A beginning...

[gfarkwort]

It only cosys 3.75 bucks......usually I buy two bottles at a time.

 

[robinthecrow]

I'll look into getting some cement for it. Though now I've sat here and waiting for the hot glue to dry... it seems to be holding up.

 

[robinthecrow]

Afternoon! well... it is here anyway

I've just spent the past three hours making a head... three hours you hear me! Three hours! Wasn't expecting that... got in two runs of the "Avenue Q" cd though...

I wasn't sure if the code could be switched on and off by me, so you'll have to make do with the links for these pictures.

[url]http://homepage.ntlworld.com/maxwood/puppets/davidpuppet01.jpg[/url] The head template and my glue gun
[url]http://homepage.ntlworld.com/maxwood/puppets/davidpuppet02.jpg[/url] The head in progress, the hot glue being clamped together with a clamp thingy I found in the garage!
[url]http://homepage.ntlworld.com/maxwood/puppets/davidpuppet03.jpg[/url] got my sister to pose with the puppet on her hand (she's cut out of shot) so I could snap the thing.

Since these pictures were taken, the thing as acquired some biro eyes and a nose. Though the head is quite pointy sidewards I'm not quite sure how the head will take a nose stuck on the front. The mouthpiece is cut a bit of cardboard - its holding well, despite the points of the mouthpiece/foam head don't meet, but once its covered in fleece - you won't notice!

 

[robinthecrow]

Here we go again and this time he has skin!

Not exactly the antron fleece with invisible seams people are going for, but look! he has skin! He's starting to looking positively alien like with his large forehead, so I may make him have alien attributes, one eye for example (not that all aliens have one eye of course - well the Daleks do!)

I kind of cheated with the lower jaw's fleece around it, I hot glued that, but the well done sewing on the rest of the head was done on a sewing machine by good ole Mother (I still haven't managed to work out how to use the sewing machine, well, sort of, but I managed to get an un-even puppet hand out of it). So maybe I'll look into doing the sewing by hand instead - I'm frightened of that machine!

Pictures I hear you ask? Well here's two shots (Front and side):
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/maxwood/puppets/davidpuppet04.jpg

And here's... well... its worthy for the photo album:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/maxwood/puppets/davidpuppet.jpg (Warning: BIG picture at 111kb)

 

[scarylarrywolf]

Looks like a clean job

One thing I'd suggest for the future is to NOT get the "anti-pill" fleece that it looks like you had in the picture. Seams tend to cover up petter the thicker the fleece is, and the anti-pill stuff is really pretty thin.

But it looks a lot better than my first puppet! Good job.

 

[robinthecrow]

I've been finding it hard to find suppliers for thicker fleece in the UK! So if anyone knows a supplier it would be much obligied gov'nor.

Cheers for the feedback mate. Its just a demo puppet at the moment... I hope to get some more humany-skin colour fleece (or even a dye) and get that on a foam head.

 

[robinthecrow]

My latest puppet attempts can be found here:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/maxwood/puppets/erniepenguin.jpg

The first one, a disturbing Ernie/Nicky look-alike, was influenced by Buck's wedge construction mentioned on his website. Using a permanent marker and some synthetic hair samples some people sent me, I added the eyes and nose, and the hair. And gee did it look like Ernie - was very scary!

And on the right is the Penguin... looking pretty much how I imagined him to be perfectly honest. Not what you would expect, especially coming after the Henson penguins, which had pointy beaks. "More dodo-like" someone said to me about my go.

Which looking at it again, I'd agree with, I may try giving the beak another go but more pointy. The beak is actually completely seperate from the head, so I will build a seperate pointy beak which can be chanageable... probably with the final puppet as well.

You'll notice that nothing is *finished* because I am merely experimenting so expect more polished and better looking *final* versions soon.

I'm getting the hang of this puppet thing... I think...

David.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Looks good so far, keep going and be sure to share pics of your work!

 

[robinthecrow]

Remember Pinky from the beginning of this thread?

Well... he has hair and some paper eyes (for reference while I work on his real ones) see him here:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/maxwood/puppets/pinky00.jpg

David.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

David, these look great!

Ready for some more help? You know those signs that people put alongside the road that are old and dirty and made out of plastic but look like it was molded from cardboard? Use that rather than cardboard box and it'll last longer in the mouth. Cloroplast I think it's actually called. Anyways, I find those when they get older and dirty, take them home and clean them up and they're great to use inside a mouth!!

The puppets look great, though. Love Pinky's hair and fleshtones! Looks great together!