Hi everyone.

Just wanted to show you guys my work in progress.  The head and beak are entirely made from scratch.  No pattern was used.  It's my first time using no pattern, and I think the head turned out great.  The body is a modified Alternate Simple Series body.  It's basically modified to be slightly tighter at the bottom than it normally is.  

The wings were an absolute beast.  I made them separate from the puppet itself, and I probably should've made them at the same time.  I had a TON of trouble getting them to attach to the puppet's body.  I first tried snaps, but they were just heavy enough that the snaps allowed them to sag lower than I wanted them.  I then tried velcro, and that worked a bit better.  Then I decided that maybe they would be the most supported if they were attached directly to the foam inside the body of the puppet...so I took six stuffed animal eyes, ripped open the wings, and attached the front fabric of the wings to the body by poking holes from the very back all the way to the inside of the body.  I then took the animal eyes and put them through the holes, eye side out, and put the fasteners inside the body.  I did them eye side out because the eyes are smooth and I didn't want to run the risk of having the mechanism for the flapping get snagged on the posts that normally are on the inside.  

To my surprise, it worked.  The wings are now fixed onto the body very firmly and flap freely and easily.  

For a while I thought that it wasn't going to work out, and I was disappointed because I had spent a TON of time making the head and even more time making the wings.  I was pretty happy with the end result.  

Take a look at the video here:
" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>
https://youtu.be/-hPjm0V37js



I can't get the embed to work...so here's a link:

Very cool!  The wings work great!  They have what are called teddy bear or doll joints that are very much like what the eyes are with the post and a large flat disk on each side. You could have used those also to attach your wings.

VERY COOL!! I love how the wings work! Would like to see a drawing of how the mechanism works! WELL DONE!!

That is VERY COOOL!  Nice job....

Dennis

Very nice. One thing I would change though is the beak. Flamingos tend to have curved white beaks with black tips. The wings though are great.
Good job.

I agree, the wings are cool!

Thanks everyone. 

The wings were pretty tough to accomplish, but the mechanism is easy to get.  It's just an umbrella. 

I ripped off all but two of the "arms" that make it open and mounted each of them directly opposite each other.  I then pulled out all of the gizmos inside of it that lock the sliding part in place.  That gave me a two armed umbrella that slid freely up and down the pole. 

I made the shape for the wings by basically just tracing the top of the umbrella and then just eye-balled how the bottom of the wing should work. 

I still have some things to finish up on him...mainly the feathers on the back of his wings. 

An umbrella... how ingenious!

I will stop throwing out those old broken umbrellas!! Brilliant idea!

I think he/she is fantastic! Love seeing something come together like that!