Now that the fleece is all marked out, it’s time to start construction of the foam understructure of the puppet. I tried to follow the recommended foam layout, but I discovered that the recommended layout omitted 2 of the 4 foam hands, and if I used the recommended layout, all the foam pieces wouldn’t fit. I changed the layout and managed to fit all the pattern pieces on the foam provided.
Working out the pattern rearrangement to fit all the pattern pieces.
My next process was to make the rigid mouth plate that goes into the puppet. For some unknown reason, my bandsaw is not working, so instead of using the provided plywood, I decided to switch to Sintra plastic sheets which is what I normally use for puppet mouth plates as Sintra can be cut with a blade.
It was when I started reading the instruction booklet for making the mouth plate for this kit, that I came to the conclusion that this kit is not for first time puppet makers. The instructions were vague on the relationship between the size and shape of the velour pattern, and the gap between the mouth plate pieces. The size of the velour pattern must be the same as the length of the mouth plate, but these are not covered in detail in the instructions.
The process I followed was-
Lay the plates on top of the velour pattern piece to find where the gap is.
Lay a piece of gaffer tape on top of the velour pattern piece sticky side up where that gap will be
Lay each piece of the plate on top aligning the edges with the pattern piece and pressing it down onto the gaffer tape.
Flip the assembly over and attach the second piece of gaffer tape ensuring that the tape wraps around the edges of the mouthplate gap.
Using this method allowed me to get the gap proportions right for this pattern since the dimensions are not outlined in the instructions.
Once the plate was assembled, I used my cordless Dremel to round off the top edges of the finger grips. I then sanded the mouth plates where the grips would be located and used contact cement to glue the grips down.
Materials for making the mouth plate. Lining pattern, plastic mouth plate shapes and gaffer tape.
Gaffer tape sticky side up over the location of the mouth plate gap.
Finished gaffer tape hinge.
Making the grips out of black PE30 foam
Using my Dremel to round off the edges of the grips
When I filmed the unboxing, I was concerned at the amount of Nylafleece™ that was sent with the kit. The piece of fleece was 1 yard x 1 yard (90x90cm). Given that I wanted to use the same fleece to make features such as ears, eyestalks, as well as allowing for the possibility of mistakes in cutting the pattern, it didn’t feel like enough fabric at first glance.
Even laying the pattern out according to the layout directions in the instruction booklet- the pattern got too close to the machine edge. I was able to adjust the layout so that I was comfortable with the distance of the pattern pieces from the machine edge, but there was very little fleece leftover for all the add ons I want to do with this character.
Nylafleece with an attempt at laying out the pattern drawn on it.
After preparing the fleece pattern, I also took the opportunity to prepare the arm sleeve using the provided stretch satin, as well as the rod pockets in duck cloth. I normally use a dance fabric like lycra because it is more stretchy than the provided satin, and it slides onto the arm with ease. Laying out, and sewing these pieces was straight forward, but as soon as I cut the satin out, it started to fray really badly around the edges. I decided to oversew the raw edge using a zig zag stitch even though this was not in the instructions. The arm sleeve and rod pockets are the only parts of this puppet I intend to sew on the sewing machine. The rest of the puppet will be handsewn.
My design for this puppet is to build an Alien character as I don’t have an alien in my puppet collection, plus I was trying to work out what to do with Ocean blue fleece. I also want to challenge myself with this puppet, by incorporating an eye mechanism that I have admired for years, as well as try to incorporate some foam patterning to build up the base shape.
In terms of character, this yet un-named alien is friendly, and is obsessed with things that smell nice like fresh baked cookies, flowers, perfume. On it’s planet- smell is the basis of their economy. So this character is looking for nice smells to take back to it’s planet for trade.
The mechanism is a closing eye- and to add to the challenge, I want to put it up on stalks above the head! I figured out the layers of the mechanism while watching the character of Polly in Muppets Treasure Island. I am still trying to figure out if the trigger for the eye mech will be inside the head, or down on the arm rod for the puppet, but that is a decision for down the road.
