Finger tubes provide a place for your fingers to rest in the same position all the time. Their function is to increase the amount of control that you have over the mouth of the puppet.
The foam was bought at a local sewing/craft store. It is pricey so look for a sale. The section I got is 30 inches by 4 feet. The index finger tube was a piece of foam 0.5” by 4″ x 5″. The middle finger was a 0.5“ by 4” by 5.5”. The thumb was 0.5″ x 4″ x 5.5″. I applied hot glue to one edge of the foam rectangle and then simply rolled it up on itself so that the glue at the edge contacted. Once cooled, I then placed the tubes onto my fingers and trimmed them to the size of my fingers. With the finger tubes on my fingers, I put the mouth flap in my hand. I then marked on the back of the mouth flap with a pen where the tubes rested. I then tacked down the finger tubes with hot glue being sure that the tubes were aligned with the marks. At this point, it is important to put your fingers in the tubes and work the mouth. It should feel comfortable, your wrist should not feel strained and it should not take a lot of effort to open and close the mouth.
If all feels well, then reinforce with the hot glue all along the edges until they are well mounted. I then covered the tubes with a layer of Sculpt or Coat and placed linen strips over that. More sculpt or coat was worked in to be sure to bind the linen to the tubes. The thumb tube had to be altered by cutting away at its proximal end. There was too much foam and it was restricting the range of motion of the thumb which in turn affects how wide the mouth will open. This was not noticeable when initially checking for finger positioning with the flap in my hand because my fingers were not actually attached to the flap so as you open and close the flap your thumb moves about. Something to watch out for.
The 1 inch overlap of linen that was not glued down when initially making the mouth comes into play now. Once the linen that had been measured and placed over the finger tubes had dried, the overlaps were wrapped over and glued down with sculpt or coat. Throughout this process, this 1 inch flap helped to protect the felt inside the mouth from getting all covered with glue or sculpt or coat.
Stitch Test: Taking two pieces of foam, regular sewing thread was passed through with a large curved upholstery needle. Taking a good half-inch bite through each piece proved that they held together fairly well. A stronger waxed thread would be more ideal. This might be a good idea for reinforcing areas. Note that pulling the thread tightly causes puckers and lifts a line of pulled tight foam so this is might be used for slight deformation under a cloth skin. Straight on top of foam it looks like Frankenstein stitching.
Next time: the head and modifications.
So this past past Saturday, we bundled up against the cold, grabbed our things, supplies, jewelry and costumes and trundled ourselves down to West Greenwich, RI. We arrived early at the Elk’s Hall so we could do the setup for the 2009 RISPCA Benefit Bellydance Show that was being orchestrated by Ameena. Critter welfare is a matter close to her heart and we were looking forward to a good turnout. Happily the weather, bitterly cold, and the holiday did not factor in at all. The crowd was large and we ran out of seats quickly enough even though we had over a hundred chairs put out.
There were 30 acts ranging from student troupes to fusion, tribal, and some interpretive dances. Quite a varied show!! Lots of costumes and colors and action. The show wound up with a drum solo performance by George Rizk, a well-known drummer and in the manner befitting how most of these gigs seem to end up, anybody and everybody was up and dancing!
Many thanks to all those who donated their energies and time to make the show a success. Blessings to all the dancers and those who donated items for the raffle. Ameena was able to raise almost $1000 for the RISPCA!
Caution: Hot glue is hot! You can’t escape finger burns. They are part of the process. However burning can be minimized by having a cup of water handy. Before you apply the hot glue, dip your fingers in the water bowl. You are going to have to hold things together until the glue can set up and your fingers are going to come into contact with the hot glue. Wet fingers mediate the burn. Instead of crisping, your fingers just get warm. Don’t worry if you forget this bit, you will remember when it’s time.
Also remember that during this entire process nothing is carved in stone. If it is too big, trim it. If it is too small , then add. Too weak? Reinforce. We are building a puppet, not a suspension bridge. If something does fall down, nothing dramatic will happen. Materials are going be lost to the creation gods but the trade off is in knowledge.
We begin with the mouth because it is the most structurally important part of the puppet. It will certainly be the most abused portion. It is also the actual framework for the rest of the puppet as the head and body will be directly attached to the mouth. The mouth also dictates the general shape and size of the head, so we want to be sure to get it as close as we can to what we want for a shape and that it be flexible and strong. I am using linen, an open weave material, that I had bought by the roll for other sewing projects. I had previously done a small test with the linen and found that the Sculpt or Coat finds its way through the material easily enough.
I made a paper pattern in the general shape and size that I wanted for the mouth. Using the paper pattern as a template, I cut out the shapes from two ply Bristol board. I ended up with two pieces, top and bottom, which I corrected to suit to my exact needs before proceeding with the gluing. A black felt piece was flipped upside down and placed on the table. The two mouthpieces were sprayed with glue (3M general-purpose 45) and then placed down on top of the felt. After trimming away the extra felt, the overlap was about a half-inch but I believe 1 inch overlap would have been better. Circular tension was relieved by clipping the felt around the edges but not up to the edge of the mouth shape itself. The edges were folded over and hot glued down.
Again with the paper pattern, I cut out a linen piece with about a 1 inch overlap. Using the spray glue , I attached this linen bridge to the back of the mouth pieces. The overlap from the linen will be taken care of at a later stage. For now what we should have is a linen surface on the back side and a felt surface on the inside. The mouth was allowed to dry overnight into a roughly v-shaped position as if the puppet’s mouth was somewhat open.
Next time: finger tubes.
Welcome to Adventures in Puppet-Making 101!! This series of entries is based on notes I took during the process of creating my first industrial strength puppet.
The primary purpose of the notes is for future puppet projects. With these notes, I will be able to make comparisons and improvements to the process and thus build better puppets. I highly recommend making detailed notes for anyone doing any sort of creative process for the first time. Documenting your progress, in one way or another, can only help to prevent a lot of error repetition on succeeding trials. After a while notes, excepting for strange occurrences, are not even needed but for now I am learning so everything that is new to me gets written down. I assure you, you will not have to read everything I do write down as much of it is simply hashing out a working method.
I took photographs of this process and will post these along with the appropriate session. Hopefully these will help to visualize what I am talking about. If you find something unclear, feel free to contact me and I will attempt a more lucid explanation.
Please note that there is an inevitable amount of burning from the hot glue gun along with the wonderfully delicious stabbing of thumbs and fingers by curved and straight needles. Sometimes learning can be painful. So it could be that this process is not well suited for children that are looking to make a puppet. Of course on the other hand, I could just be incredibly clumsy.
Throughout this you are going to hear me mention Sculpt or Coat. Sculpt or Coat is a product from sculpturalarts.com. It is a non-toxic plastic cream which creates a protective coating that helps to stop breakage and keeps foam pieces from drying out. It also prevents solvent-based paints from eating away at foam. Widely used in theatre arts.
Hot glue guns generally run around 400°F. When it comes in contact with your flesh, it is going to cook. However, this tool is indispensable. I use the yellow glue sticks, as they form a stronger bond than the white sticks. If you are thinking of using a low temperature glue gun you will find that 250°F is still going to burn you and your bonds will be weak in comparison to a high temperature gun.
My intention is to build a cloth covered puppet.
