Overweight puppets

[Mjolnir]

I just measured my foam and it's 1 inch not 1.5 (my bad). Still made for a heavy puppet. I hear you on the fabric weight. My fun fur based monsters are feather light in comparison to Fred Fanboy here. I did what I could to hide my stitching but I'm in your camp on people not caring. When I start puppeteering my kids act like they can't see me much less stitching.

 

[Muppetlab]

Yea trying to find half inch foam is a nightmare in the stores. I buy inch thick then slice it in half.. Its fiddly to do but it works.. And i just doubled the amount of foam i have!.. Winner

 

[D'Snowth]

Most of the time, Jo-Ann has salvaged sheets and scraps of foam in varying thickness that you can purchase, I haven't had any trouble getting half inch foam... matter of fact, every puppet I've built has half inch foam for their torsos.

Only problem is sometimes, even the scraps can cost an arm or a leg.

 

[kumakami]

try here, the cost is about the same as jo-ann's and at least you know you can get the thickness you need

http://www.fabricempire.com/foam-by-continuous-yard-fabric.aspx

 

[staceyrebecca]

Don't go with fabric stores. See if you can find an upholstery shop in your area. They'll have a great selection with lots of options. And it's usually way cheaper at an upholstery shop than it is at JoAnn Fabrics.

 

[D'Snowth]

I've tried that route before, but unfortunately, there's really only one upholstery store in town (that I know of), and their selection of foam is usually almost toast anyway.

 

[Mjolnir]

Good looking out kumakami and staceyrebecca. I'll look into both of those options. Still in awe of your Cereal Puppet, SR. There is a new Joanne's that opens on Feb 3 about 2 miles from me so Ill probably check them out just to see what's there.

 

[LoLa]

If you are heading to an upholstery shop, might I suggest taking a look at some L200 while you are there? It is a stiff, close cell foam, but is very light weight and gives a lot of structure. I use it on a lot of my bodies. It's also pretty cheap around here.

I agree that 1/2" foam is pretty standard, but keep in mind if you are making a head that is larger/needs more structural integrity (i.e. something like a bullet shaped head), 1" is the way to go to keep it from buckling.

If Joann's is your best option, they put the foam on sale for 50% off alot of the time. If it's not on sale, you can download their phone app, and there are usually coupons for either 40 or 50% off the regular price.

Hope this helps.

 

[Slackbot]

Regarding strain of holding up puppets. I've walked around Dragon*Con with a puppet on my arm for hours on end without getting tired. It helps that I lift 15-pound dumbbells and have worked up a bit of muscle in my arms.

 

[Mjolnir]

@LoLa, L200 is your common craft/fun foam, right? If so, I've used that for all my monsters and like it.

@ Slackbot, I think it comes down to building weird puppetry muscles that aren't normally worked. Every morning I do 3 sets of 30 pull-ups with 3 sets of 30 push-ups in between, so you'd think holding a puppet would be no problem

I'll get there with practice.