My first puppet: Janken Fraggle

[Slackbot]

Well, not really my first. I used to make puppets when I was in high school. However, this is the first puppet I've made in over 20 years, and it's by far my most ambitious: Janken Fraggle. He's the guy in my userpic. I've been wanting to build him for a while, but when I found out that Dragon*Con (which is on Labor Day weekend) has added a puppetry track, and that Peter Linz (who I went to high school with) was going to be there, I decided to stop wembling and start sewing. As I was working from scratch, no patterns but the ones I made on scratch paper, it was quite a learning experience. With very few exceptions, I made every part of him twice! Once with a "close but no cigar" result, and again to get it right. (However, I made a number of hands before I got one that didn't suck. If there is an afterlife of eternal torment and suffering for puppet builders, it involves sewing hands.)

So, here's what he looks like now:

Naked Fraggle

Fashions by Old Navy

I still have to do a little more work on him. He needs more hair on the left side of his face so he doesn't look like he has bed head. I need to put a little more fluff in his baloobius and connect his head to his body. I've been debugging his neck for a while now, shape versus ease of inserting and removing hand. Arrgh.

I see a lot of things wrong with him, such as his flat feet and cheap-fleece skin. (Oh, how I wish I'd made him from Antron!) But there's a lot right about him too, so I'm fairly proud. Not so proud I won't welcome constructive criticism from those more experienced than me, though. I want the next one to be better!

 

[CaseytheMuppet]

Constructive Criticism? Are you kidding? He is AMAZING! First puppet in 20 years?! Wow!

 

[davidmartiste]

I think he's absolutely beautiful and the fur turned out great. I'm always curious the method people use for building something that doesn't look like a typical puppet puppet pattern - especially a great Fraggle nose like that.

 

[Slackbot]

I just made a foam skull by trial and error, then made a pattern for the fabric based on that. Glue foam together, cut to take it in where it's too wide and add where it's too narrow, glue again, repeat. When it finally looks right cut it apart, make a paper pattern, and put together a skull from clean pieces of foam.

I got a hint on how to construct the skull from one of the Fraggle Rock DVD extras. One of the builders held up a piece of brown paper and said it was the pattern for a character's head--I think it was Gobo's--and I remembered where the "darts" were and used the same principle.

The hands and feet were the worst parts. I've seen hand patterns, and they all gave me weird skinny fingers. Fraggle fingers are supposed to be chubby! After several tries I made a pattern for the hands which had the fingers as separate pieces, and that gave me the look I wanted, albeit nearly at the expense of my sanity. I did the feet the same way. There's probably an easier way to do it, but heck if I could find how.

I've added more feathers to frame the face and eyes better, and I think he's almost done now. I'm probably going to make him another right arm, this one without a rod, and make that arm modular, attachable by velcro or something. I'm having a hard time manipulating both hands at once, and I'd rather have him make meaningful gestures with one arm only than lose control or have his hands clashing together.

 

[davidmartiste]

Wow! Thanks for sharing your process. Very cool and I can see the insanity.

 

[Slackbot]

There is madness to my method!

I decided that the lavender streaks in his hair and baloobius just weren't working, and pulled them out. Lots of Fraggles have two-toned hair, but the contrast in both color and texture was so great it was just distracting. Ah well, there is a little bit of variation in color and texture among the purple feathers I used, so his hair doesn't look boringly neat.

 

[downunderbatman]

Wow what a great job, neat and very accurate. Congrats, you should be really happy with the results.

Greg

 

[Slackbot]

Thank you! Yeah, I'm stinkin' pleased, if I do say so myself. I've also learned some valuable lessons, and I just ordered some Antron fleece from Georgia Stage. The heck with the cheap stuff; go large or go home.

There are a few things I'm still working on. I made a second right arm, one without a rod, so I can just pin it to him and gesture with the left. The arms are modular, so I can swap 'em. I thought the fur would hide a bit of velcro, but that is not the case, so I'm going to put the velcro under the fur. That'll take a bit of surgery, but the scars won't show. I'm also going to rip off his head and trim the extra neck fabric before sewing it back on, as that fabric bunches and makes putting him on and taking him off again rather fussy.

I wish to heck I could find suitable eye spheres for him. If I wanted to make a bugeye character like Red or Wembley, I have no idea what I'd do. Ping-pong balls are too small, and have a seam.

 

[Twisted Tails]

Oh my gosh! You are doing a great job with Janken. I have made some mistakes on my stories too in the very beginning. The trial and errors were: spelling, characterization, and paragraphs. I am a slow typist. If I went fast, I would make mistakes including spelling. Ugh! Ahem! I love Janken Fraggle and the jacket you got from Old Navy. You are doing really great.

 

[Slackbot]

I visited my sister's family. She has a 12-year-old boy and a 8-year-old girl. I brought Janken over so I could get a little practice in, me being a little rusty after 25 or so years. It was fun, just sitting with him and chatting with the family. My niece couldn't take her eyes off him for a while, and claimed that he creeped her out, but she said it with a huge grin. My nephew was all amused for a few minutes (and I had to tell him please not to touch his face; puppets are very hard to wash) but then he started playing a video game and that was that. Hey, I'm surprised I held his attention that long.

Anyway, I spent about an hour with Janken on my arm, and had some interesting conversations about how puppets work, eye focus and convex eyes, arm rods, and so on. After talking with my brother-in-law (who is an artist) I may tweak Jan's eye focus, move his pupils just a hair closer to the center, so he doesn't look like he's staring into your soul.

Heh, when I transported Jan I had him wrapped in a clear plastic bag. I kept humming Laura Palmer's theme, but nobody got it.