My design for the Alien puppet using the Hubbub puppet pattern
The Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic has encouraged everyone to find alternative ways to be creative. This is no different in the puppet world. Since it is not currently safe to hold a workshop to teach how to build a puppet, there is a rising trend of well known puppet-makers teaming with suppliers to send out puppet making kits that contain everything someone needs to make a foam hand puppet. During November 2020, two US based puppet company’s released puppet kits- Puppet Pelts, and Monkey Boys Productions.
The Puppet Pelts kit- known as the Puppet Makers Workshop contains everything required to build a hand and rod puppet including contact cement, which meant it cannot be shipped overseas. Here is a picture from their website of what is in the box-
List of supplies in the Puppet Pelts kit
The other company is Monkey Boys Productions based in Pennsylvania USA. They released 4 kits called Flick, Splat, Hubbub and Yawp. The difference between the two kits was that the Monkey Boys kits contain everything except 6 items- scissors, glue, fabric marker, chalk, sewing machine, and wire for arm rods. This meant that the kit could be shipped to me in Australia. Another difference is that the Monkey Boys kit does not come with a 5 session video workshop, but it does come with an instruction book, and video tutorials where required.
You can see and order the kits from the Monkey Boys online store
I ordered the Hubbub kit because I liked the interesting head shape, and as a puppet making teacher, I am interested in how puppet kits are put together so that people who don’t have access to the best quality supplies, can access them. I filmed an unboxing of the kit to record what you get in the Monkey Boys Pro Puppet Kit known as Hubbub.
I intend to share this puppet making journey here on my blog as I turn the Monkey Boys Kit into an Alien character.
Over the last few weeks, I have been involved in many video conferencing calls for both my teaching world and my puppetry world. When I have used Zoom, I have used their virtual background feature, and it works really well to a point. The tricky part is if I want to show the other people in the call an object, or even play with a puppet, the virtual background without the green screen option cannot include the object beside me such as a puppet on my arm.
My first thought was, can I use a substitute fabric as a green screen/ chroma key background? I wanted to focus on using the materials I had at home that are a solid colour. I started out exploring bed sheets since they are light to hang up. I had one that is a blue grey colour, and the other was a pale green. While setting up for filming, my new woven polyproplene green screen that I had purchased on Amazon arrived, so now I could compare the effects.
Phone filming setup with zoom running on the computer in the background
Blue bed sheet covering my book case
Green bed sheet covering the book case
Stylus tipped pen to control my watch
Apple Watch app controlling the phone camera
Results from the experiment
In Zoom, I got best results from using the green bed sheet and the commercial green screen without any additional lighting apart from the ceiling downlights.
In editing using Adobe Premiere Pro- I got the cleanest background removal results from the professional green screen.
If I was to do the experiment again, I want to see what would happen if I added lights to the sheet/ screen only to even out the colour difference across the surface. I would also iron or smooth out the surface to see if the background removal was more successful.
Well, it is the early morning of World Puppetry Day 2020. The world is currently facing a serious pandemic, but it is important to find sparks of joy. One of my sparks of joy is that I have been blessed to meet a young drama teacher, who has become my puppetry apprentice. Over the last 2.5 years since I met him in 2017 at a Professional Development workshop I was leading, Pete Davidson’s puppetry career has sprouted wings, and he is now soaring. Today, he launched his very own puppetry podcast- Talking Sock and I am one of the first guests!
It is so wonderful to now be able to hear and share the voices of Australian Puppetry. I follow many puppetry podcasts, but this is the first Australian puppet podcast!
As a child, one of the puppets that I encountered, and it left a significant impression on me, was the Karakuri dolls on display in the foyer of Questacon- the National Science and Technology Centre in Canberra, Australia. The Karakuri dolls were a bicentennial gift from Japan to Australia in 1988. Two identical dolls were given- one with a full costume, and a second without the costume so that visitors to the centre could see how the doll works. I loved pressing the button and watching the uncostumed doll dance and transform into the demon character. I remember the traditional Japanese music was very hypnotising.
Since seeing the dolls perform as a child, seeing the costumed one again during my visit to Questacon in July was very nostalgic. The dolls have performed so often for visitors, that they both required extensive restoration. Sadly, the Karakuri doll on display is currently not moving, but it was wonderful to encounter a significant puppet from my childhood.
