I made a muppet-style puppet for a friend's website over the summer, and would like to refine it. It was a rush job, but it worked, even though the lower jaw wasn't always looking its best. Here's a recent video where "Kyhole" entered a Halloween contest. Here he tries to recreate a scene from "The Exorcist":

Kyhole's Halloween Video

(This video is prety tame; Kyhole is usually a very R-rated muppet!)

Anyway, I'd like to rectify his lower jaw issues, but I'm having trouble coming up with a proper build to do it. Here are some pictures of Kyhole's jaw problem:

Kyhole Jaw

Basically, Kyhole is a lot like a human skull. The top half of his "skull" is a hollowed out styrofoam ball. I want to find a way to attach the lower jaw so that my hand is completely covered all the way around. I also want to maintain Kyhole's round head. I plan on re-skinning him to clean up all the duct tape. I want to keep his classic frown. I was going for a "Fat Blue" muppet look. Any suggestions at all would be greatly appreciated.

I am all for Duct Tape but dude!   Just kidding with you although if when you reskin the guy you alleviate the duct tape I think you'll have a better result.

If you papermache' your styro foam head before you cover it you'll be able to use white glue to attach fabric and structure to it.

It is kind of hard to tell but I think your mouth plate is a sheet of Foamie.  Is that correct?  The mouth plate needs to be what ties your upper head to your lower. It would be glued in first and then you could use a fabric drape method to cover it all in fabric. You'll need to get out a needle and thread.  Check out Daryl's BlogTv page, it is linked to in the left column.  He has tutorial on covering the head with fabric along with some other workshop sessions that I think would help you. He was using poly foam as a base but many of them would still apply.

You could go with poly foam but getting the frown that you have could be hard for you.  I say stay with the styro foam for now.  Others I am sure can give you some ideas for using poly foam to get the same effect but I kind of like the idea of stepping out of the box.

Thank you, Shawn! Yeah a lot of the duct tape was slapped on in desperation. Kyhole has been headbutted, punched, and generally abused! He really needs a stunt double, and I'm considering remaking him a bit bigger. My hand is too large for his current build!

I am going to check those links out. I think I've spent hours trying to perfect the mouth so the frown remains. Kyhole was always meant to be a miserable "the world is against me" kind of guy!

Edit: Yes, the mouth plates are foamie. I was buying those $1 dollar foamie visors to use before I found out you could buy sheets of the stuff!

Yikes....I should have invested in a duct tape company after that picture...I could have been richer by now....lol.....I am glad that you shared your video and pics.....I like Shawns ideas.  To keep the frown on your puppet if you decide to remake it......look at the two old guys off of the Muppet show.....the taller thinner guy has a great frown and a similar movement to his mouth as your puppet.

Just a thought to consider......

Daryl H

Hey all, sorry I haven't got back to you sooner. I did come up with a fix for Kyhole's jaw.

The fix involved actually giving him a neck finally! Before, my hand would be exposed if he happened to be caught at the wrong angle:



The new fix has solved that problem:



I had to strip Kyhole down to his styrofoam "skull", and add the neck via my favorite building material: duct tape! The neck itself was a "foamie" cup with the front and bottom cut out.





The lower jaw was secured inside the "neck" with a plastic band.



The band was secured to the back of the inner neck, and the jaw was secured to the "front" of the plastic band. Lower jaw:



Kyhole's neck fleece wrapped to the back, and his inner mouth completely conceals my hand. I put my hand through the plastic band now to make Kyhole come to life. To round out the tweaking, I also added  "uvula" and tongues to both of my puppets!