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. :)

Now it's time to collect up my plethora of pattern pieces! For the monstery purple puppet, I will be using the "Mostro" pattern that I bought from projectpuppet.com . (I highly recommend their patterns- they are very complete and easy to follow!) I previously used this pattern on Brrrnadette, my teenage Yeti puppet,  so it's already been cut. When I do cut out the patterns, I have found it is really helpful to use spray adhesive to mount them to a heavy cardboard. They last quite awhile longer that way, and have some weight for holding down the fur, foam or fabric that I am tracing them onto. Looks like I've got all my pieces- tomorrow we'll be cutting out the foam!