Restored Karakuri doll on displayRestored Karakuri on display.
Today was a really special day. A friend of mine who is a cast member of the Jim Henson Company’s show Puppet Up, invited me to join a tour he was running of the Jim Henson Company lot in LA. The main courtyard is very relaxing and beautiful. It has an air of an European village with outdoor tables, planter boxes of flowers, and close buildings. The studio was built by Charlie Chaplin in 1918, and there are references to Charlie Chaplin everywhere, including the statue of Kermit the Frog standing on the top of the gate dressed as Charlie Chaplin’s signature character- the Little Tramp.
We visited the reception area where I got to hold a real Emmy award, the Barn where the Creature Shop used to be housed, the Henson Screening room, and the Charlie Chaplin Soundstage where the tour group was given a demonstration of monitor puppetry. After the tour group left, I was given the opportunity to have a go at the monitor puppetry on the soundstage, using a REAL Henson made puppet! I am very grateful to my friend for allowing me to tag along on the tour and to have a go at the monitor puppetry!
With Lucy Green at the Company bench
Holding the Emmy won by Muppets Tonight in 1998
I found another Skesis from the Dark Crystal!
Jim Henson Company reception
Head from Where the Wild Things Are.
Standing beneath the Kermit statue
Standing outside the Barn- with a Dinosaur.
Henson Recording Studio
Charlie Chaplin's Little tramp shoe prints
Charlie Chaplins signature
Charlie Chaplin Sound Stage
Demonstration of monitor puppetry on the Charlie Chaplin Sound Stage
Me with DJ Panda, star of Puppet Up and Jim Henson Company podcast
Signage for Women's restroom.
Signage for Gentleman's restroom
Charlie Chaplin mural on the outside of the Henson company lot
Kermit the Frog as the Little Tramp.
Day 11, Tuesday 11 June 2019
Today’s adventure was taking the Warner Bros Studio Deluxe tour. Starting at 10am, the tour started in the Deluxe screening room which had very nice pastries and beverages for the guests. Arranged next to the wall were costumes from the main characters of the TV show Friends. After a brief video about the studio, and meeting our tour guide Thom, we boarded our own tram and started driving through the studio starting with the backlot jungle area. Highlight for me in this area was the now empty lagoon as it was the location where Kermit the Frog sang the Rainbow Connection at the beginning of the original Muppet Movie 40 years ago.
After moving from the jungle area, the tour moved to the Midwest Street and again, it was a place that had special significance for me as a puppet maker and fan of the Muppets. It was the shooting location for the song Life’s a Happy Song from the movie The Muppets (2011).
Lagoon where Rainbow Connection was filmed in the original Muppet Movie.
Lagoon where Rainbow Connection was filmed in the original Muppet Movie.
Lagoon where Rainbow Connection was filmed in the original Muppet Movie.
Walter and Gary Trick or Treated at this door in the Muppets Movie (2011)
Life's a Happy Song from the Muppets (2011) movie was filmed here.
Life's a Happy Song from the Muppets (2011) movie was filmed here.
Life's a Happy Song from the Muppets (2011) movie was filmed here.
Life's a Happy Song from the Muppets (2011) movie was filmed here.
Life's a Happy Song from the Muppets (2011) movie was filmed here.
Backlot at Warner Bros Studio
Warner Bros water tower
Original Aquaman costume
Fireplace from Privett Drive- Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone.
Acceptance letter to Hogwarts.
Harry Potter's wand
Dumbledore's Army list.
Costumes of Tom Riddle
Professor McGonagall's update robes.
Quidditch set
Bat Bike
Batmobile
Batmobile
Originial Michael Keaton Batmobile
Bat signal
Original Bat mobile
Tumbler
Batmobile
Batmobile
Batman statue
Bat signal
Michael Keaton Bat Cowl
My Fair Lady costume
Christian Bale Bat cowl
One of my favourite Warner Bros TV shows was the West Wing and it was filmed at the LA Warner Bros Studio! I got to see Stage 29 where the main set was located, but during the tour of the property warehouse, I got to sit at the President’s desk from the show, as well as find various pieces of set decorating and props from the show!
