What kind of foam for a carved head?

[mrhogg]

Hey all,

If I were to make a sculpted/carved foam head puppet, what type of foam would work best for that? I'm thinking of old-style Miss Piggy heads, Statler & Waldorf, that kind of thing.

Thanks!
Brian

 

[propologist]

Hi,
Reticulated foam (scott foam) works best.

Mike

 

[mrhogg]

I'm thinking of carving the head from a block of foam; I've yet to see reticulated foam in any real size, and I thought there was something denser to use.

 

[mrhogg]

It occurs to me that the tone of my response might have sounded snippy. If this is the case in any way, I very much apologize.

I thought there was a certain kind of foam -- not quite styrofoam, but nothing as crazy-expensive as reticulated foam -- that was good for carving the heads from a solid chunk, rigid enough to keep a good shape, but flexible enough to still allow for some emoting.

Is reticulated foam the best best? I unintentionally bought some dense polyfoam (moreso than the standard 1/2" white polyfoam), which has more form, but probably wouldn't be very good at being carved.

What would be a good tool to use to carve the foam? Scissors wouldn't work too well, I'm guessing. What do you all use?

Thanks,
Brian

 

[TheCreatureWork]

Check out this link, hope this helps:
http://www.nicodemus.org/fursuit/carvedfoam.php

 

[mrhogg]

I saw that link earlier when I was doing some searching, but what type of foam is that? It's a block, but a block of what type of foam?

 

[Blink]

I saw that link earlier when I was doing some searching, but what type of foam is that? It's a block, but a block of what type of foam?

Hey Brian,

Just a simple 12" x 12" block of polyfoam will do the trick. I am sure there are foam stores around you that you can order it from. Otherwise, there is a place here in Burlington that I know of. It sells what you would need.

 

[TheCreatureWork]

In Hamilton here, on Ottawa Street (Oddly where the very first Tim Hortons is located) is a store called the FOAM Store...they sell it by the block, and they are cheap too.
Cutting block foam with a electric knife dulls the blades fast. I recommend using a bandsaw to form the basic shape of the head, then use a electrical knife to form more for the detail.