Eyes

[buddy06]

Hey Guys!
I am working on my second puppet and had a quick question about the eyes. You see, on my first puppet, I used googly eyes. (you know, the ones that move around.) And while I don't have a problem with that exactly, I just wanted to try out the ones that are like half balls and have the pupil painted on. (The ones the Muppet's had) Does anyone know a good place to get them? I looked at a local craft/Hobbies place and didn't see any. Thanks A Lot in advance.:p

[fishbone]

yeah man, pingpong balls cut in half,and a sharpie

[Ryan]

Yeah, Ping Pong balls are good. Also, instead of a marker, you may want to try felt scratch gurad pad stickers (for the bottoms of chairs, pottery, etc...so it doesnt scratch the surface.. they come in green and black.) They work great. Plus, you get about 50 or so for like 2 bucks. Oh, and they give you an assortment of 3 different sizes. You can find them in places like CVS and maybe Home improvement stores.

[Ryan]

http://www.armslength.com/portfolio/tech-tips/jantech0.htm

How to make great eyes

[Fozzie Bear]

You can also use;

plastic spoon ladles (sp?)
Fishing bobbers
plastic egg bottoms

The ideas are really limitless...coke bottle caps, milk bottle lids, other cloth materials, just...anything!

Make up something and I'll bet it's neat and original.

FOZ

[CaptCrouton]

We've used white plastic spoons with the handles broken off and then sanded down to the right shape. Also, you can cover just about anything round with white sock fabric for a real cheap and easy way to go. That makes great blacklight puppet eyes.

[Show and Tell]

In cutting ping pong balls and such apart (although I like to use the whole ball mostly) I found that a band saw or scroll saw works very well. Then you can cut the ball very smoothly across the seam. Be very careful as to not cut your fingers at the seam as well. OUCH!!!:eek:
Oh and by all means....add eyelids to the poor creatures. Unless of course they are suppose to look frazzled or your making a snake. :smirk:

[Buck-Beaver]

The product you're looking for is called 1/2 dome eyes. They're much more durable and easier to work with than ping pong balls in my experience. The eyes come in a couple of sizes and are sold by a company called Mercury Plastics. Mercury only sells in bulk (I think their minimum order is 1,000 pairs or something like that) but you can buy them individually from McGinnis Puppets (http://www.mcginnispuppets.com/Puppet%20Eyes.htm). I think the cost is less than $1 per pair.

[Jinx]

Thanks for the tip, Buck! I just ordered several pairs from McGinnis. When going through their automated paypal checkout, it generates the shipping costs, which can be quite high for just a few paris of eyes. So I called them directly and they were most helpful with a work-around for a much more reasonable shipping cost.

[Iron-Fan]

your right Jinx, they wanted $36 shipping to the UK on a few pairs of plastic eyes!!!!! Email them as they are very helpful and they will work out a better option for you I ended up with a choice of $7 surface or $13.50 air, much better! :)