Hi everyone.

Just a quick question.

When you guys make bird puppets, what do you typically use for material??  Do you use fleece and then attach some feathers in certain areas, or do you use a faux fur to give the illusion of feathers?? 

Or do you use both, just depends on what the actual character is going to be??

Thanks!
Jeff

I have used various different fabrics.  My Chickens (Blunetta http://www.outoftheboxpuppets.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=135 and Chicken Chuck http://www.outoftheboxpuppets.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=103) where made from a curly furry fleece along with silk flowers for the wing tips.  The Walk About Flamingos http://www.outoftheboxpuppets.com/index.php?act=viewCat&catId=18  were made with a combination Antron and furry fleece and feathers. While some were just made with just fleece and feather accents.  I'll have to add the photos of the others to the gallery and update the post.  The owl I'll post shortly is mostly two tones of fleece cut to simulate feathers with marabou feathers for the wings.  This was a smaller (14") rod controlled puppet.  I think people's imagination fills in the blanks.  If you look at Pavlovs Puppets http://www.pavlovspuppets.com/bird_puppets.htm  Most of there birds are just fleece with a few accents of fur or feathers.  They are beautiful.

JoAnn Fabrics as a white, brown, black and red silky furry fleece that would make beautiful birds.  I'm getting ready to work on a Flamingo/Seagull Puppet using the white silky fleece.  

Here is the owl photo. 

If you look in our photo gallery there are a few other bird photos with just fleece and feather accents.

Julie

Thanks Julie.

I made my first bird, a flamingo type character, out of fleece with just some feathers from a boa for accents.

I'm thinking about making an eagle, and as I was looking at pictures of them, it seemed like I might be better off making an eagle out of a fur.  Their feathers don't seem to lay as flat as other birds, so the fur would probably make an eagle look a bit more "authentic." 

I like those walkabout flamingo puppets!!  They are cool!!


Jeff

When I see all the pictures of the birds I noticed that the shape of the bird is more important than the feathers. You can see that it is a bird because of the beak (I hope it is the wright word) wings and more shape details that make the bird.

This is the furry fleece from JoAnn Fabric. http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/zoomImagedetail.jsp?PRODID=7760432&imageType=m&itemType=sku. http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/productdetail.jsp?CATID=cat2743&PRODID=prd32291  It's actually on sale now.  I think it would work great for the eagle.

Thanks!  I love the flamingos as well...hard to part with them.

I saw your flamingo with the flapping wings that was a great invention. 

One of the many great things about building puppets is imagination, imagination.  You don't need to make it identical to the real thing unless that is what your customer is looking for.

Julie

i mainly use furs and flecces, antron fleece is a favourite, but i think the fabris is limited only by your imagination, i have seen people use some very weird and wonderful fabrics, some have make entire bird puppets out of only foam and they look great, i have in the past made parts of thie bird out of spandex, it can look awesome, but like we have all said, there is no rule on what you can use, be the first to think of using an unusual fabric and set the rest of us off!! here is a picture of my favourite bird puppet toodles, he is a non-descript bird and very plain, just the base pattern really that i make other bird puppets from.

                                                                                         

hope this helps, its so much fun coming up with new stuff tyo use for old designs, i hope you can teach us all something new!!!

Ben.