Thought I'd post some pics of a puppet I'm working on. It is a rabbit, but I don't know if the face is looking too much like a cat. Oh well, first time with the rabbit, so am working on putting on the face and attachng the ears. Have yet to make the arms, but those are no big deal. I've learned so much from working with this pattern. I'm using the pinhead pattern enlarged by 20% and it seems to work fine. Although when combining the fleece and the fur, I think I need to eliminate the sewing allowance where the two meet to give a neater fit to the foam head. So tell me what you think so far.

Oh yeah, I have a wire armature inside the ears, but how do I attach to the head so they stand up rather than flop over? Any suggestions anyone?

Sue

I think it looks like a rabbit more than a cat, great job.

To help you with your question......

.....If you have enough wire stick it through the fur and fleece.  I would use milk jug piece of plastic to put inside the head and reinforce the area were the wire comes in and to hold onto.  You may need to do a few other things to build a sturdier structure to hold the ears up depending on the weight of the ears near the top.  But this may get you started as to what to do with simple materials.

Hope this helps......

Daryl H. 

it definitely lookks like a rabbit.  Nice job so far!

AS for the ears, I I normally use a really long piece of wire and fold it in half, this makes your ears more sturdy than just 1 piece of wire. THe when you stick it through the foam use the plastic, or even hotglue canvas over it. Remember to fold over the ends of the wire into an L shape. THe gives the adhesive much more surface area to adhere to.

Yes, its obviously a rabbit.  And while I know that most time rabbits are pictured their ears are standing.  there are also lop eared rabbits that are very cute.  A few years ago we had a pett miniturel op-eared rabbit named Matilda.

Just thought I throw that out the incase you wanted to avoid some work.

By the way you rabbit looks great.

Great rabbit!!  I love the colors... Regarding your comment about the wire armature inside the ears. On my rabbit, Stu, I added plastic wire ties (the large sized ones - about 3/8" x 18" cut to size) this kept them light weight and bouncy but attaching them was a pain. See my rabbit has a sock-puppet type head , no foam insert, so I had nothing to anchor them to. What I ended up doing was sewing them along the inside of his back down both sides then straight up into his ears. If you get better ideas I would really like to hear them also. I think I had a good idea...but terrible execution.   

I think it looks like a rabbit................ this is just a suggestion variation from what Daryl said. Is it possible to use the 30mm or 35mm doll joints in the ears. You could drill small holes in each side of the plastic doll joints and attach the wire. Insert inside of base of ear glueing fabric to doll joint or stitching.
( cut a piece of cardboard a bit smaller than the joint to place between joint of ear and base at head) this will allow strength and wear to fabric. Then place hole in head and push post inside adding fastner from inside of head. (place another piece of cardboard from the inside for extra support and less wear to foam) This will give support to the ear and will allow the you to pivot the ear in a circular motion and with the bendable wire will give you much added movement.

I have attached wired hands to my puppets like this as well as arms. This is just a suggestion.

Billy D.

it's a wickedly cool rabbit!!!!

this is just a suggestion variation from what Daryl said. Is it possible to use the 30mm or 35mm doll joints in the ears.

Billy,  Duh! Now why didn't I think of that? I use doll joints for arms and legs on many of my puppets. Just thinking too much I guess.

Thanks all, I do see it more rabbit like today. Yesterday I was really thinking cat. Mmmm I'm thinking next puppet will be a cat. I am just so happy to be building again. My hubby said, "Just build whatever you want to build that's reason enough to build a puppet. You don't have to have anything specific planned for the puppet. You have all the stuff to build with, so go for it."

So I'm happily designing and building and am blissfully happy.

Gotta go to work, teaching drawing to 1st-3rd grade kids, I love my life.

Sue

Looks like a rabbit to me but I can see how it could be similar to a cat. He reminds me of a cartoon character, but I can't quite put my finger on which one - maybe Bonkers* or maybe one of the Animaniacs?

I think he is great - it is quite telling that he has so much personality already and does not even have eyes yet. Well done!

*(A Disney character -he was a bobcat, I believe, but I can't find any pictures.)

I love your rabbit!!!  I agree it is definitely a rabbit in fact I have one very similar to it that I use at my preschool.  Can't wait to see it all finished!  What are you going to name it?