Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2003 00:57:20 -0500
From: Mathieu <uubald-AT-magma.ca>
Subject: PUPT: unusual pupetmaking methods


Hi all!

I just met an extraordinary puppet on the bus today. Its puppetmaker was
another technical maniac. This encounter helped me focus on unusual
materials even more than I usually do. ( Description of the puppet at the
end of this post.)

Hence the idea of sharing my unusual favorite materials, methods and recipes.
What unusual stuff can you contribute here?
Would be great to create a FAQ out of all the results...

Of course, we all understand we still want to keep some processes secrets...

Here are a few of my favorite things...
Some of these you might already use yourselves, but I don't know.
do not hesitate to write me for more details. (I'm crazy that way).
------------------------
-Thick PVA cream.
We do not have a supplyer of Sculpt or Coat in my area, so I decided to try
and copy it. I got a thick PVA cream I use sometimes as a gap filler or to
imitate porcelain. Just heat any white glue (pva) on a double boiler,
stiring constantly until thick. Gets a little thicker when it is cooled
down. Very tough and stiff. Makes tick tick sound when you hit it with your
fingernails.
------------------------

-Extra thick and strong Paper for paper mache
Want your puppet parts to be lightweight, extremely strong, stiff, and
mostly archival? Use artist paper. Fiber-based papers, such as cotton
watercolor papers are the best. Note that to save money, get drawing papers
like Stonehenge or Somerset instead of watercolor paper, because you'll pay
less, since it does not have the special "sizing" additives that watercolor
papers need.

I tried with cotton based, and Yikes. Two coats of 140 pounds Arches
watercolor paper and cheap white glue was walnut shell hard. Imagine what
it will be with Carpenter's glue! Feel adventurous? try the 300pound weight
Arches watercolor paper.  YIKES. thick as cardboard,even before using glue
on it....
One setback for real good papers: the price, but if you calculate how many
years (or beatings) your pieces will last, you save a lot. Plus,
considering the amount of material and comparing with other supplies (as in
paints, decorative items, fabrics)
you are really getting a great deal. If you love it, save a lot more by
ordering a roll.
------------------------

-Health friendly contact cement!
Still smells a little, but no toxic fumes or toxic solvent
Professional quality. I tried it on mattress foam, and it did a good job.
One set back for some people: not suitable for metal bonding(figures, no
unpronounceable toxic solvent).
name: Pres-Tite Green.
brand: Lepage (may be a subdivision of Henkel)
product #: 1652-D
Made in Canada (Brampton, Ontario)
------------------------

-For lightweight limbs: I use those isolating polyethylene foam tubes you
get in plumbing departments in hardware stores. The ones you use to cover
the CPVC
water pipes (they now replace copper pipes) I make a tight fabric sleeve to
cover the limbs, pack the inside tightly with polyester fiberfill, and
close the limb.
------------------------
-Sponge carving!
I just use cissors and snip at them. You can slit and insert pieces, by
gluing them. You can always use white glue as contact cement, by applying
on both sponges pieces. Speed dry for a second or twenty (with hair dryer)
until tacky, and join and hold. if it's not strongly bonded, separate and
repeat.  I then sceal the sponge with two coats (dry in between) of clear
PVA glue, and then I can paint details. Makes a tough-shelled but lighweight
puppet! see my first attemps at:
http://www.magma.ca/~uubald/norb.html
Norb is made out of a single standard size #10 (density) gray polyester
cement sponge. I never used a sponge as stiff as that before. Needed craft
knife for larger chunks. Loved it! For real durability, I'm told that
polyester sponges are not going to rot or crumble. Harder to find though. I
have a manufacturer's co-ordinates, if anyone's interested. He will be able
to sell big blocks of uncut sponge material.
Many colors available. I started carving sponges because I hate the dust,
texture and deterioration of "mattress foam". Careful, cheap sponges at a
dollar each are usually dyed mattress foam, and colours fade really fast!
------------------------

-Kanekalon Hair
Sold in hair salons, fashion boutiques and where they sell wigs.
Cheaper than wig hair, and sold in long lengths. Various colours, from
natural to insane. A few textures available. I'm told the best grades are
made in Senegal.
One good brand: Xanadu.
Cool feature: heat sensitive (heat gun). I gave a wild "fresh out of bed"
hairdo to my child puppet. Hair stay where they are when the heat is
applied to them. To get it too close though.
------------------------

