Hello everybody,

I am new to this board, and I was hoping to please get some insight and hopefully help in what is going to be my biggest project yet - a large puppet of a dragon.

I am competing in a costume competition in November and planned to make this puppet as part of the performance to give it some real edge. I was planning to have a large curtain in the background for myself to stand behind while my partner models my costume and does the acting, and for me to poke the puppet through a slit in the middle of the curtain.

Here is a picture of the final design, along with some (very poorly drawn, sorry) sketches of my plan, and how the curtain would be. Obviously it's  too large to make the entire thing, so I would only be making its head, arms and shoulders up to the shoulerblades, because I don't think I could handle wings.
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e161/Yiji/dragon.jpg

I planned to make the body itself out of stiff foam, and cast the scales in acrylic plastic. However, the thing that's really troubling me is the skeleton of the puppet itself, and the fact that it has to be operated from behind a curtain. Obviously it would be quite large, and I was really hoping to be able to work out some sort of mechanism for the neck/jaw to move and open, but maybe I'm hoping for too much.

If anybody has any advice on how to create the skeleton of this beast and/or a working jaw mechanism that I could operate from backstage, I would be eternally grateful.

Thank you for your time!

I did a dragon once for an opera that was mounted on something similar to a seesaw. Maybe a mechanism similar to that would be something you could use. Sorry I don't have pictures of it though. The neck could really only move up and down with this puppet and it was more of a water serpent dragon as opposed to the European dragon so the neck was really long. We built it out of EVA foam which I think is what you mean by stiff foam. The scales where a combination of soft foam cut out and covered and then quilted fabric. The belly was the quilted fabric and the back scales where the cut out foam pieces. That might work better for you then the acrylic plastic. The mouth mechanism was a variation on what you see in the grabbers you can get at like a hardware store or the toys that have a head on the top with the trigger at the end of a rod. A simpler way to do it is to make your hinged jaw but then weight the bottom jaw. Then on the inside you run a string/rope from the lower jaw up through the upper jaw and then down the long support for the neck back to where you operate the puppet. By pulling on the string/rope you can close and open the mouth.

I wouldn't so much mind if the neck couldn't move, because I suppose I could just shift the puppet around myself - it's just the jaw I'm most worried about.

Thank you so much for the idea of string for the jaw! I planned to go to the hardware store on Monday to pick up supplies - is there anything you recommend getting for the skeleton of the body? I was planning to make a very simple shape out of dowels, and build the actual shape of the dragon with foam only, but now that I think about it, it wouldn't support the string idea. Maybe I could use pipes instead?

If I remember correct there really was not skeleton for our dragon. Since we used the see saw or teeter totter idea it was made out of a 2X4 and that is what supported the foam skeleton of the puppet.  I do think though that with what you are doing that pvc pipe may be a good option. I don't think your dragon is going to be quite as big as what we did.   The pipe should give you the support you need for the string/rope. In fact you could run the string down the inside of the pipe to keep it from getting caught up in things.

I just thought of an idea - maybe I could make a base for the dragon to sit on so that I wouldn't be having to hold it up (maybe even put some wheels on there to move it through the curtain). Does that sound feasible?

I thought about also just getting a simple hinge from the hardware store for the jaw, but I've never used solid material like those (since I'm more of a sewer).  Do you think I should be able to find everything that I need from a big hardware store?

Yes a base is an excellent idea. Our dragon was on a wood base with wheels. Yep you should be able to find everything you need at a good hardware store.

I would not use a hinge for the jaw but simply make the head the same way that you make a normal puppet head with a mouth plate. Review some of the videos on these site. They will give you a good idea of techniques to use.

http://puppeteersunite.com/?page_id=588
http://www.blogtv.com/people/StiqpuppetsLive
http://www.youtube.com/user/StiqPuppets

Those last two links are going to have some duplicates since they are done by the same person.

Thank you so much for your help! I'll post pictures of it as I'm working on it!

Hey where in Australia are you? Na aka Naomi http://puppetsandstuff.com/community/index.php?action=profile;u=286 is in Melbourne. Maybe if you two are close you could collaborate.

Welcome to Puppets and Stuff

Funnily enough, I used to live in Melbourne until about a week ago, until I decided to come back to Perth to look after my dad because he's sick. But I might try get in contact with her!