I have just completed one of the largest projects I've ever worked on.  Giant Despair, for a production of Pilgrim's Progress (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pilgrim%27s_Progress).  

Giant Despair's eyes blink, mouth moving and individual finger flexing all cable controlled as well as removable of the hood from inside/underneath the puppet.  He is approximately 8-10 ft tall depending on who is holding him.  One puppeteer holds the puppet and operates the mouth and eyes as well as the feet of the puppet (Feet shoes).  Second and third puppeteers operate the hand/finger controls.  He is blacklight reactive, hence the colors or his skin and hair.  His cloak glows purple/blue under the light.  Very ominous. Ooooooo

3 almost 4 weeks of work!!!! It was a great learning experience.  Unfortunately I didn't have anyway of filming the movements....sorry.  



Julie
 

I Love it!

Wow amazing work there....congratulations on such a big task....the hands with the movable fingers look very interesting to me well thought out as well.....it looks very powerful all put together. 

Thanks for sharing......

Daryl H

Oh MY!! What a HUGE project!  (in more than one way!) Very impressive!

Thanks.  More photos of the hands

Zip tie fingers... how ingenious! He looks marvelous.

Very cool. Nice job.

wow that is amazing! very well thought through, it looks like you really took your time with this. great work!

That is so amazingly cool. I agree with Shawn, using the zip ties was most ingenious. Light weight, flexible and strong. I am so impressed.

Thanks.  Joe Bruce http://www.nanapuddin.com/Performers.aspx made very large hands that were single layer foam spray painted, so that's where the idea originally came from I just tweaked it to fit my needs.  Overall the design works great.  I would change the placement of the stops slightly next time as well as cut areas into each layer of foam where I wanted the bend of the fingers. 

The puppet it's self is not very heavy, but because his cloak is so large and made from spandex, so it will fluoresce, he weighs about 15-17 lbs.   Great learning experience.....only I'm not sure I want to tackle one again.  Who knows...it's hard to say no. LOL 

I have a couple of customers asking for life size camels....Oh boy.....I can't even (well maybe) imagine how long that would take. LOL  I keep telling myself just say NO.

Julie