Sitting at the President's desk from West Wing
Sitting at the President's desk from West Wing.
Filming location for West Wing Season 7.
Emmy Award for West Wing
Paintings used in the West Wing
The replica of the Resolute desk from the West Wing
Set decoration from the West Wing
Set decoration from the West Wing
Replica of the President's Podium
Props for American political dramas
Props from the West Wing.
I highly recommend the Warner Bros Deluxe tour- you get to see much more than the regular tour, as well as touch things, go inside more buildings, and there is the delicious lunch in the Warner Bros Commissary Fine Dining Room. I do recommend bringing small snacks for the morning and afternoon break as there is no opportunity to purchase snacks while on the tour.
Day 12- Wednesday 12 June 2019
Today was my travel day home to Australia. Fortunately, the wifi in the hotel meant I could wait in the Lobby until the taxi picked me up in the late afternoon to take me to the airport. After treating myself to new noise cancelling headphones, I enjoyed a light meal in the One World Alliance Lounge. Once I boarded my QANTAS Business Class flight, I fell asleep virtually immediately, and slept for about 6 hours straight.
It has been a magical holiday- I am so grateful to my puppet friends in the USA for the kindness and generosity they shared with me that made it magical.
The building session was once again the first session of the day. Our major goal was to completely finish assembling all the fur sections and ideally have our puppets sitting on stands. Once I had the fur sections ready for machine sewing, the group moved onto making the hand assemblies, cutting out the stiffened felt ear shapes, and selecting the fleece for the eyelids. I chose a cream/ tan fleece for my dog’s eyelids as Australian Cattle dogs typically have a tan coloured spot on their face right above their eyes. I did acheive my goal of graduating to a puppet stand before the end of the building session.
Puppet dog ready for grooming tomorrow!One assembled puppet dog ready for grooming on it’s stand.
Highlight of the morning session was during the break. My performing teacher found me in the corridor, and showed me that the interview we had both given the reporter the day before, had been published online! It was really exciting to appear in the same article as my dear teacher, and I had been waiting the previous day for the newspaper photographer to come and take my picture, but the photographer had taken a lovely picture of me while I was performing with my friend from North Queensland, Ros Campbell from Wild Puppets. Here is the article.
The physical newspaper that my interview appeared in.
The performing session for the advanced group was really interesting as the group got to experiment with using intense emotions and the whole depth of the frame. This was followed by a very challenging activity of creating our own scene where the audience has to work out who, what, when, where, why from what the characters are performing on the screen. My highlight of the session was being able to return to an exercise I had last tried in 2015- working with blank scripts. I didn’t quite find the character development I was looking for where after multiple run throughs with feedback, I had gotten to the point where I was a character, but it was wonderful to come back to this exercise after 4 years.
The evening was spent working with my performance partner Ros working on the script for the big show, and finishing making the ears. I wish I had brought my bag of sewing cottons with me from Australia. It was tricky catching up on homework, without sufficient supplies back at the hotel.
Day 8, Saturday June 8 2019
Today is the last day of Beyond the Sock 2019. It is also known as mega Saturday as the puppets have to be finished, performances honed, and the whole thing ends with the big show that night. My goal for the day was to have my puppet finished by lunchtime so I could use it in the afternoon studio session. The big excitement of the whole week was learning how to trim furry puppets using a device called a Flowbee. The Flowbee is a device connected to a vacuum cleaner that trims hair and fur to a consistent length. The vacuum helps manage the trimmings. I have heard about the use of Flowbee’s in puppet making for many years, but I had never used one myself personally.
The rest of the session was a sprint to finish all parts of the puppet. I still had to add the ears, the arms, the tongue, add the eyelids, eyeliner and pupils of the eyes, and then the trickiest part, installing the eyes on the puppet so that the character appears. I did achieve my goal, my puppet dog Jill, was the first one out of the build room, and being performed with that afternoon.
The performance session was time to work on rehearsing the sketches for that night, as well as continuing to perform and playback the 5 minute scenes we had been practising all week. Playback and feedback is always the most anxiety inducing part of the sessions for me. I can see all my mistakes, and even though the feedback is always given kindly, I always feel uncomfortable. The unfortunate part about playback this year, was that we never really got to go back and redo the scene to implement the notes and see if there was any improvement.
