Hey, We are thinking of carrying L200 foam as one of our products seeing how we are using it ourselves and wondering what type of need there might be in the puppet building community.

What I'm wondering is what thickness; 1/2", 3/4", etc do most of you use or would like to use as well as what size sheet (12" x 12", 24" x 24") etc. would you need?

Thanks for your input.

Julie

I always use 1/2" foam. On occasion for body characters I've used 3/4"  or 1" foam to create structure but the skin has always been the 1/2". I would say 24 X 24.  All that said I would buy locally since I have a store I can do that in but thought I would give my impute on size.

Thanks Shawn.  I wish we had a local store.  What size and kind puppets did you make with the 1/2"?  I once had a life size elephant and camel that was made from 3/4".  I've been using 3/4" in for teeth, but I think the 1/2" would work just fine.


Julie

We used the 1/2" to make a full body elephant with a rider on top. It was for StoneLion Puppets http://stonelionpuppets.org/index.html They don't have an image of the puppet on the site right now but it was Karma the Elephant with Felicia Flash on top. They are both on the front page in their separate smaller versions.

There was a pvc pipe structure under the foam to help stabilize and to attach the harnessing needed.

I also made a hand in mouth large dragon puppet out of it that was covered in lycra.  I thought I had an image of him here but I guess not.

Is this it? I mean is the elephant? I found a dragon but wasn't sure............ I want to see the pictures Shawn, is it possible for you to get them?

http://www.kcya.org/full_content.php?article_id=214&full=yes&pbr=1

http://stonelionpuppets.org/downdrain.html

I love this elephant!

Yes that is the marionette version of Karma. There was a "hand in trunk" version of the puppet and a "rod" version that had Felicia ridding her. In fact these versions where made from the L200 foam. 

I want to point out that while L200 can be used on a hand in mouth puppet it is not flexible enough to use with the method most people use to make this type of puppet. In other words it would not work for the Puppet Project patterns.

You can see here that Karma is for the most part two spheres that are covered in fleece. The stiffer foam works well to create solid spheres that the other appendages can be added to.

Just as a reminder, don't forget that Julie is looking for feedback on the sizes that folks think they would like to buy in this type of foam. I would bet that Karma would have needed a couple 24 X 24 pieces of the foam to make. Her spheres where made using the wedge method with some slight modification for the head so that it was not an perfect sphere.

I would be interested in buying it from you if you were to sell it.  I've never used it but would eventually like to try it on some ideas I have.  Not sure on the size since I haven't used it.  But after just viewing the Neato Ideas video, I noticed he used maybe 1" to make some props?  We have made similar props and I just used the pink insulation foam from Home Depot.  But I could think of a few ways to use the thicker foam.  But if Shawn says he used 1/2" then that's a good enough recommendation for me.

Could we discuss a estimated price that it would cost for a 24" x 24" in 1/2", 3/4" and 1".

Shawn, the Stonelion puppets are beautiful.  I wish I had photos of the parade puppets I used to have.  They were beautiful.  The elephant and camel were two person puppets with aluminum strips for the structure with the L200 as the next layer then suede for the skin. We got them second hand, so I never say them used before we received them, but the structure looked like it was meant to have a human rider on top.

Angel, yes, it would make much better props then just foamboard or pink ins. foam.  It is much more durable.

Billy, Price...that's the thing, it will depend on the size and quantity we purchase.  It comes in up to 2" thickness, but at this time we probably would only be carrying the 1/2" or 3/4" in since that is what we use.  If there seemed to be a greater demand we might be able to stock the other sizes.  I know that didn't help with the price. LOL

Julie