My Nephew's drawing...

 ...Which my girlfriend turned into a plush toy.

Click here for the whole story.

Sheep Puppet

A friend of mine asked if I could help her little girl make a puppet for school. I have to make a sheep, a goat and a wolf. It's just a children's project, so the materials are minimal, whatever you find around the house. So I used a white sock, cotton balls for the curls around the head, some scrap bits of felt and fur, tons of hot glue, and my girlfriend's skills with a sewing needle. (thanks sweetie)

COCONUT

and what a nut he is! Just look at his crazy crooked eyes. He is made from a real coconut that I took from my girlfriend. She made coconut bread and used the coconut milk to make goat curry. I couldn't just let a perfectly good hollowed out coconut go to waste. That is one of the things about puppet making, any piece of garbage is seen as potential puppet material.
F.Y.I; the bread and the curry were SPECTACULAR!

BOLO TIE

He is still not done. I gave him shoulders though, so at least now his shirt stays on. I still have to make arms, right now his sleeves are empty, it's kinda creepy. But check out his awesome bolo tie!!

pin head

No, he is not sewn together yet. I simply pinned the fur and eyes in place just to get a sense of what he will look like, and to figure out where to place his eyes.

Puppet Experiment #2

I started on my second puppet before I even finished my first, The Texas Chili Cook. I bought some green foam from the craft store. It's not the same as the reticulated foam that I used on my first puppet, but it worked just as well. On a whim, I decided to give this puppet lips, mostly because I had a sheet of pink foamies sheets. I like the feel of the foamies sheets better than felt material, and wanted to see if it would make decent lips. It does. This puppet is going to be covered entirely in purple fur, that much I do know. But I did not do any sketches before hand of this character, I want to build him spontaneously.

LINKS

A big thank you goes out to the guys at PROJECT PUPPET. They were the inspiration that led me to build my own puppet in the first place, and now they added a blog entry with some kind words for me and the Texas Chili Cook.
Thanks guys!

trying it on for size

Lookin' good in his new shirt. Still no arms or body to fill the shirt with though...but it's coming soon!

IT ARRIVED!!

The cowboy shirt I ordered on ebay arrived today! I was worried that it might be too big, but the size is perfect. It's even better than I imagined. Now I can go ahead with making his arms, hands, and body.

RED SHADES

An easy way to cover up some sloppy areas....give him shades! I just put the glasses on as a joke, but I actually kinda like it. I like that the shades are very red, to represent the red chili, since he is a Texas Chili Cook. Besides, I can't wear these glasses. If I have them on for more than ten minutes, I see red for the next half hour. Looking at the Texas Chili Cook, he reminds me of Mike Levine, the bass player from the band Triumph.

now with nose

His head is pretty much done. I made a mess attaching his nose with the hot glue gun. I put too much glue between his eyes and there was a very visible glob of glue there when it dried. Then I tried to cut it off and that only made things look even messier. So I might take his nose off somehow and re-attach it a bit higher to cover the mess....or maybe not. Maybe I will leave it the way it is. So he has a bit of crust between his eyes... big deal. It's amazing how many things I would have done differently; this is my first puppet, and I knew he wouldn't be perfect. But it is a blast making a puppet and I am very tempted to start my next one right away. But I better not get ahead of myself, I have to give this guy a body and a hat first.

I hear ya

With his ears on, he is definitely starting to look like the Texas Chili Cook he was meant to be. All that's left to do on his head is his nose and cowboy hat. I found another place for improvement on my next puppet with the ears. Now that I know what I am looking at when I see a puppet head pattern and a fleece head covering pattern I know where the ears would go on the flat pattern. So on my next puppet I will sew the ears on, before I put the fleece over the foam. This time I just hot glued the ears to the head.

EARS

Here's the ear shape I cut out in the pic on the far left. In the middle and the right you see how the ear turned out once I sewed it together at the bottom. Now to stick it on the puppet with a glue gun.

the perfect shirt...

...if it will fit.

I found the perfect shirt for the Texas Chili Cook on eBay. It is a boys shirt. I just hope it is small enough to fit my puppet. I may have to use my newly acquired skills on the sewing machine to tailor the shirt to fit him.

HILARIOUS HOUSE OF FRIGHTENSTEIN

For some reason, as I was looking at my puppet, I was reminded of Harvey WallBanger, from The Hilarious House Of Frightenstein. They don't look alike in any way, so I don't know why Harvey WallBanger came to mind. So here's some pics of the puppets from that great Canadian show "The Hilarious House Of Frightenstein." Every kid growing up in Ontario in the 70's and 80's grew up watching this show. It's brilliant. Check out the fan site for more pics and info on the show.

"But by bose is bissing! Bhere's by bose?"

Don't worry your nose won't be missing for much longer. Nose, ears, and hat are all that is left on his head. Then there's the body to make. My immediate concern is his nose. He has a pointy nose, a lot like THE COUNT from Sesame Street, but not exactly. I have a feeling his nose is going to turn out quite different from the way I drew it, still pointy though, because that's a part of his character.

EYE SOLUTION

With all the trouble and failure of trying to get the oval eyes I want for this puppet, I found a solution. I just drew the black oval pupils with a SHARPIE and a CADOMARK marker. It doesn't leave brush strokes or raised paint areas, it looks clean enough and it's the exact shape I wanted. If it starts to fade out over time I can always try something else, but for the here and now, it's fine. Next is to give him his eye lids.

FOAMIES!

I found this great product in the craft store...FOAMIES SHEETS! I was looking for felt for my puppet's mouth and tongue, when I saw these foam sheets. They cut beautifully and cleanly, they feel nice, the colors are vibrant, and they are perfect for puppets. I already used felt in my puppet's mouth, but I will definitely use the Foamies Sheets in my next puppet's mouth. I do have a use for Foamies Sheets in this puppet though...his EYE LIDS! I was going to make them out of felt, but I am going to try the Foamies Sheets instead.

Details

I added his 2 teeth and his eye brows. The teeth are just cut out of foam, I didn't bother painting or coloring them white, so they are kind of yellowish, the color of the foam as I bought it. I used the same fur for his brows.

PAST, PRESENT, & FUTURE

PAST- The original sketch of the character I wanted to make.
PRESENT- My progress so far, just a plain head with a moustache. He is quite different from the sketch, but he still has the makings of the right personality to be the TEXAS CHILI COOK.
FUTURE- I drew the eyes, ears, teeth, and hat and digitally added it to the present pic, to get a sense of how he will hopefully turn out.