25 More Tips For Building Quality Foam Puppets

25 More Puppet Building Tips

Be sure to check out my first post of puppet building tips, My 33 Best Tips For Building Puppets.

Over the past few years I have come across many tips and shortcuts to building quality puppets. I have learned these tips from experience, (the cruelest teacher), and from videos of great puppet builders like Drew Allison, Barry Gordemer, Adam Kreutinger and BJ Guyer.

I do not claim all of these tips as original, but they are things I have gathered and use.

1 WHEN ATTACHING FLEECE TO YOUR PUPPET, MAKE SURE THE STRETCH GOES HORIZONTAL Fleece has a stretch. If you put the fleece stretch vertical in a puppet neck, you may end up with a “giraffe neck,” stretching out and looking unnatural. Puppets have weight. If the face or body fleece is vertical, over time, your puppet fleece may start to sag.

2 DON’T WORRY ABOUT SYMMETRY Nothing in nature, by my observation, is perfectly symmetrical. Look in the mirror – your nose is probably a little crooked, your ears aren’t perfect matches and other features also are a little nonsymmetrical. if you have two sides of a puppet head and they are close, but not identical, that is fine. If you get too
wrapped up in trying to make everything exactly identical, you will destroy the joy of building. As Drew Allison says “What is symetry?”

3 ON A FOAM PUPPET, COVER FEATURES THAT MAY BE A LITTLE ROUGH WITH 1/4″ OR 1/8″ FOAM TO SMOOTH OUT THE FACE Often cheeks, wrinkles and other features are a little rough. Covering them with a thin layer of foam can smooth it out, but remember, this will increase the head size.

4 CHANGING THE MOUTH PATTERN ON A PUPPET CAN CHANGE THE WIDTH OF A PUPPET HEAD WITHOUT HAVING TO MAKE AN ENTIRE NEW PATTERN You can make your mouthplate a little wider for a wider head and a little narrower for a narrow head. You can make the top or bottom of your mouthplate larger than the other to crcreaten overbite or underbite. All these changes will change the appearance and character of your puppet without changing the head pattern.

5 ADD FOAM ON THIS EDGES WHERE YOU WILL BE GLUING THE EDGE TO THE PUPPET When you are attaching a thin edge to a puppet, make it thicker for added strength. On mothplates which will be inside the lip, always glue a strip of foam to the outside of the mouthplate to give me a wider place to glue to the puppet. On the top of the mouthplate, this piece would be on the same surface as the finger tubes, around the edge. me on the side where the thumb tube is. On puppet eyes made from plastic spoons, I will glue a piece of foam inside the spoon and trim it level. This gives me somewhere to glue the eye to the puppet head as well as the thin edge.

6 WHEN USING A HOT GLUE GUN, KEEP A BOWL OF WATER ON HAND You can dip your fingers in the water if you get hot glue on them, (ouch). You can also dip your fingers in the water and then use the water to set hot glue quicker.

7 MAKING FINGER TUBES OUT OF 2″ ELASTIC ALLOWS YOUR PUPPET TO FIT SNUGLY ON HANDS OF VARYING SIZES

8 FOR STRONGER ELASTIC FINGER TUBES, SEW THEM ON RATHER THAN GLUING Thank you Adam Kreutinger for this tip. To sew on your elastic finger and thumb tubes, drill small holes in the mouthplate and then sew through the elastic and through the holes in the plate. Use a double stitch, going through all the holes once, then repeat on the very same holes.

9 WHEN USING BARGE CEMENT, ALWAYS HAVE A WELL VENTILATED WORK AREA DAPP Contact Cement is a nonflammable, low odor alternative for areas not as well ventilated.

10 USE A CONDIMENT BOTTLE TO DISPENSE CONTACT CEMENT You can easily apply a small ampount of cement toour work (which is all you need) and spread it with the nozzle.

11 USE FOAM SCRAPS TO APPLY CONTACT CEMENT Do not brush the contact cement onto your puppet. You can
apply a thin line with a squeeze bottle and spread it with the bottle nozzle. I often use asmall foam scrap and just dab the cement on. It allows me to apply a very light thin coat, which is all that is needed.

12 DON’T APPLY CONTACT CEMENT HEAVILY You do not need a lot of contact cement to bond foam or cloth. A very thin coat on the pieces to be attached is sufficient. If you feel you need extra glue for extra strength, apply a thin coat, let it dry and then apply a second coat.

13 PLASTIC SPOONS MAKE GREAT PUPPET EYES When using spoons to make puppet eyes, you will need to cut off the handle. This can be done with scissors, but you will crack a few. I use my dremel tool to cut, then a sanding attachment to sand and shape.

