Hi, everyone.
I'm having a bit of trouble and I was wondering if someone could help me. I am working on making a red fraggle puppet:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y84/haleybrooks/Fraggle/DSC05591.jpg

I am currently trying to do the hair and I have ABSOLUTELY no idea what to do. For those unfamiliar with Red Fraggle, she wears her hair in ponytails and it looks something like this:

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e245/Muppetcollector/My%20Favorite%20Muppets/Red.jpg

I have some orange ostrich feathers on the way and have some red ones downstairs, but I was just wondering what the best way to tackle this sort of hairstyle was. I was just sitting in my basement with a feather boa, just staring at it and wondering what in the world to do. I started cutting it up and making little tufts of hair out of the ostrich feathers on it, but I was wondering if there was an easier way.

Any insight would be more than welcome. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer me. ^_^

Yep you got the right idea!   Feather boa/ostrich feathers is the way to go. The ones on the original look like they might have been the more expensive boa as opposed to just the marabou that you commonly find. A little more expensive but they are longer "feathers" like those.

Oh...  one more thing. If you wrap a piece a tape around where you are going to cut before you do then cut down the center of that taped area then it helps keep the feathers together. Thy "bending" the boa in a loop of sorts about the size of the tuft you want then tape the two lengths together where you want to cut. Then to make it more of a clump or tuft you can hand stitch the inner core of the two length together.  You could try twisting the two into each other but I find just stiching them works best. If you need a larger tuft then then that then make two "loops" and stitch the cores together into one. My making the "loop" you keep the ends embedded in the tape. Hope you can visualize that.

I'm not sure how long the feathers are on your boa. The best results for this type hairstyle would be to use the Ostrich Femina plumes 25-28 inches long. Gently pulling away sections from the plume itself. Then tie a group of them into a bundle of sorts and secure to the head of your puppet.

Female Femina Wing feathers are the largest and fluffiest ostrich feathers available. Their natural white shade with black markings allows them to be dyed any colour. Female ostrich wing feathers are ideal for table decoration, sally rand fans, bridal wear, headdresses and costumes.



Here is where you can buy the plumes. They can be bought dyed as well. Female ostrich wing feathers are suppose to be fluffier than there male counter parts whose wing feather measure about the same.

Billy D.

http://www.ostrich.com/feather-ostrich/Femina-Plume-25-28-inch-Natural.html

You guys are all simply wonderful. Thank you so much. I think I know what I need to do now... This boa I bought is kinda rubbish. I think I have to go and purchase some better feathers. I'm going to do that tomorrow I think.

As far as her pigtails go, what would you recommend to make the bottom part of the pigtail? The part that attaches to the head? I am having a hard time trying to work out what to use to fasten them to the head as well. If this doesn't make sense, have a look at the second picture in my initial post.

thanks again !

It is kind of hard to see what was used in the photo. It looks a bit like there is a bow involved but I can't tell for sure. You need a good solid base that you can attach to the head securely. I would most likely try and use a piece of wire that I could poke thorugh the head to the inside and then bend the wire into a circle and glue that to the inside of the head with a circle of felt over it.  You already have the puppet together so that may be hard for you to do.  It might work to do the same thing on the outside.

I would then maybe wrap the wire in a piece of foam to pad it out then put foam or ribbon around that to finish it off. Maybe a ribbon wrapped and tied in a bow is what the original is.  Oh before I did that I would have attached the feathers to the wire using glue and maybe warping the end in some more tape. A bend or loop in the end of the wire would help to keep the feathers from slipping of the end.

That is a brilliant idea. I was going to glue a spool to a doll joint and then put the hair through that, but the circular wire idea is much, much better. I've got to order some ostrich feathers today, but I'll probably be able to try to engineer something this weekend! This helps greatly! thank you!

Hey Ghost...  the actual feather (though i've never tried) will probably be a hard project to work with.  I've gotten, and will most likly buy from again, from Tony Hill.
http://www.tonyhill.net/productCat95937.ctlg

The difference is the feathers are on a string, which makes it alot easier to use for hair.

Yeah, that's what I've purchased. Just waiting for them to come in the mail now. I've worked with the ones on a string before and have had success. I had some reservations about doing this without asking for advice, though, because ostrich feathers are EXPENSIVE and I wanted to make sure I was doing it properly before I went and wrecked like 50 dollars worth of feathers.

If they were cheaper, i'd probably work with them more, myself.  I have a character that could benefit from having some feather hair, however, i'd need like 5 strands... so its not worth it lol.  But i have bought them for another puppet which needed alot more