Contact cement

[officermom]

For the glasses, sew them to the head of your puppet.

Use a thread which matches the color of your fleece or use clear thread.

Stich over the frame and through the fleece multiple times. (Kind of like how manufacturers of pants and jeans stitch on the paper tag at the waist band.) Voila!

I think contact cement is fantastic but sometimes you can't beat a needle and thread!

Hope this helps!

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I would definately not use contact cement for this. Contact cement is great, but it's usually very permanent.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Just realized none of us ever really answered Mike's original question about how to use contact cement. The basic are:

- You have to keep it tighly sealed when not in use.
- It should be applied using a stick or cheap brush.
- If you use a brush it should be kept in a jar of water so it doesn't dry out.
- As mentioned before, you need to use it outside with a respirator and it should always be left to dry/air out for 24 hours either outside or in a well ventilated area away from where anyone sleeps. A garage or apartment balcony is usually perfect.

 

[ToastCrumbs]

Barge Glue And Puppet Building

Here is a little bit of extra information on barging and joing two pieces of soft foam or scott foam together. Less is better, you don't need to brush this stuff on at all...
A wood stick or a 1 inch square piece of foam are the best things to use. Using the wooden stick, brush the glue on the top half leaving yourself some space on the bottom to hold in your hand. Use this to roll the stick across both sides of the foam that need to be attached. You're going to need to brush glue onto the stick a few times depending on the size of the seam. You should just see a slight tint of the yellow from the glue showing on the surface. The reason for not globbing this stuff on is that when joining the foam together you want both sides to be level or flush. You should just be able to push the foam together with your fingers.
Many builders apply so much glue and pinch the seam closed that it pulls the foam inward creating a seam line that is deep and will show under the fleece skin. This is not a good thing if you want to build a clean looking puppet. Also the fumes from that much glue over time will cause vapors to fade your fleece along the seam lines, ruining your dye job.
If you decide to use a small chunk of foam to apply the glue, the same strategy goes for this. Place some glue on the chunk and lightly dab it onto the foam. With both methods I would wait at least five minutes before joing both parts together. So remenber less is much better for many reasons. When starting out a lot of us want to build these puppets so strong that we use enough glue that we could join two people together. The more you build the sooner you will find a happy middle ground.

As always HAPPY PUPPET BUILDING TO ALL!!!