I am working on a puppet with skeleton arms.  I have carved the arms out of styrophom, and I did a really good job.  I have thought about just attaching the foam arms to the puppet, but the styrophom is very fragile.  I was thinking of covering them with latex.  What does everybody thing?  If latex is the route, where can I get it?

Craig

I have never worked with latex, but I have used papier maché to cover Styrofoam and works well (two or three layers of newspaper, using a mixture of white glue and wallpaper glue in water) Don't let to dry among different layers.
I use layers of white newspaper and orange (here in Spain the news related to economy are printed in orange paper. I do not know why, but it is very useful) to be sure I cover completely each layer

I am working on a puppet with skeleton arms.  I have carved the arms out of styrophom, and I did a really good job.  I have thought about just attaching the foam arms to the puppet, but the styrophom is very fragile.  I was thinking of covering them with latex.  What does everybody thing?  If latex is the route, where can I get it?

Craig

What type puppet are you making? regular hand in mouth or a marionette ?

Billy D.

It is a rod puppet.  The puppet is mounted on a wooden stick with controls at the base to move its mouth.  I used the paper mache method on the body and head. The arms are more detailed, and I really would not like to lose that detail.

I suppose you could cover it with latex................ however you may lose some of the detail in your arm. Most would sculpture the arm out of clay to get details and make a plaster mold then use latex to make the head,face,arm or legs. Since you have made the other parts with paper mache you may want to do the same with the arms.Have you thought of using paper mache but using layers of tissue paper as not to build  the paper to thick.

Billy D.

I used to live in Tempe and for the life of me I can't remember the name of it, but there used to be a special effects and prop place in Scottsdale. Check around with some of the schools that have digital video degrees, they may be able to help you. If not, I know in Dallas, Texas there is a company named Norcosco (I think that is how you spell it) and you can buy it in gallon jugs. If you do a single thin coat, you shouldn't lose any detail. I once worked on a performance called Hell House and had to design hell, so I carved some skulls out of foam and covered them with latex. Of course I used it to give the effect of rotting flesh hanging off of the bones, but in some areas I did a light smooth coating and it didn't lose any detail, just gave it a slight gloss look, but you can get rid of that by dusting it with baby powder right after application.