If they knew how little I charge, they be lined up for a mile.  I really enjoy transforming the ugly ducklings of the puppet world.  It's very satisfying.  I did all the puppets at my church and I like to handle a few repair jobs now and then just for the thrill of it.  These guys I did for $12.68, the cost of supplies that I had to buy plus shipping back to Ohio.  I do the labor for free when working for churches.  If everyone knew this than I would be inundated with repair jobs and have no time for my family so I have to limit myself.

Nice Job.  What did you use for the girls hair?

Angel

It's something you could probably buy at a wig/beauty supply shop.  It's weird stuff.  I think it is used in braiding Afican American hair as a filler.  It says Marley on the bag.  I bought it at a thrift store during the Halloween season.  It looks like Bob Marley's dread locks - fun stuff.  There is no wig cap at the base.  That's why I think it might be used in braiding as a filler.  I machine sewed it like it was yarn (sewing down the middle of the strands to make a hairpiece) and hand sewed it in place on the head in such a way that it would cover the whole head.  The photo doesn't show it, but this hair has wonderful texture and makes the girl look more ethnic in flavour than her original yarn hair did.

Hi Puppetlady
I know the stuff you're talking about, it's not weird LOL , one can buy hair for brading and other uses in a pack at places that sell wigs and other hair supplies.  It looks like the kind that you used has sort of a dread lock look to it, kinda of like a tight wavy curl if that makes sense.  I bought a similar kind that is sorta like an Afro.  I'm of
African American/American Indian descent and I've used a similar kind, more straight than kinky, when I used to get my hair braided. You're right it is braided in the hair to help keep it more straight, natural hair when braided will "draw or shrink up" some, so the added hair helps to keep that from happening.  Did you use anything as a base to sew the hair to?  The last time I tried to sew similar hair I had a complete mess.  I was making an Asian puppet and needed the hair to be straight and after I sewed it, like yarn, it was coming out when I combed it.  What's your tip?  Also I know that you posted some where here about how you made the puppet eyes but i can't find it.  Can you lead me in the right direction?  And again great puppets, I especially love the girl.


Angel

Thanks.  I've seen others sew their hair or yarn pieces onto a strip of fabric.  I just jam the stuff under my presser foot as I sew.  I've never sewn anything too slippery straight so it hasn't come out yet that I know of.  I tell clients to only finger comb yarn hair and usually put the girl's hair into pony tails to keep it tidy anyway.
Which eyes are you talking about?  The teddy bear eyeballs, the simple ping pong ball eye or the painted iris eye?

The painted eyes, like the ones on the puppets you just restored.

Angel

I'm not sure where that post is.  I'll just explain it again.
I pin the plain white eyes (ping pong or other) up on the puppet to determine the proper focus for the iris.  I stick a black velcro circle (you could use a felt pad) onto each eye and move them until I get the eyes to focus on me from a foot or so away.  I then take my circle template and lay it over the velcro circle and carefully rip it off keeping the template down.  I use a Fine tip Sharpie to draw in the circle using the template.  Repeat for the other eye.  Now you remove the eyes to a table for painting.  There are a few ways to do this. First you can fill in the eye iris with your lighter eye colour or skip that and just double dip a flat brush in two shades of your iris colour so you paint the depth in all in one go.  Dip your flat brush in one colour on one edge and one on the other. Take a few strokes on a paper to blend.  You should have a light to dark range on your brush.  You can use this to paint the outer circumference of the circle placing the darker shade on the outer black Sharpie line.  Do this all the way around so your iris has the lighter shade in the middle and the darker shade on the outside edge for depth..  I probably use a 1/4 width flat brush for this.  I then thin the darker colour out with a bit of water and use a tiny tiny brush (I call it a two hair brush, but there are really more than two hairs in it!) to make strokes from outer perimeter to inner perimeter like the spokes on a wagon wheel.  You can also skip that double dip part and fill the iris with solid colour and just make the thin spoke lines as described with the darker shade.  You can then use the Sharpie to redraw the outside circle to add depth instead using a double dipped brush.  Use the template again to draw in the black iris center and fill with black paint or Sharpie strokes.  Gloss the finished dried pupil with high gloss enamel finger nail polish for a high shine.
This sounds confusing.  I hope you understood that. I basically use two shades of brown (or blue or green) to fill the circle and then draw a black iris center on top and gloss when dry.

definately a master at what you do. Do you actually market that you restore older puppets or was this a one time thing?

WOW!!! You are an inspiration.  Thanks for the eye info.  Just getting started myself so I'm reading EVERYTHING trying to learn from all of you great puppet makers.  Thanks a lot!

No, I don't market it.  I don't have time to handle the requests that would come if I did.  If I actually charged for the service, it wouldn't even be cost effective, so I do it for free just for kicks when I have the time.