Face-off in the studio!

"Face ON" being the work at hand!

Here to put a current face on the man behind all this lunacy is a shot of me at work on the LILI puppets in my studio. I'm, gluing the facial fur to REYNARDO while CARROT TOP looks blithely on in the foreground. He and MARGUERITTE have had their upper lip sections completed and their lower lips, noses and some eye features attached. GOLO the giant peeks shyly out from behind, still awaiting his facial features. With the head work almost finished, the remainder of the bodywork and costuming can proceed at a more rapid pace.

[ A small group of my Pelham Puppet collection can be seen in the case behind me]

Puppet Head Skins!

 OK. I've had some feedback concerning the length of time I'm taking to get to the "Good Stuff"! The actual forming of these puppet's features and faces. What I have been trying to show you is the sometimes very Tedious process by which this final goal is achieved.

 Advanced Puppetry is not for the Impatient!

Above you will see the sculpted heads with their felt "skins" being attached. Since the felt will stretch, it isn't necessary to form an exact pattern, just an appropriately sized oval of material. The contact cement applied to both frame and felt will allow the felt to be stretched over the frame with
minimal wrinkling of the fabric .A small amount of cotton batting around the brows before the final attachment will soften the face. Any wrinkling of the felt around the edges of the face will be covered by the Hair or the  Hat in the costuming stage.

The Back of each head must also be prepared. Because these puppets have Eye and Mouth Animations, the front of each head must be assessable if any repairs have to be be made.  So the backs of the heads are separate and hinged on top. The Hair of each character will hide the join, with Velcro fastenings to hold the head together.

Here you see the head backs being glued together with a hard cardboard inner facing to match each character's head shape.

The back covering will be of a material to match the Hair of the puppet, and not the face.

Puppet Hands 3 - Final

 Finally, you just turn the sewn hands inside out. This takes a bit of effort and the help if a new, un-sharpened pencil. Use the eraser end which helps to grip the felt and push it forward. the un-sharpened end offers some leverage against your thigh when needed ( hence the un-sharpened part!).

Carefully fold the wire armature and insert it into the turned hand, working the fingers over the wire until it is firmly seated within the hand.

Using cotton batting ( polyester fiberfill will work, but just isn't the same ) gently stuff the fingers as you work them into shape.The same pencil works well to grip and insert the batting into place.

Remember that you are trying for a natural looking hand shape; not too firm and not too soft. You will also find that by pinching the wire armature as you stuff you can achieve big beefy hands or slender female fingers depending on your needs.

Above we have, from the same pattern, flesh colored hands for CARROT TOP, White "gloves" for REYNARDO, gentle pink fingers for MARGUERITTE and the as yet un-worked green hands for GOLO, the Giant. I play around with the finger positions now, but they can be altered quite easily once the hands are attached to the finished puppet.

We';ve had a run of warmer weather here, so up next the attachment of the felt "skins" to the heads!

Puppet Hands 2

 After you have laid out and sewn your puppet hands, the next step is to create a wire armature which will allow the hands to be shaped and positioned when they are finished. This requires the making of a "jig" for bending and shaping the wire:
 I trace the hand pattern onto a piece of scrap lumber as shown above. Using inch and a half  long finishing nails ( 9 penny I believe is the hardware term for them. Finishing nails have only a slight "head" on them as opposed to standard nails ),  I hammer a nail at each juncture where the wire will need to be bent into the hand shape ( about 30 nails in all ).

 18 gauge galvanized wire works best for the armature. DON'T  try aluminium wire as it won't hold it's shape after inserting into the finished hand . A piece of wire 20 inches long will work for the large hand pattern. 18 inches long for the smaller hand.

Here the wire has been twisted around the finishing nails and then carefully pried loose from the jig. You will find that a pair of needle-nosed pliers will help in adjusting the wire back into shape after jigging. I make as many of these wire armatures as will be needed and set them aside for the next and final step:
Turning and stuffing the hands...

