Mouth plate material: Automotive gasket material?

[JammieJam]

Hey there. I'm still pretty new to building puppets, and I've been experimenting with different mouth plate materials. I've heard that Kermit's very expressive mouth is made with gasket rubber, but it's so expensive I looked around for something similar that doesn't cost quite so much. I found this:

http://www.amazon.com/Fel-Pro-3075-...srs=2591768011&ie=UTF8&qid=1453923101&sr=8-54

I bought a sheet to play with, and I've been having quite a bit of fun with it. It's not as wiggly as gasket rubber, but it has a decent amount of give but also stands up on it's own (especially if you have small hands like me and have trouble controlling a really floppy mouth plate).

I don't know if any of you have played with this, but I hadn't seen any reference to it. I figured I'd pass it along in case any one else likes it!

 

[D'Snowth]

I'm just curious as to where you've been looking for gasket rubber that it's "so expensive"? You can get squares of it at Ace Hardware for a few bucks. They also have packs that come with squares of different materials such as thick rubber, thin rubber, corkboard (which works somewhat well in lieu of gasket rubber, except that it cracks really easily), and a really thin, yet sturdy cardboard-like material - I think that pack is only like $7 or so.

 

[JammieJam]

I'm just curious as to where you've been looking for gasket rubber that it's "so expensive"? You can get squares of it at Ace Hardware for a few bucks. They also have packs that come with squares of different materials such as thick rubber, thin rubber, corkboard (which works somewhat well in lieu of gasket rubber, except that it cracks really easily), and a really thin, yet sturdy cardboard-like material - I think that pack is only like $7 or so.

Ah, to clarify a bit: I mean expensive to experiment with (also I am poor). At my local stores the 2 pack of 6x6 gasket material is $6, which you can only get 1-2 mouth plates out of that. On Amazon the same pack is $5. My point was less the cost and more that it being a bit prohibitive for me lead me to find this other material which I really like. It's also rubber, just a different type.

 

[D'Snowth]

Ah, okay, from that perspective, then yes I can understand how you mean it getting too expensive.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Try experimenting with vinyl placemats from somewhere like Walmart or a dollar store. You can often get them for $1-$2 and they can work almost as well.

 

[WillyThePig]

i used to buy gasket rubber squares at lowes for 89 cents