I've begun working on the Rhino Beetle.  Below is a sketch of what I am planning the beetle to look like and under that is a foam head I've already constructed from 1/2 foam. 

I need some advice.  I'm thinking that the weight of the horn is going to cause the head to flex out of shape.  What would be the best way to reinforce the snout of the puppet so that it will be rigid enough to hold the weight of the horn?

What will the horn or horns be made of ?

Billy D.

It looks like his snout is pretty long and that perhaps the hand does not go all the way to the end. If that is correct then you could put a "half circle" piece of foam in the snout at the point where you are going to add the horn. I normally use a higher density foam for such supports but if you don't have any perhaps two pieces glued together would do it.  If my description is not clear let me know.

I should have given you something so you would have a beter idea on the size.  The mouth is about 4 inches long,  So it's not terribly big.  I didn't want this puppet to be too much bigger than all the other puppets for the Joshua June bug cast.

I got to thinking and I believe that the mouth palate and the finger tubes will almost fill up the top part of the mouth and I think little more foam will fill out the inside of the mouth and give the stability I'm looking for.

I really like the head shape.  I'm thinking of posting the pattern to share and also shortening the nose so that it might be able to be used for a people puppet and posting that pattern as well.

That is a neat head shape.  Do you design your own pattern for each character?

Most of the bug puppets so far have been minor adaptations of the round head pattern I have on my blog.  The beetle head is also an adaptation of that pattern but much more than a minor one.  And since it can be hard to repeat a design if you don't save a pattern I decided that this head is different enough to deserve its own pattern.

I like it as is for the Beetle but think the snout is too long for use as a person.  So I'll just shorten the snout.

As I think about it I guess all the puppets have had unique body shapes, no two alike.

Its very satisfying to build a unique puppet.  On top of that is the fact that there aren't many bug puppets out there and no patterns.  My project kind of forced me to design and build for my self.

Very cool, Jon.  Very cool.

The beetle is going to look beetliful.
Brenda

This is a very interesting design, I'm looking forward to seeing the finished puppet.



Ron G.

I really like the shape of the head already......can't wait to see when it is done (and a few steps between). 

Daryl H