Ping Pong Balls & Fabrication! HELP NEWBIE!

[Ray and Mia]

Hi, my Husband and I are in the middle of making our very first 'muppet style' puppet, today we bought all the needed materials, and have our patterns and sketches all worked out.

We have run into 2 issues that only the pros here can help with..

Our Questions:

1.) After we fabricate the head, how do we stick the ping ball balls (eyes) to his face without them falling off after he gets roughed around during use?

2.) After the foam head is completed and ready to be fabricated, how do we get the fleece fabric to stick to the soft spongie foam head? I was thinking about sewing it on, but wouldn't pulling the thread tighter, possibly rip the thin foam? How do we get that smooth 'Kermit' or 'Ernie & Bert' look to his fleece face, without it wrinkling up or causing damage to the delicate underlying foam? I wouldn't imagine fabric glue holding up for a job like this.

Any ideas? Thanks so much, Mia

 

[Phantom]

http://swazzle.com/blogs/puppet101.html

You'll get alot of good advice from everybody here (that's what makes this site special), but here (link above) is a good starting point. Sean is a member here and is great about answering questions. (Go back to October and work your way forward.)

Do searches on this forum because there is a lot of info available. You can do a keyword search above. G'luck. I hope we can help.

 

[wes]

Check around this site through out the puppetry forum in past post to get some good ideas, it's time consuming but will pay off with a good puppet!!

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Sean explains a good method for attaching ping pong ball eyes in his blog beginning here . In fact, as Phantom suggested, you should read Puppet 101 starting from this post and it will give you some ideas and answer a lot of your questions.

One trick I like to use is to build puppets with the mouth in an open position. That way you don't have fleece or fur wrinkling or getting squished when the puppet's mouth opens and closes.

 

[Ray and Mia]

A bit more info or tips needed!

Thankee for the links guys! But can anyone give any more tips on applying the fleece "skin" to my poly-foam head? My puppet is still in his skeletal foam stage and i'm very eager to detail him, but I would like to hear some more suggestions from other puppet builders.

Thankee, Mia

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I don't actually attach fleece/fur to the foam, I just sew it together around it. Does that make sense?

 

[Ray and Mia]

Oh ok, I think I have a basic understanding as to how it all comes together. Thanks for the tips! -Mia