More Puppet Making

I have some renewed interest in my puppet pattern and almost all the puppets have been bought up from my shop. So I thought it would be fun to post another work in progress as I work to restock my shop along with a puppet tutorial I posted a while back.
You can purchase my puppet pattern here if you want to play along. I'll send it by email if you purchase it so it can be with you in minutes.

I'm making a red monster here. I think.
So far this is as far as I've gotten. I hope to continue with him today.  Here is his so far.

And I've changed my pattern and instructions from that of this original tutorial, but generally this is how I make them. Click on each photo to make it larger.

Red's Cape and hair choices

 

After lunch Daisy and I had a walk in the park. She wanted to chase the ducks but it was time to go home and have a nice cold drink!

Wicked hot and sticky today! Not a good day to be in the studio but it's worse outside. I made Red's hooded cape, long train. I love the cinematography in the film and hope to capture some of that with this doll.

Now I'm pretty settled on what colour hair I want to use but here's a sampling of the colours and types I tried.

White blond too anemic

Yellow blonde, much better
but I think I want to go Auburn.

Too short and way too brassy!

The black is nice but a little stark,
not quite what I had in mind.

Yes, I think this is the one I like.

I'd love to know what you would pick. 

Too sticky to add hair today. Time for a nap.

Costuming Red Riding Hood

After my bad morning on Friday I left the doll alone in case I damaged her in the costuming process. Yesterday I started up again. I began with her bloomers. They're not very full, I didn't have much fabric, but with a little silk ribbon they do the trick. You can just see some white ribbon that I used to cover the join between sculpted leg and stuffing. 

 

Then I started her underskirt and over skirt. Both are done the same way just thin chiffon fabric. I also noticed I broke a finger somewhere along the way. (dang!!!) I found it so I'll be able to correct the problem, but I'll wait until I'm just about done with her.

I remembered I has some wonderful silk in a light grey blue that I thought would make a wonderful bodice to the dress. Testing the fit and pinning in place. With a little lace underneath for some trim to the edge. I like it.

  I needed to make release cuts under the arms so the bodice would fit properly. It was a tight fit under the arms. That's something that can happen with a bust and shoulder sculpt though. I need to watch for ways to correct this in the future. The arms less close to body perhaps.

. Next the sleeves. I made them rather full, intending to add lace and gather them up in a couple places.

This morning I attached them to the bodice and they cover some of the awardness at the underarm.

The bodice needs a little extra stuffing to fill it out better. I think.

Now onto shoes!! I draw a pattern of the sole of her foot, upper and sides. Don't forget I need a hole for the brass rod when I mark them left and right. Contact cement, while extremely stinky, is my best friend for this job.

 

A test fit on her stand and I can trim the excess sole away and press the sole firmly in place.

Not sure that I'll get more done on her today though. I'm puppy sitting and Daisy needs a walk and I could use some lunch.

More on Red Riding Hood

Still pretty hot and humid here in Toronto and it's raining today but I've taken a few days off for an extra long weekend to play in my studio and continue working on Red.
I've wrapped her body up in quilt batting and have wrapped that again with some cheesecloth.

Now I'm going through my fabric and leather stash to look for appropriate costume materials.

 I seem to be having a bad day though, with my laundry getting stuck in the washing machine and having to call the repair man. Things just aren't going my way. I may have to set her aside and continue tomorrow. I don't want to break something! YIKES!

Work on Red continues

We're in the midst of a heat wave, like much of the U.S. I guess, so I haven't been working on Red much. She's got some hands and feet, her armature has been added and her pose set with apoxie. I found a wood base and drilled a hole for the armature support. A brass rod runs through her left leg and out the bottom of her foot. I'm not sure if she'll have shoes or be barefoot so I sculpted the feet.

I've also done the face up. I use soft pastels for much of that and use a bit of acrylic for the stronger elements like her eyes. She still needs a varnish and some lashes. I usually paint them on but I think she needs a fine fringe of lashes. Still trying a few things out. Fake eyelashes don't do it for me.  I'm still not sure if she'll be blonde or brunette.

Davy's Secret Completed

Ah yes, the day has finally come. Davy's Secret is complete.

Davy's Secret: The Hair Episode

Ok, finally got down to getting this post up. I've been working on Davy's hair. I've once again used apoxie sculpt, setting it down in layers. I'll need to clean it up a bit with a knife when it's completely set up. I like the gray, so I'll keep it. Looks more like Sam Elliott now, who I was thinking of when I sculpted the head.
I'll add a wash of black and blue to give it some depth and then maybe a coat of light gray. We'll see.

WIP The Healer

I started working on the Healer around the same time as the Satyr. For some reason my sculpting figures all end up being male so in an effort to conquer that I tried an elderly female head. Not for me the pretty fairy figure I guess. Which is fine with me, I love the character that is expressed in an elderly face. A face with wrinkles says so much more! It's easier to create all these wrinkles in clay perhaps than cloth, maybe that's it.


After painting in the face, a wash of colour to show the aging detail, a light blush on the cheeks, light wash of colour on the lips and detail in her rhuemy eyes. I bulked out her body, attached her hands and feet, sewn some skin on her and began costuming and hair.











After this shot I realized I wanted her hair in an upsweep and her costume needed more colour. 

 

Now she needed to hold something she was healing. A bird!

A little more work still required. She needs something in her hair. The crown I made didn't work... still thinking about the possibilities....

Murple Puppet Project Part Six

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of how I did these steps...

I sewed on Murples Feathery hair with a couching stitch (you come out from inside the puppets head where you want the hair to start, then come out and over the feathers and back into the head and out the other side you keep doing this until you have captured all the feather boas core, but be careful you don't catch up too many of the fluffy feathers... try to pull them out form under the thread as you go.)

Then I decided Murple needed a nose and ears. For the nose I cut out an egg shape out of felt pinched it together a bit at the small end and sewed it in place between the eyes. the whole nose isn't sewn down. I wanted it to stick up a bit.

For the ears, I cut out an oval and cut it in half. I then folded ear flat side into a little "w" shape and stitched them in place, then stitched them onto the puppet just below ans slightly behind each head dart.

I also decided Murple needed to have tonsils and a tongue so I cut out those from a deep red felt and slightly clued those onto her black mouth.

One last thing I did was add a line of black on her lower eyelids with a sharpie. I really wanted it to look like Murple had bags under it's eyes. hee, hee.

And that's Murple! Now make up a story for your own puppet. Murple is off to an all-night Karaoke bar to show off his lovely singing voice. Too bad all those late nights have him developing a slight tick under his right eye... Makes him look a little crazy when he gets on the subway after his late night.

HAVE A BLAST!!!