Hi!
I have made a couple of foam (reticulated) puppets, but I am having a hard time hiding the seams. I am using just hot glue to keep it together, so that might be part of the problem, but I tried alternate glue, the dry time is so slow. Any suggestions?

Welcome to Puppets and Stuff! And Happy Thanksgiving! I have yet to build a puppet that isn't covered in some sort of fabric but I have used contact cement. I just used a blow dryer or heat gun to dry the cement faster. Works pretty darn well! You can have that cement ready to bond in just 20 or 30 seconds instead of 10 or 15 minutes or more. I think you'll find those seams to be a good deal less obvious. Best of luck!

You can sew the fabric together and then overlay it onto the foam (either sew it directly to the foam or glue the underside). One of the reasons I stopped using hot glue is because of unsightly seams; a good contact cement should be quick drying, especially if you use Puppetainer's advice!

PS. Welcome!

oh great! I didn't think to use a blow dryer to dry glue. (Though it should have occurred to me because I use it all the time for paint. haha.) Will give that a try.

I would be very careful using a heat gun.  Heat guns get very hot, very quick.  Contact cement is HIGHLY flammable. I have not had a problem myself, but I had a customer tell me she was glue something in her kitchen.  She was waiting for it to dry and decided to put on a pot of water for tea.  As soon as she turned on the burner the fire jumped across the kitchen about 4 ft and set the foam and kitchen on fire.  Thankfully she was not hurt. 

If you do your gluing outside the dry time is much less as well as you won't be breathing as much of the fumes.

Julie

Welcome to Puppets and Stuff

Thanks Julie! I should have included a warning or disclaimer. I have used both a heat gun and a blow dryer. I'm always careful to use the low setting though. Please be careful not to set any fires!

thanks for the tips. I will try not to burn my eyebrows off

You can use hot with great success with a few things to keep in mind...first bleed the glue around the spot by pushing the two seams together and spread the glue around in the spot then hold it together until the glue cools down....second make sure the inside of the puppet is facing down any excess glue will drip on the floor or inside of the puppet and it won't glop out of the seem...three do a little section at a time don't expect to do a whole seem at once.  I do many workshops with these tips and goes together well...they will never be invisible, it doesn't matter what glue you use.

I hope this helps out a little....

Daryl