Dr Jeff needs a new puppet for a street gig that he has coming up, and wants to use the Pinhead Project Puppet pattern. Since I've not used that pattern yet, I decided to make a mock up. We needed a fuzzy pink puppet for an upcoming video, so it would be a good opportunity to experiment.



We've always used half inch foam for skulls, but for this experiment, we tried quarter inch foam. I think in the future, I'm going to continue to use the half inch foam, it's more stable and easier to glue the seams (you can see it's a little sloppy). Since we're going to make eyes that can blink, I think I'll want the extra strength. For this experiment, this skull will work okay.



Sometimes Dr. Jeff has problems laying out fabric. The pink fur (it's actually not furry, more like a knit with long heavy threads sticking out of it. Cool and weird.) came from a friend of ours, so hooray for free!



CousCous decided he needed to help as well.

I was able to get the head hand sewn last night while at a gaming night, but didn't get pictures. I'll snap some tonight.

Love CousCous! thanks for sharing.

Love the variegated color in that fabric. Looks like you are using a high density EVA foam. Don't you love that stuff?

Oh, could you maybe share the Couscous picture on facebook? I'd love to share it with my mother in law since she is so in love with cats and cuddly animals- And your Couscous is both!

Couscous looks like he's enjoying the puppet building!
So cute

@Rikka, I posted it in the puppet builders Facebook group for you. I hope your mom likes Mr. Kitten Face.

@Shawn, good eye! It's wonderful to work with! It cuts easily, holds its shape nicely, and makes for some great mouth plates. Maybe you have some insight; do you find that the quarter inch EVA foam is sturdy enough for things like eye blink mechanisms and movable eyebrows, or should I stick with half inch foam? Man, I know fabric inside out, but foam (other than open cell upholstery foam) is a mystery to me.

I don't think the 1/4 " would hold up for an eye mech unless it was reinforced. For the most part I've always used the 1/2". That is what I used for my dragon that has an eye blink mech in him.  I did try some 1/4 for a mouth plate on my last project and it was ok for a smaller hand in mouth puppet that was just about the size of a PP puppet but when I moved to a head about twice that size the mouth plate ended up being a bit floppy. It works but I wish I would have used 1/2" on it for the mouth plate.

It could be that 1/4" would be ok for the head if support was added on the inside of puppet head.  I've done this before with the 1/2" when building body characters. So if  you where putting in an eye mech you might want to use a brace perhaps right behind the eyes or as part of the "holder" for the eyes. Does that make sense?  You have to "pattern" the inside curve or your head or body part where you want the brace added then cut it out and glue it in.

There's a facebook group? Where do I find it?

Well there are actually quiet a few groups for puppetry on FB. The Institute For Ridiculous Science is at http://www.facebook.com/TIFRS but Dr. Megan actually posted the photo on the Puppet Maker's Workshop group http://www.facebook.com/groups/50583854212/ This second group was actually created by our very own Sonny Vegas and is pretty busy.

You do know that Puppets and Stuff is on FB right?
Page: http://www.facebook.com/puppetsandstuff
Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/152610081475255/

And I shared the picture, my mother-in-law just wasn't online until now... . But Couscous has one fan over here for sure!