If a worm puppet needs hair- what kind of hair does he get? Well, this worm is getting lively, wispy hair made from ostrich feathers. I slice the barbs off the quill with an x-acto knife, about 10-15 together. I hot glue these together at the very end, about 1/8 inch up the barbs. Then, after I have done this many, many times over, I take a piece of cloth (cap!) that is the same I will be using on the head. I cut a very small hole in the center of the fabric, which I slide one of the barb groupings tip through. I hot glue it on the bottom to keep it in place. I do this in a circular pattern around the cap. When the head has been completed, I will sew the toupee on to it. For more pictures of the progress of the squirmy wormy puppet so far, check out my facebook site, too. It is
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joy-Filled-Puppets/134935036520065
-Kimberly
Many of my characters have been a couple different colors. But squirmy wormy- or Cornelius, as he will be called- will have 6 different colors of fleece, and polka dots to boot. It may take a little longer in the sewing, but the effect will be grand. The fleece will fit like a sock over the plastic tubing underneath, which will make a bendable but sturdy body for him.
Purple furry monter happy to have a tongue
Time to get purple furry monster's tongue into the mouth. I cut the tongue in a heart shape from red fleece. (Just like cutting a heart from paper folded in half!) I hot glue the tongue in after I set it in a couple different positions to get it "just right". I've found it's good to walk at least 6-10 feet away to get a good look at how it looks from farther away.
This puppet doesn't have teeth, but I think this a great place to talk about how I do teeth. I carve them with an embroidery scissor from latex makeup sponges. For the particular teeth shown in the pictures, I also "aged" and added plaque to the teeth with 3 different shades of brown markers.
Grungy monster teeth built from makeup sponges
Positioning the grip onto the mouthplate
Tonight, I have been working on building the mouthgrip onto the mouthplate. I sew a panel of fleece around a sheet of rubber that goes together for the fingers of the hand to slide into. I also place a piece of latex makeup sponge material under where the middle of the hand goes to form a more natural position. (Otherwise, the puppeteer would be working with their fingers in a very uncomfortable position, basically flat out the whole time)
The panels of fleece are sewn together at the edges and cemented down to the mouthplate over the sponge. The whole thing is cemented to the black fleece inside the mouth.
Then, I turn the whole thing right side out to check my work again. Yay! Tomorrow we will be moving on to adding more facial features.
Mouthplate with grip, before adding top part to hold fingers in snugly.
Funny, furry featureless head!
The mouthplate is the most important functioning part of the puppet. It really is the heart of the puppet, where all the life comes from. It needs to be easy to manipulate. Each puppet builder has their own preferred way of building a mouthplate. I build this mouth from very heavy cardboard (it's from an artist canvas). I place the two halves of the cardboard a little ways apart, then tape them together with masking or gaffers tape. Then, I glue the cardboard piece into the foam. All this will be glued to the inside of the fleece mouth- which I will show you on the next post. :)
Parts all ready to assemble mouthplate
Taping the halves together before gluing into the foam piece for mouthplate.
This step is pretty simple. I like to cut out my mouth plate from fleece, although many people prefer using felt. This whole step is done with the fabrics inside out. After pinning the fleece to the fur- I sew it together (once again!) with the whip stitch. Then, I turn it right side out, just to see how cool it looks- and if I need to fix anything. :) Tomorrow, I will be working on the rest of the mouthplate parts.
(Technical note- Been having a bit of trouble with the blog stats and comments today, so if you sent something don't worry- I'm sure it will be on tomorrow when weebly works the bugs out. Another option is to send me a note on my Joy Filled Puppets page on face book.)
Before I get into sewing fur- I'd like to show you a little bit about different types of materials that can be used for hair. This furry monster that I am working on will even have a "poof" of hair above his eyes. This picture shows some materials I have used to make hair. (L to R) Yarn, faux fur, marabou fur, doll hair. I've also cut fleece into strips, used wigs, and artificial cob webs. Your imagination is pretty much your limit! A fun thing I love to do is go to the thrift store, and sometimes the shopping mall and hit the clearance sales with puppets in mind (especially good after Halloween!). You'll be surprised what deals and inspiration you will find.
Tomorrow, we'll talk noses!!
RSS Feed