-Extra strong twist ties
I recuperate the wire system that closes the cookie bags (like brand Mr
Christie).
------------------------

-Heat shapeable plastics:
I sometimes bend plastic ustensils and other items over the heat of a heat gun.
Well ventilated conditions only, or try and be extra patient and dip in
boiling water, shape in there, and cool while holding into place. Less
control that way.
Other examples: most flexible plastic containers and objects.
------------------------

-Unusual Dremel Accessories
I sometimes need to "age" my paint job on objects. I plug a small length of
bamboo skewer into my Dremel rotary tool. Sometimes a nail. Should work on
drills as well, at low speeds. A lot of straight and short "tools" can be
tried on Dremels for different effects.
------------------------

-Invincible thread!
I love to provide "invincibility" to my linked pieces of wood. Just after
joining and gluing them, I add more carpenter's glue around the seam. I
then knot and tightly wrap natural fiber string around both pieces of wood.
I then paint on a bit more glue. Once dry, it will ont break off. Rather,
it will break at any other point if you try to separate them. Great for
making wood "crosses" for marionnettes, and handles on home-made tools.
------------------------

-Other foams
"Noodles" they sell as playthings for the pool: easily cut and carved with
craft knife. Polyethylene Foam Backing rods (sold where isolation foams for
windows are sold)
-Foamcore: great to add small flat details. Fake bas-relief designs...keep
your scraps. Even build small objects. Bigger pieces will warp if you try
to cover them up with a moist glue (paper mache)
------------------------

-Fun foam is heat-shapeable
just heat it up until just before it shrinks, and force it onto a shape.
Takes practice. If you reheat an area, diffused heat will undo your
previous manipulation.
Great for colorful flexible flat items and accessories. I made a mask with
it once. Not much detail though.
Next step would be to try and copy vaccum forming: make a frame to hold the
fun foam, suspend your heat gun over  your form, place the frame between
them, and when hot enough, lower frame onto form. Untested yet, but it
shall come.
If anyone finds a way to make it work better, please report it here.
 I know it can work, I've seen detailed halloween masks obviously made in
fun foam. I could deduct it was formed sheet by the stretch marks inside.
------------------------

 ===========================================================Meeting a great dragon puppet on a bus!

My introduction to them was: "May I say WOW?".

Description (as best as I can) from memory.
Dragon puppet.
Features:
-size: about 6 feet long with tail extended. One foot and  a half tall.
-Articulated tail (one conical piece into the next, etc..., linked by a
cord) made of carboard pulp(told me he just boiled carboard chips and added
glue). To manipulate, one big black dowel joined to the end of the tail.

-Thick elastic to hang dragon from a tree, so that when you swing him up
and down, the wings flap!

-Dragon has a humanoid rider on its back! Independant puppet! Its movements
are amazingly subtle and true! Puppetmaker told me he used wires shaped a
little like the bones are, linked together for free movement. He just
covered the whole thing with black electrical tape. Rider therefore looks
like he's suited up in leather, for flight.

Very crude, roughly made, and this is what gives it its magic!
Textures abound in many shapes and shades: genuine leathers, cardboard pulp
(looks like wasp's nest's texture, dirty gray), nylon stockings over thick
wire for small bat-like wings, eyes are made up of two sets of beads strung
over each other.
Virtually no paint at all (maybe as a stain some places). Black electrical
tape comes also as a great finish. For some scales on the dragon, scales
from pine cones were glued! Everything fits together perfectly. This
creature looks "real", despite (or thanks to) its alien proportion and
rough finishes. I wish you could see it. But the guy is not "plugged in" on
the web at all.

Another struggling puppetmaker who works at something entirely different to
survive. He cuts tree limbs for the city.






----------------------------------------------
Mathieu RENE
CREATURISTE
Marionnettes, masques, ateliers créatifs pour tous, etc.
Puppets, Masks,  creative workshops for all, etc.

Toujours à l'affut de nouvelles opportunités!
Always seeking new opportunities!
http://www.magma.ca/~uubald
http://www.magma.ca/~uubald/ilo.html (+recent contrat)
uubald-AT-magma.ca
Montreal, Canada
(514) 725 - 5821
----------------------------------------------




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