Buck Beaver's Mouths

[mkelley]

Well, not his specifically, but the ones he makes for his puppets. Buck, if you can explain something I'd be grateful.

On your site you talk about building the mouth for Tumbles, but show no pictures of it finally installed. I wonder about this -- you built the head and then cut out a circle in the head for a mouth, which seems kind of counterintuitive to me. It seems to me you'd want to simply cut a slit in the head so that when the mouth is not open the foam would not be stretched, and then when the mouth opens the puppeteer exerts effort (and not effort just to keep it closed).

In The Foam Book they build the halves of the head separately, so this isn't an issue, but I want to try building a puppet where the head is one piece -- but I don't quite get what happens to the foam when it's worked. I intend to cover the head with fleece, so I'm not particular about how it creases per se -- but perhaps there is something obvious I'm overlooking here. The Muppets seem to have one piece heads as well (hard to tell on the ones covered with fleece) but they also definitely appear to have the mouths cut closed, so to speak.

I will experiment myself this weekend, but I was hoping for any tips here to speed me along (and anyone else can jump in here as well).

 

[Buck-Beaver]

On your site you talk about building the mouth for Tumbles, but show no pictures of it finally installed. I wonder about this -- you built the head and then cut out a circle in the head for a mouth, which seems kind of counterintuitive to me. It seems to me you'd want to simply cut a slit in the head so that when the mouth is not open the foam would not be stretched, and then when the mouth opens the puppeteer exerts effort (and not effort just to keep it closed).

You're right.....but you're wrong. Confused?

You make a very good point.....except that hole that is cut in the head isn't Tumbles mouth. It's purpose is to provide an opening through which Tumbles mouth can be later operated. The mouth is actually made separately and later attached to the rest of the head.

Unfortunately I haven't posted the last two parts of that article yet because work on Tumbles has been slowed down because I have been busy with some freelance work and also waiting for some special materials to come in the from the US.

In The Foam Book they build the halves of the head separately, so this isn't an issue, but I want to try building a puppet where the head is one piece -- but I don't quite get what happens to the foam when it's worked. I intend to cover the head with fleece, so I'm not particular about how it creases per se -- but perhaps there is something obvious I'm overlooking here. The Muppets seem to have one piece heads as well (hard to tell on the ones covered with fleece) but they also definitely appear to have the mouths cut closed, so to speak.

Actually the trick to making the sort of "one piece" heads you are describing is to build them with the mouth open, not closed. So what you have to do is not just cut a slit in the foam, but actually build the head so that it is naturally open.

 

[mkelley]

Actually the trick to making the sort of "one piece" heads you are describing is to build them with the mouth open, not closed. So what you have to do is not just cut a slit in the foam, but actually build the head so that it is naturally open.

Thanks for the reply. Bear with me <g> for a moment while I stumble (Tumble?) through this.

I know you're familiar with The Foam Book -- so let's say I'm building a Three Piece Head. I'm building a Three Piece Head (homage to Airplane). I tilt the lower jaw open as if the mouth was naturally open and then build up the back of the head so it's all one piece. Is this what you're saying?

In actual practice, of course, I'd build the head this way, but I'm just looking for a visual here (today seems to be Pun Saturday, I guess). Are you saying then that this will look/act correct after it's foam covered and has the mouth in place?

I'm trying to imagine what will happen then when the mouth is closed -- the foam then needs to stretch from somewhere, and it seems this isn't nearly as desirable (or even possible) as having the foam compress. I would think the back of the head where the jaw and upper head attach would get pretty distorted.

I'm going to play around with some foam Sunday and see if I can follow how all this works mechanically, but once again, any advice will be greatly appreciated. (I'd rather not build a monster unless that was what I intended).

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Well, you don't want to build up the rest of a 3 piece head so that it is one piece. Truthfully, I've never done it, but I don't think it would work very well. For your 3 piece head I would just suggest patterning the fleece/fur/whatever "skin" for the puppet so that the mouth is open. Not sure that will work, but that is how I would approach it.

We're actually discussing two very different approaches to puppet construction here. I don't really use the "3 piece" method to build puppet heads...I tend to normally use the "ball" (or "wedge") method I discuss in the Tumbles P. Bear Project. If you're building a puppet using the "ball" method - gluing together foam wedges to make a ball - you would normally cut a circular hole in the bottom or back of the head for the puppeteer's hand and then either cut a hole to which the mouth will be attached, or just cut out a mouth. If you do the latter, you need to cut the mouth in it's open position. When the puppeteer closes the mouth the foam will naturally "warp" a little and stretch the shape of the head horizontally. With a little luck and practice you can design heads so that a very slight grin is formed when the mouth is closed.

Newsday ran an interesting article that discussed puppet building a little with Rick Lyon - who built the Avenue Q puppets - a few weeks ago. Now those puppets look great right? Really professional. But in the article Rick talked about how he had to build some of them over and over again until he got them right. He mentioned that sometimes the first few times you build a character they "look awful."

One of the reasons I've taken months to finish Tumbles is (aside from a lack of time the past nine weeks or so) is that I've been endlessly doing little nips and tucks, sewing, trimming and re-sewing his fur until I get it just right. I think I made three or four versions of his mouth until I found one I was happy with. I haven't ended up building him the way I originally planned, I just sort of had to figure out what worked best as I've been building.

Puppet building is really a trial-and-error thing. I know sometimes it can be frustrating to hear this when you are trying to figure stuff out, but really the best way to learn is to just experiment and discover what works best for you. I don't think I've ever approached two puppet building projects exactly the same way. Unless you are mass-producing puppets off the same pattern.

It really is all trial errror really, even for the most professional builders. Experiment, have fun, take pics and show us all the results! I know I'd love to see them.

 

[mkelley]

Thanks for the information, Buck, and the encouraging words.

Puppet building is an art, indeed, and an art like no other than includes nearly all the other disciplines. That's obviously why there is no "cookbook" per se, but a wide variety of sources with different ideas on how to do different things.

I'm having great fun and getting much better results than I ever thought I would -- if someone with as little talent as I have can make decent characters, it's very hopeful to those out there who actually have some skills.

Someday I might actually post a link -- still a little shy with my efforts right now. (Oh, and over the weekend I realized the mouth of your bear was actually in the snout that will be attached to that hole in the picture. Stupid me, I just wasn't thinking "bear").