14 USE CLOTHESPINS AS CLAMPS Clothespins are great for holding pieces together before you glue and after you glue. While waiting for hot glue to set, you can pinch the foam, or foam and fabric, together. The clothespins will put small dents in your foam, but the dents come back out on their own. They are not permanent. Clothespins are also great when using the Nip & Tuck method to shape facial features. You can pinch and shape the foam and use the clothespins to hold the foam wwhile you work on other areas.

15 USING A BAND SAW TO CUT FOAM CAN ENSURE YOUR EDGES ARE PERPENDICULAR. It is so important to have straight, perpendicular edges when building foam puppets. On thicker foam, it can sometimes be difficult to get that straight up and down line. A band saw can help you get that edge. You can also use the band saw to make a perfectly beveled edge where needed by tilting the table or making a jig to creat our angle.

16 ATTACH PUPPET ARMS WITH DOLL JOINTS Doll joints are plastic connectors used to attach doll arms and legs. You place one section through the puppet body and one from inside of the arm to the outside. The two pieces lock together to form a permanent connection that will allow the arm to move up and down.

17 LARGE SNAPS CAN BE USED TO MAKE PUPPET ARMS THAT ARE DETACHABLE Why would you want detachable arms? Changing clothes on a puppet can be a challenge, especially if your puppet has permanent arm rods built in. Removing the arms can make costume changes much easier. If you have permanent arm rods built into your puppet hands, you may want to be able to switch in arms without the arm rods.

18 ATTACH PUPPET NECK SLEEVES TO THE BODY WITH SNAPS Being able to change bodies for your puppet may be handy at times. Or perhaps for a performance you want to switch heads on your puppet for different expressions. Building two heads for the same character but only needing one set of clothing can be handy.

19 USE PLASTIC BEAR BUILDING ARMATURE FOR POSABLE PUPPET ARMS AND LEGS Plastic armature can be used to make your puppet arms or legs posable. This is great for photographing your puppets and also for puppets where you want to be able to get specific poses with the puppet.

20 ATTACH YOUR PUPPET ARM TO YOUR PUPPET’S EAR WITH BRAIDED FISHING LINE FOR MOVEMENT If you are only using one arm rod on your puppet, attach the loose arm to your puppet’s ear with braided fishing line. Adjust the length to where you want the arm to hang. When your puppet moves its head, the arm will move, adding life to your puppet. If filming or working under lights, monofilament is not recommended as it has a shiny surface and may cause glare. Monofilament could also be used and be darkened with a magic marker to prevent glare.

21 BONING CAN BE USED TO HELP YOU PUPPET RETAIN ITS SHAPE You can slit the top and bottom edges of your puppet bodies and slip the boning in. Resealing with contact cement. You can also sew it into the body fabric. Boning is a thin cloth covered plastic strip. It will give areas of your puppet rigidity where needed without adding weight. You can aslo use plastic aquarium tubing, but you will not be able to sew it.

22 TO CUT PERFECT ROUND EYE PUPILS, USE A LEATHER PUNCH Leather punches are great for punching out puppet eyes. With a rubber mallet you just whack the punch and it cuts right through vinyl or velvet for eyes. Put a piece of leather below your material to prevent damaging your table when cutting out the eyes. The punches come in a variety of sizes.

23 ADD ON EXTRA FOAM TO GIVE DIMENSION AND CHARACTER TO YOUR PUPPET If you have a simple round or oval head puppet pattern, much character can be created by adding on more foam after you put the head together, but before adding the fleece. Carve out cheekbones or larger chins from foam. Attach to the puppet and then trim down to blend them in.

24 ADD FEATURES TO YOUR PUPPET HEAD AFTER YOU COVER IT WITH FLEECE Attach noses, eyes, ears, etc after you cover the head with fleece or fur. I discovered that if I added these first, it made it much more difficult to
drape and cover the puppet. Features should beadded last. Attach with glue,then sew them on.

25 USE ROPE TO CREATE LIPS, WRINKLES AND OTHER CHARACTER LINES ON YOUR PUPPET Before covering with fleece, you can add sections of rope to the forehead and brow to make wrinkles, or onto the top or lower lip to create more prominent lips. You can also place it on the outside edge of puppet ars to create a more realistic ear. Glue it onto the foam, then trim the edges down to blend them in.

33 more puppet building tips are one CLICK away.

Be sure to check out my TOOLS & MATERIALS page for where to find items mentioned in this article.

Please post below any tips you may have and any comments on the tips I have shared. Thank you.