Puppet Hands

 While still waiting for warmer temperatures to finish gluing the head coverings in place, I turn to the assembly of the puppet's hands. I've been using the same pattern that I created 40 years ago and which I have used for pretty much every type of puppet;  hand puppet,  rod puppet and  marionette ever since that time. I always think that I will start with something new and different, but this single pattern in varying sizes has always given me the best results. It it ain't broke, don't fix it!
[ Why only 3 fingers you ask? This started with the early Disney animators and MICKEY MOUSE. Three fingers are much easier to animate than four and actually convey better hand gestures than a more human looking hand. This filtered down to us puppeteers in the 1970's and some of us adopted the style and kept on using it.]

Here is the pattern scaled out 1 square = 1/4 inch, making the large hand pattern about  4" X 5 1/2". This is a good scale for puppets 18" to 24" tall. By reducing the pattern slightly to about 3" X 4 1/2", it can be used for smaller puppets 18" and under.

As you can see in the photo above I have transferred the patterns to heavy card stock and I have then strung together with a piece of cord. This makes tracing the patterns onto the felt much easier and has the added benefit of allowing the whole set of patterns to be hung up on a hook above my work table so they are never lost or out of reach when needed ( nothing worse than having to search for that perfect pattern just when you are ready to get down to work!).

Anyway, to start I fold a piece of wool felt in the appropriate character's skin color in half, just larger than the hand pattern, and trace the outline using an ordinary No. 2 lead pencil. Pin this to hold the halves  together and take to your sewing machine. Using a medium stitch ( 10 - 12 stitches per inch ) sew directly atop the pencil outline leaving the bottom of the wrist open.

Next post we will move on to step 2 of the process: Making the wire inner hand.

PUPPET HEAD ASSEMBLY Resumes

 When last we left our puppet assembly the eye and mouth animations had been attached and tested. The wire frameworks for each head have now been finished and as shown above the lower jaws have been built up from cardstock and masking tape, and attached to the mouth blocks. A "mask" of cardstock strengthened with masking tape has been fitted individually around the eyes and hot melt glued in place to the wire frames. The black painted "eyeliner" will only show a thin rim of black around each eye once the felt skin has been attached.

They still look pretty spooky this way, but you can start to perceive the individual personalities:
from left, MARGUERITTE with flashing blue eyes, Behind her is GOLO the timid giant, then at right REYNARDO the fox, and in front green eyed CARROT TOP.

MARGUERITTE and CARROT TOP have eye animations which open and close like a doll's. GOLO and REYNARDO'S eye animations shift side to side, and their eyelids are fixed in position on the face mask ( eyelids made from sanded and trimed plastic christmas ball ornaments to fit over the moving eyes ).

The next step involves building up the rest of the face. In the past I would use ordinary 1/4" packing foam rubber for this, but I now prefer 5mm thick Craft Foam sheeting as shown above. This material comes in several colors and is just as plyable, but with a smoother more durable surface than the old foam.

I use contact cement to join foam to foam and foam to other surfaces. You paint the cement liberally on each seam edge or surface to be adhered and let both dry for 15 to 20 minutes. When tacky, the pieces can be joined quickly and permanently together with a bond that only strengthens as it ages. Above is a good pictorial example of this process in action. The forehead section has been attached just behind the top "mask" and atop a shaper strip of corrugated cardboard which defines the edge of each head. Side sections will be fitted and glued next, followed by a nose/lip piece which will be positioned under the eyes and shaped to fit the individual character's face ( REYNARDO'S snout has been attached already ). The backs of each head will be molded entirely of this foam sheeting and hinged at the top with velcro fasteners on either side.

I'm very excited about the possibilities of this new foam sheeting. It is far superior to older foam and much more durable without adding weight to the puppet.

[ A note of caution concerning Contact Cement:
The fumes from this product are Extremely Volatile! I have made the mistake of attempting to use this indoors. Even with amazing ventilation, you can easily be overcome by the fumes. The added combustibility also makes indoor use dangerous. I generally set up a table outdoors on the patio or deck and do my cutting and painting of the cement out there. Dried pieces can be safely brought into the studio to be joined and attached as the solvent has mostly evaporated by the time they are tacky. ]

Next the final felt skin will be fitted and glued to each head....