Hey all, Having looking around and viewed many of your galleries, i find your work truelly inspiration, and so excited to be able to pick the brains of such talent.
            So im hoping to do a production of the Stiles And Drewe musical Honk! lots of the characters are ducks or animals to this affect. I'm really struggling, i'm using patterns i made like i always do but im not being so successful. wondering if anyone has any ideas, suggestions, or recommendations i'd greatfully try them out =]
to confirm, its the beak I'm struggling with mostly, my friend made a recommendation to me, but it kinda failed.
Ross

Hello.  It sounds like a very fun project.  Here are a couple of beaks that I have made.  If you check out the new post on cable controlled flamingos it has another example.

The last photo is the pattern for the top beak on the flamingo in the cable controlled post.

Hope this helps.

Julie

Julie - I LOVE your new logo!!  Very nice!!  Of course your puppets are wonderful as usual!!

Yes, really nice puppets, and the logo its cool! (Great design, exactly for you)

=O i love your work, and thanks so much for posting a reply. that was really helpful, i'm really nervous about trying this, i'm gunna cut some foam now i think, see how it goes, wish me luck =D

Thanks.  I love the new logo.  She did such a wonderful job, I actually purchased three different designs.
Here is her profile.  I highly recommend her.

http://puppetsandstuff.com/community/index.php?action=profile;u=1961

The best way to figure out those beaks is just start cutting!

Julie

Julie.

Lovely bird beaks...I am sure bubble-boy will have
some idea to develop the puppet now...just need to know
how did u fix the beak ? Was it fixed after finishing the head
or you have started with the beak first? Thanks for sharing
the pics.
 

Bhanu

I started with a mouthplate the basic shape of the beak then added the beak shaped foam, then the back of the head.


I use the same technique with all my puppets.

Julie

Thanks Julie for the info....the same way I made my paaru bird puppet (pic in my gallery).

This looks less complicated to make. Ofcourse all depends on the shape of the beak.

How do you make a beak for a house sparrow? Beaks are small to fit
into a medium size head.

Waiting to see the final shape of Flamingo.
 
Bhanu

I have never made a really small bird puppet.  All the ones I have made the width of the beak allows for the whole hand of the puppeteer.  If the puppet was going to be very small I believe you'd just need to make the mouthplate/beak large enough for at least the puppetters first two fingers on top and the thumb on bottom.  In this fish I started out with a wide mouthplate and thinned out the width of the mouth.  This gives more of a dolphin look, but you could apply it to a bird.


The flamingos are a lot of fun.  They are turning out well.  It is taking me a while, because there are four of them.  I have started adding the fabric/skin.  Hopefully I'll have more photos at the first of next week. busy,busy

Julie