Well, Here I Go...

[D'Snowth]

I finally purchased some gasket material, such as traditional gasket rubber, as well as a corkboard rubber material as well so I can experiment with flexible mouthplates to give puppets more facial expressions, much like Kermit, and early incarnations of the AMs and such...

I hope this stuff works as well as everyone here who builds puppets says it is, I'm hoping for good results.

 

[Puckrox]

Good luck!

 

[Melonpool]

I've been using the plastic from those Garage Sale/Rent signs they sell at Home Depot (not the Gator Board -- the white plastic) for the upper palette and gasket rubber for the lower. It seems to have the flexibility for the bottom jaw and keep the upper jaw from being too floppy. I also leave about 1/2 inch of space in the seam for the hinge, allowing for a little more expression.

This works especially well with large-mouthed characters (like all of my guys)

 

[Goochman]

I use gasket rubber for all of my mouth plates, I absolutely love it!!

it's firm enough to hold it's shape with no problem and pliable enough to get some great expressions

 

[D'Snowth]

Out of this "variety" pack I purchased,I wouldn't think of using like these two different almost like pressboard material, I know stuff liek that used to be used for like hat brims, andwhen those things bend, you've got a permanent fold.

I decided to salvage my gasket rubber for a more "important" puppet, so I experimented with this corkboard rubber... it does a passable job... certainly a lot better than trying to use foamies like I attempted years ago, but it too doesn't exactly hold shape very well.

 

[D'Snowth]

Okay folks, I'm having a recurring problem with the gasket rubber mouthplates, and need some advice...

Anyway, I'm liking the gasket rubber for mouthplates, it is really flexible, which is what like, however, I'm having issues when attaching the mouth to the foam rubber: the roof of the mouth attaches beautifully to the foam skull, however, it's the jaw where I keep having problems, the foam jaw seems to like to keep pulling down on the sides of the mouth, making the puppet look it has a permanent double-sided sneer. Irregardless of the thickness of the foam, I've built a puppet with half-inch-thick foam for the head, and I'm in the process of building another puppet with inch-thick foam for the head, yet with both puppets, I have that "sneer" problem.

I took Steve's advice about the half-inch seam allowance for the bend in the mouthplates, and before I've even tried having no foam in the jaw at all like the earlier AMs, as even Jarrod said the fabric would provide enough shape for the jaw (however I didnt have the desired results in that department).

What do you guys think? What can I do different to stop coming out with this double-sided sneer?

 

[KermieBaby47]

Let's see some pics man! I could use as much reference as possible for when I start building again, and you always ask great questions!

 

[Animal31]

Without any pictures, it almost sounds like the mouthplate may be too big for the head, the fleece/fur may be stretched too much over it.

Try trimming down the sides a little and see what happens...

 

[D'Snowth]

Alright then, here are some pics for your judgement... and remember folks, like I've always said, I've never claimed to be a great puppet builder, I don't even claim to be a pretty good puppet builder; this is Ella the Elf (I'm sure some of you have seen her concept sketch on my site/blog):

I built her for a Steve D'Monster Christmas project I was doing for YouTube this past December, but I had to cancel because of the virus issue I'm currently having with my old computer... plus, I can't even get a performer for her (I had someone in mind, but she always falls off the face of the earth whenever I need her). Her head was constructed with half-inch foam, which as you can, does give her mouth incredible flexibility; the puppet I'm currently working on has inch-thick foam for the head, which apparently doesn't allow for a lot of flexibility, which is odd, considering I was watching Don Sahlin from The Muppets on Puppets as I was building, and he clearly was using inch-thick foam on the puppet he was building. s for her size, she's a bit smaller compared to most of my puppets, I'd say she's maybe about the size of Kermit.

 

[Melonpool]

Try adding about another half-inch to the lower jaw. I had a similar problem when I was stretching out the fabric in the lower jaw too much when attaching it to the gasket rubber -- that was causing the sneer.

Don't add too much fabric, though -- just make sure it's not stretching too much as you glue it down and that should fix it. You also may be able to fix it by making the lower rubber palette a little smaller. if you don;t want to add more fabric.