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Sam and Friends BookI finally finished the Project Puppet puppet. It wasn't difficult, I just never had a lot of time to work on it.
The most important lesson I learned was: don't dye foam in the backyard on a Friday night with just the patio light on. I never dyed anything before so I just followed the instructions on the Rit Dye box, left the foam in the bath for 20 minutes and it came out much darker than I wanted (I was shooting for a light peach).
But in the end, it was probably good that it dyed "wrong". It made me get a little more creative with the character idea (I was originally going for a new version of the first puppet I made). So I came up with Millman, named for a friend of mine who enjoyed surfing and hanging at the beach when he wasn't working on movie sets and occasionally indulged in
substances of questionable legality.
You can see pictures of him here:
http://photos.yahoo.com/gymbal31@sbcglobal.net
I followed the directions in the kit pretty much right on. One mistake I made: The directions instruct to leave a 1/4 inch space between the mouthplate and the edge of the foam that makes the lip of the mouth. I wasn't all that exact so when the time came to glue in pink fabric for the interior of the mouth and the tongue, there was too much build up on top of the black felt and it didn't look right. So I went with just a tongue. Next time I'll pay more attention to what I'm doing.
The hair is a fur/fleece that I found at JoAnn's Fabrics, sewed into the head and to a liner glued inside the head.
My original idea for eyes was pretty much the same as the Leo puppet in the Project Puppet gallery. I've used that style of eyes (or lack of eyes) before and my first thought was that they would be great for a happy, laid back, beach guy. But I didn't want to seem to be copying what is on the
website. At least not for this first one. So, after drawing about 20 different ideas for eyes, I woke up in the middle of the night and came up with the idea of no eyes, just long hair.
I really like the simplcity of the pattern. It leaves so many options open for creating the characters. And I can see how the puppets can easily be expanded to more complex characterizations. I plan to experiment with some cheap foam I've got and eventually give the other patterns a try.
Overall, I think the pattern and the kit are great. The instructions are easy to follow. I'd love to see some instruction on the handgrip side of the mouthplate for beginner builders, but that's very nitpicky. Pasha at Project Puppet was very helpful, e-mailing back and forth.
Last week I dyed another sheet of foam (got the color right this time) and this Saturday, barring unforeseen emergencies, I'm planning to build and finish another puppet. Having finished one, I think now could do one in one day. We'll see.
Okay, I'll stop rambling now.
The most important lesson I learned was: don't dye foam in the backyard on a Friday night with just the patio light on. I never dyed anything before so I just followed the instructions on the Rit Dye box, left the foam in the bath for 20 minutes and it came out much darker than I wanted (I was shooting for a light peach).
But in the end, it was probably good that it dyed "wrong". It made me get a little more creative with the character idea (I was originally going for a new version of the first puppet I made). So I came up with Millman, named for a friend of mine who enjoyed surfing and hanging at the beach when he wasn't working on movie sets and occasionally indulged in
substances of questionable legality.
You can see pictures of him here:
http://photos.yahoo.com/gymbal31@sbcglobal.net
I followed the directions in the kit pretty much right on. One mistake I made: The directions instruct to leave a 1/4 inch space between the mouthplate and the edge of the foam that makes the lip of the mouth. I wasn't all that exact so when the time came to glue in pink fabric for the interior of the mouth and the tongue, there was too much build up on top of the black felt and it didn't look right. So I went with just a tongue. Next time I'll pay more attention to what I'm doing.
The hair is a fur/fleece that I found at JoAnn's Fabrics, sewed into the head and to a liner glued inside the head.
My original idea for eyes was pretty much the same as the Leo puppet in the Project Puppet gallery. I've used that style of eyes (or lack of eyes) before and my first thought was that they would be great for a happy, laid back, beach guy. But I didn't want to seem to be copying what is on the
website. At least not for this first one. So, after drawing about 20 different ideas for eyes, I woke up in the middle of the night and came up with the idea of no eyes, just long hair.
I really like the simplcity of the pattern. It leaves so many options open for creating the characters. And I can see how the puppets can easily be expanded to more complex characterizations. I plan to experiment with some cheap foam I've got and eventually give the other patterns a try.
Overall, I think the pattern and the kit are great. The instructions are easy to follow. I'd love to see some instruction on the handgrip side of the mouthplate for beginner builders, but that's very nitpicky. Pasha at Project Puppet was very helpful, e-mailing back and forth.
Last week I dyed another sheet of foam (got the color right this time) and this Saturday, barring unforeseen emergencies, I'm planning to build and finish another puppet. Having finished one, I think now could do one in one day. We'll see.
Okay, I'll stop rambling now.
