Need Tips, Suggestions, Whatever for Squirrel Puppets

[D'Snowth]

Yeah, those of you who have been following me for a while now are aware of the trio of trouble-making rodents that make up part of my roster of characters known as The Squirrely Squirels (Jennifer, Julie, and Justine)...

At the same time, those of you who lso know me know that I never claim to be a great puppet builder... I don't even claim to be a pretty good puppet builder; I HAVE been given some references for puppet builders for future reference, but until then, I have to build puppets myself, and naturally, they're turning out pretty pitiful looking... anyway, the actual puppets of The Squirrely Squirrels have been built for quite some time, but it took me nearly two years to get suitable fabric for their tails, but now I've run into a bit of a problem: how to make the tails look right on the puppets. The tails are attached tothe bottom of their torsos (on the back), but I've run into a problem with keeping the tails in place, while at the same time, make them look like they're not fixed in one position: my initial idea was to run a little bit of monofilament or fishing wire from the tails to the backs of their heads, hoping that would allow the tails to stay upright, while still being given a little bit of freedom to swish around, but unfortunately, that isn't working out as I had envisioned... the tails are too heavy to stay in an urpight position, and are leaning to one side or another, which looks pretty terrible.

I'm not sure exactly what to do at this point, I'm thinking about simply fixing them in one position for the time being (with a stitch or so, similar to how a lot of stuffed squirrel plush toys are) until I can get some better ideas... what doany of you guys think would be better idea for the tails?

 

[Gonzo's Hobbit]

Have you considered winding a thin wire within the tails? We did that one time with a costume to keep a crown design upright and it worked pretty well. Just a wire that is thin enough that it's pliable but think enough that it can hold the tails up. Then wind the tails around it ot insert it into the tails. In theory it should keep them supported but not nessecarily in a fixed point.

 

[D'Snowth]

I considered doing something like that, yes, something like a third rod, so an additional puppeteer could work the tails, allowing them to also kind of swish around or do whatever they need to do, but for right now, I can only think about hiring so many puppeteers, and I think I'll leave that sort of "advanced" stuff for when I can staff a pro puppet builder to rebuild them altogether (because in that case, I think some kind of mechie would work for future incarnations of the puppets allowing their tails more freedom).

 

[Gonzo's Hobbit]

Oh this wouldn't need another puppeteer (at least not the way I was thinking of it)

 

[Frogpuppeteer]

ive thought of something like the rod arm tail thing...but also maybe you could take that idea and attached to a head band so the tail stays and yet also moves with your own movements...not sure if that makes sense i see it my head..ill have to draw it and scan it in