Snark Blarmsten
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2006
- Messages
- 52
- Reaction score
- 0
Hi there,
I'm new to the forum, I'm really glad I found it - great resource. Now to biz. I recently decided to try my hand at making some puppets again, I had tried a few years ago and got discouraged - I think partly because I didn't find the right resources. There seems to be a lot more out there now. I bought Puppet Mania, the Foam Book and the Foam Video.
I'm mainly interested in muppet-type puppets, so Puppet Mania was kind of disappointing. The Foam book is good - but the video is 50% better (nothing like watching someone do something, I highly recommend it.) I also am really digging this blog:
(well, I can't post a url, but it is Sean Johnson's puppets101 blog.)
So that is where my info is coming from. I went out shopping yesterday and finally found 1/2" foam at Joann Fabrics (it's green, not sure why and not sure how good it is - certainly not Scott Foam quality) and bought some 1" squares at Wal-Mart - they are packaged as chair cushions. They say "100% urethane foam" - not sure if that is the same as polyurethane foam? (Assume it is). Picked up some great fur from Hobby Lobby and other such stuff I need. I chose Dap Weldwood glue as my adhesive - I could not find 3M 74 at Home Depot or anywhere else.
So - here are some questions. I watched the video, and I'm going for a 3-piece head method puppet.
1) Does the green color of the 1/2" foam mean anything or no? Granted it's probably average quality. It did seem to take the contact cement.
2) Ok, brushing on the Weldwood with thier built in "applicator" was not real effective. But spraying adhesive in the house doesn't work really well either. (too cold here to do this in the garage - too dangerous in the basement). Is there a better way to get this on?
3) In regard to adhesive - Sean Johnson (puppet101) uses and recommends barge cement, which I could not find (and he uses foam to dab it on, maybe that would work with weldwood?) He strongly suggested that hot glue does not work on foam puppets. Then in the Foam video, he uses hot glue all over the place - so I'm a bit confused. Granted they did use 3M 74 on the foam head to put it together. Is weldwood considered a good alternative? They all seem equally dangerous so, that's a moot point (I did read through the glue thread here).
On that note - if you've seen the Foam video - the way he handled his 3M 74 contact cement blew me away. No gloves, no respirator at all. Then my jaw dropped when he took out a jar of contact cement to glue something. So the jar is sitting there, and he's showing you how to tie the hand to the arm - and he *lights a match* to melt the nylong string with the jar sitting 6 inches away! I couldn't believe it - the stuff is highly flammable! And he never said one word about ever
4) I have my 3 pieces for the head glued (but not assembled). They are flatter than his were - particularly the jaw. I did use darts, etc like he did. Does this not matter - will the head "take shape" once I glue the front/back together and put the jaw on? If this doesn't make sense I can try and post some pics.
5) In regard to covering the puppet. Don't like the exposed foam look at all, and the way Sean Johnson covers his puppets is great. I could not find any Antron Fleece locally, so I got the fur. I assume the stitching techniques he uses and the way he pins it on will work with fur?
6) Getting foam - the Foam Video guy says he goes to his carpet shop and gets scraps, but seems the shops around here no longer carry nor use polyfoam at all - they use the wierd multicolor stuff. I was not able to find any white polyfoam locally. Should I just get the stuff online?
I guess that is long enough for now! Sorry for the length - I hope to have something to show for my efforts soon. Can anyone suggest a good place to order Antron Fleece online?
Thanks again,
Tom
I'm new to the forum, I'm really glad I found it - great resource. Now to biz. I recently decided to try my hand at making some puppets again, I had tried a few years ago and got discouraged - I think partly because I didn't find the right resources. There seems to be a lot more out there now. I bought Puppet Mania, the Foam Book and the Foam Video.
I'm mainly interested in muppet-type puppets, so Puppet Mania was kind of disappointing. The Foam book is good - but the video is 50% better (nothing like watching someone do something, I highly recommend it.) I also am really digging this blog:
(well, I can't post a url, but it is Sean Johnson's puppets101 blog.)
So that is where my info is coming from. I went out shopping yesterday and finally found 1/2" foam at Joann Fabrics (it's green, not sure why and not sure how good it is - certainly not Scott Foam quality) and bought some 1" squares at Wal-Mart - they are packaged as chair cushions. They say "100% urethane foam" - not sure if that is the same as polyurethane foam? (Assume it is). Picked up some great fur from Hobby Lobby and other such stuff I need. I chose Dap Weldwood glue as my adhesive - I could not find 3M 74 at Home Depot or anywhere else.
So - here are some questions. I watched the video, and I'm going for a 3-piece head method puppet.
1) Does the green color of the 1/2" foam mean anything or no? Granted it's probably average quality. It did seem to take the contact cement.
2) Ok, brushing on the Weldwood with thier built in "applicator" was not real effective. But spraying adhesive in the house doesn't work really well either. (too cold here to do this in the garage - too dangerous in the basement). Is there a better way to get this on?
3) In regard to adhesive - Sean Johnson (puppet101) uses and recommends barge cement, which I could not find (and he uses foam to dab it on, maybe that would work with weldwood?) He strongly suggested that hot glue does not work on foam puppets. Then in the Foam video, he uses hot glue all over the place - so I'm a bit confused. Granted they did use 3M 74 on the foam head to put it together. Is weldwood considered a good alternative? They all seem equally dangerous so, that's a moot point (I did read through the glue thread here).
On that note - if you've seen the Foam video - the way he handled his 3M 74 contact cement blew me away. No gloves, no respirator at all. Then my jaw dropped when he took out a jar of contact cement to glue something. So the jar is sitting there, and he's showing you how to tie the hand to the arm - and he *lights a match* to melt the nylong string with the jar sitting 6 inches away! I couldn't believe it - the stuff is highly flammable! And he never said one word about ever
4) I have my 3 pieces for the head glued (but not assembled). They are flatter than his were - particularly the jaw. I did use darts, etc like he did. Does this not matter - will the head "take shape" once I glue the front/back together and put the jaw on? If this doesn't make sense I can try and post some pics.
5) In regard to covering the puppet. Don't like the exposed foam look at all, and the way Sean Johnson covers his puppets is great. I could not find any Antron Fleece locally, so I got the fur. I assume the stitching techniques he uses and the way he pins it on will work with fur?
6) Getting foam - the Foam Video guy says he goes to his carpet shop and gets scraps, but seems the shops around here no longer carry nor use polyfoam at all - they use the wierd multicolor stuff. I was not able to find any white polyfoam locally. Should I just get the stuff online?
I guess that is long enough for now! Sorry for the length - I hope to have something to show for my efforts soon. Can anyone suggest a good place to order Antron Fleece online?
Thanks again,
Tom