That's right, I'm working on building my first puppet without a pattern... or without someone else's pattern, anyway!

Wow, this is both stressful and exhilarating!

Here's where I'm at thus far:

http://puppetbuilding.blogspot.com/2012/07/beak-plate.html

I started with the shape of a soda bottle for the head, though you can hardly tell due to a few small errors along the way.  And tonight I fashioned the beak plate through good old fashioned trial and error (and cursing)! But I think I'm off to a good start! 

I'm winging it here and trying a lot of things I have never before attempted. So any advice would be greatly appreciated! The plan is to make him a glove arm puppet.  That doesn't worry me too much as it seems fairly straightforward... but I am apprehensive about covering him with fabric. 

I don't know why it is just called "try and error"- I think the cursing is part of that process, too... . You seem to be doing nicely on your own, though1

Looks like a good start to me.

I agree looks like you are off to a good start

I agree.. good start.. keep going!

Looking really good so far!

The only thing I would mention is that the mouth seems to be closed "at rest". It might just be pinned for the pic (can't tell), but I know for most people, it's easier to "close" the mouth while they are controlling the puppet (i.e. the mouth naturally hangs open at rest, and you use your hand to close it) than it is to "open" the mouth (i.e. the mouth is naturally closed at rest, and you use your hand to open it.)

It's totally up to you, but it's something I forgot when I was trying to make my first pattern on my own, which is why I'm throwing it out there.

    I agree as well..keep it up. And cursing is definatley part of the process.(I have done my share) LOL

Thanks for the encouragement guys!

Looking really good so far!

The only thing I would mention is that the mouth seems to be closed "at rest". It might just be pinned for the pic (can't tell), but I know for most people, it's easier to "close" the mouth while they are controlling the puppet (i.e. the mouth naturally hangs open at rest, and you use your hand to close it) than it is to "open" the mouth (i.e. the mouth is naturally closed at rest, and you use your hand to open it.)

It's totally up to you, but it's something I forgot when I was trying to make my first pattern on my own, which is why I'm throwing it out there.

Wow, good call.  That's something I hadn't considered.  I checked this evening and you're spot on- the mouth is closed when at rest.  I'll have to take that into consideration when I'm designing the next one.   Thanks for the tip!

Tonight I covered the beak in fabric.  Whew.  What an experience that was. In order  to keep the beak as seamless as possible,  I cut the fabric to the appropriate shape and used the hot glue gun to attach it.



http://puppetbuilding.blogspot.com/2012/07/covering-beak.html

In retrospect, that may not have been the best approach.  The points of the beak are bunchier than I would have liked and on the right side of the top beak (pictured above) the yellow fleece and black felt didn't quite meet, due to a miscalculation on my part. I nearly threw it out and started over from scratch, but my fiance talked me out of it.  It turned out pretty well... though not as well as I might have liked.  I have to keep reminding myself that this is my first attempt and a learning experience.

Look at it this way: for a first try this is pretty cool. Here we say: "Es ist noch kein Meister vom Himmel gefallen!" -No Master has ever fallen from heaven/sky (in German we have only one word for both)- This is something I need on the wall, too!

Always cut your fabric a bit larger then you need it. You can always trim off the excess once you get it in place.   In the case of a mouth what you can actually do is wrap the skin (yellow fleece in this case) around the edge and onto the mouth plate. When you are rounding a curve like on the tips of your beak you can cut small little triangles in the edge of the fabric. This reduces bulk and lets you get a smooth edge. Now since you have wrapped around the edge onto the mouth plate you need to put your black felt in last. The thing is it is easy since it is a flat surface and you can cut your black felt exactly the shape you need!  

Lola, is it general practice to have the mouth half open/closed at rest? I do mine basically closed ´because when you've done several hours filming, you get tired and you have the tendency of having a puppet on screen with their mouths open like a zoned out character by default, because of a tired puppeteer, and so with a closed mouth a tired puppeteer in that case  defaults to a mouth closed which takes little energy. You only need to use energy to open when they have to speak ...mind you  later ones I've done that are in foam and silicone I did half open because the foam was really stiff to open... just wondering.

I've heard and followed the open mouth rule myself and in fact almost started to mention it in this post but then I got to thinking... Why?  I think this is perhaps where it comes from.

1) An open mouth when closed will tend to give you that character smile crease at the corners when you do close it.

2) If you are carving your head out of a solid block of foam then you really do need to carve it in the open position for the reason you mentioned about the resistance and the opening being stiff. In fact if you don't then you risk the corners of the mouth tearing.

3) If you create a mouth in a closed position then when you open it the material in the lower chin has to compress or fold up this could cause a double chin.

I am sure there are other aspects of this if we thought of them.  I think the lesson to learn here is that rules can be broken and sometimes it is good to re-think why you are actually doing something. There are some things that I used to always do that at some point I asked myself why and realized that it may not be needed in every case.

So in the case of this beak I think we should look at if when it is opened up will that lower beak compress or fold and look odd. Not real sure it is an issue.   

As I as typing this, Shawn posted some of the points I was going to cover. D'oh. Here's the condensed version, without repeating him. 

Apart from the construction...

My knowledge is only from what I've read on boards and advice I've gotten from other puppeteers who have done this extensively. I went over the general theory above (i.e. making the mouth close is easier than making it open). It reduces hand strain and general fatigue, as well as fights carpal tunnel. It's easy for me to strain my wrists, so I always wear wrist supports when constructing or performing.

If you take a look at this pic: http://puppetmuse.blogspot.com/2010/04/stuffed-and-unstrung.html it's a photo someone snapped of the stuffed and unstrung puppets on a rack, as an example of the whole "open mouth at rest" thing.  

I know some people will use clips (binder clips, clips to hold down table cloths, etc.) inside of their puppets mouths while they are "at rest" to reduce the long term strain of the jaw pulling down on the foam while on a stand. I'm no expert, so anyone else with more experience, please feel free to chime in.

Also - looking good, Kelso! I started following you on twitter. Loved the comment about the dining room. Just remember that you will learn something from every puppet, and a setback is just an opportunity to get creative with your puppet. (i.e. this needs facial hair!)

^ Thanks, Lola!  I followed you right back!

Always cut your fabric a bit larger then you need it. You can always trim off the excess once you get it in place.  In the case of a mouth what you can actually do is wrap the skin (yellow fleece in this case) around the edge and onto the mouth plate. When you are rounding a curve like on the tips of your beak you can cut small little triangles in the edge of the fabric. This reduces bulk and lets you get a smooth edge. Now since you have wrapped around the edge onto the mouth plate you need to put your black felt in last. The thing is it is easy since it is a flat surface and you can cut your black felt exactly the shape you need!  

Those are great tips, thanks. I made the mistake of starting with cutting and gluing the black felt for the mouth plate. I left the edges unglued so that I could tuck the yellow fleece underneath it, but it didn't help much because I didn't leave extra material.  I then tried to cut the yellow fleece to size and secure it with hot glue, laying the black felt over it.  So... I cut myself into a corner.  When the one edge didn't quite reach and the tips puckered a bit, I had no room to play with.  The method you suggest sounds like it would have solved that problem nicely.  

I now have my bird's head all pinned and marked and ready to sew, but the thread I bought it a bit too light so I'm going to have to wait until I can go back for a darker shade before proceeding.


http://puppetbuilding.blogspot.com/2012/07/duck-head-ready-to-sew.html