake fur and a couple other fabrics that I thought I might need in the future I didn't find very many stuffed-animal/doll/puppet-specific shops which in all honesty kinda surprised me that I didn't find at least ONE place that carried a wide variety of that kind of stuff.

Here's what I did find...

Michael Levine
920 S Maple
LA CA 90015
Has tons of different fabrics that would make great puppet skin.

There were also a lot of shops that sold the fake fur for a couple blocks around Maple and 9th Street.

Moskatels
738 Wall St
LA CA 90015
Has a huge craft section and was the only place I could find plastic button style doll eyes and bear noses. They also have 1/8" sheets of fun foam in all sorts of colors.

Also, in Burbank there's a place called
Foam Mart
[SIZE=-1]628 N Victory Blvd
Burbank, CA 91502
They have reticulated foam on their website and I happened to find a 1/2" sheet of neutral colored foam but it was 20ppi instead of 30ppi so I think I'll end up using it inside a couple puppets that I plan on skinning with fleece. They seem like nice guys and said they could order some more but guy I talked to said it's not something that carry all the time and they didn't seem to know if they could order 30ppi in a neutral color (even though their website says they can). I did notice another thread that mentioned Foam Mart as a good resource -- maybe I'm just not talking to the right person. If someone could let me know "who" I should speak to there about this it would be greatly appreciated.

So what I'm still looking for is a reliable place that I can find 30ppi reticulated foam and a place where I can purchase anrton fleece locally.

I know about Georgia Stage for the fleece but they're not local d--n it and call me old fashioned but I like to be able to see and touch what I'm getting before I purchase it.

Also if anyone knows a local place where I could get those Muppet style eyes that are featured in the Puppet Planet tutorial (sorry the board wouldn't let me post the URL because I don't have enough posts yet) -- also looking for doll-joints puff-puff-pass (sorry couldn't resist) like the ones in the Puppet Planet tutorial that would be helpful too. Is it just me or am I the only one that thinks it's strange, that it's so hard to find these items with this being Los Angels and all... and being the one place that people think of when you think of making entertainment-type projects.

Thanks in advance for any info you guys can share and I hope the info that I had proves valuable to other people looking to buy things locally here.

PS ... when I'm talking about local, I'd be willing to drive to Orange County (gasp) or even Riverside (cough) as long as I knew that the places generally had what I need in stock and it was of good quality.
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[Buck-Beaver]

Someone who lives in California might know of a source I don't, but I'm pretty sure if you want specific types of foam unless you luck out and find what you need locally it will have to be ordered. That's what most of the big puppet shops in L.A. and NYC do.

Antron isn't sold in stores anywhere. It may have been at one time years ago, but the original fleece was discontinued and the new stuff is only available through Georgia Stage or possibly the textile mill that makes it in New England.

Half-dome eyes aren't really carried by anyone that I've ever heard of. I believe Armslength Productions is selling them individually. Doll joints can often be had at Wal-Mart (crafts aisle) or Michaels (surely there must be one or two near L.A.).

 

[TherianPrime]

Called 3 Michale's 2 JoAnn's and a partridge in a pear tree and still no luck with the doll-joints... I did get referred to 2 doll places so hopefully one of those will pan out.

 

[wes]

try a Craft store called A.C. Moore thats where i get my doll joints i don't know if yall have them in Cally thou. But you can alway google them and buy over the internet.

 

[Phantom]

I've looked at Moore's. I've looked a Joann's. I've looked places I didn't even know existed and I have yet to see doll joints in a retail outlet.

Is there some other moniker that they may go by?



<I make my own out of parts from the auto store.>

 

[wes]

Doll supply??

I found some under Google I searched: doll suply
and then: teddy bear jointsand found them here:http://www.christiebears.co.uk/acatalog/White_Plastic_Joints.html this should help yall!! The small one will work good for the arm rod hold but the bigger one are need for the arm joints them self