Every year, at the end of the big show, is the whole group performance. This year, our song was an adaption of a popular song that was rewritten to focus on different kinds of dogs. Various attendees got to have a line in the song, and the whole group joined in with the chorus. What was new for me, was that the whole group was brought together in the morning to pre-record the vocals. This meant that the advanced group lost 30 minutes of build time. Prerecording the song, did take some of the stress out of the final night, all we had to remember was the choreography, even though there was some confusion as to the number of bounces and right lefts. The performance night was fun as always. Most attendees had a song, poem, or spoken word piece. I got to perform with fellow Australian Ros Campbell on her own piece about translating Aussie Slang into a form of words that the Americans could understand.
Inserting the doll joint backings into the arms.
Trimming the fur
Positioning the eyes.
Positioning the eyes
Finished!
Showtime!
Performing with Ros Campbell of Wild Puppets Queensland.
Performing with Ros Campbell of Wild Puppets Queensland.
Performing with Ros Campbell of Wild Puppets Queensland.
Performing with Ros Campbell of Wild Puppets Queensland.
Day 9, Sunday June 9 2019
Today was my travel day from Texas to Los Angeles. The plane was amazing! For the first time in my life, I got to turn left as I boarded the plane, instead of turning right. The new American Airlines plane Business class was superb! It was almost like having my own suite! So many cubby holes to store things, a giant screen to watch things on, couldn’t see another passenger! It was like a dream!
Today was the first day of the Beyond the Sock course. The day started with a briefing and a tour of the University of North Texas Radio, TV, Film and Performing Arts Building. We got to see the set in the TV studio, and it 2 years ago, the set told me instantly what the puppet was, but the strange purple and blue tones did not help with the guessing game of what is the puppet we are making?
After the tour, we went to lunch at our favourite BTS lunch spot- Crooked Crust.
BTS group lunch at Crooked Crust
After lunch, back at the design studio, all was revealed- the 2019 BTS puppets was going to be Dogs! We had a session on what makes a successful character. It is important to consider that can the character be read by just looking at the puppet. We also had a discussion on successful character design vs marketable character design.
Design sketch of Jill the Australian Cattle Dog
Next came the exciting part, designing my character. Each attendee had the opportunity to take a lucky dip and select a card with a letter on it. That was our main fur colour. After some trading with other attendees, I managed to get a fur that inspired my character design- an Australian Cattle Dog. The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to cutting out the cardstock puppet pattern, and refining our designs.
A Friend in Need 1903
While we were working, the mystery of the set design was explained. It was a representation of the famous painting “A Friend in Need” 1903 by American artist C.M. Collidge. Over the next few days, set dressing will be added to complete the picture.
Day 5, Wednesday June 5 2019
The attendee group was divided in two first thing in the morning. For the first time, the groups were divided by experience- a group of first time attendees, and I was placed in the multiple time attendee group. The first time attendees went across to the student union for their first performance lesson, and the experienced group went to puppet building first. The first step was to cut out the fur for the paws so that they could be sewn together by the sewing assistants. Once the paws were taken away, the next step was to cut the foam of the head. In building the foam head, there was a unusual twisting motion that had to happen to allow the muzzle to sit correctly to the head.
Ingredients to make a dog puppets.
First efforts at splicing two tones of fur to make the paws.
Foam head under construction.
Most of the foam head assembled at the end of the morning session.
Penny Fino making her debut since she joined my collection.
Penny Fino's debut in her new dress.
After lunch, the two groups swapped locations. The advanced group went up to the student union for the first performance workshop. It was a wonderful experience for me, because after 3 previous attempts at Beyond the Sock, many of the elementary puppetry moves came back to me naturally! I was given the feedback that my skills were solid, especially walking onto camera, talking and walking off. I am still finding here/ there exercise tricky, but we were also given new exercises to start extending our skillset.
Day 6, Thursday June 6 2019
As soon as we arrived at the university, the advanced group went straight to the building room to start work on cutting out all the separate sections of fur. The head of my puppet was made up of 16 separate pieces. I spent most of the morning session sewing the pieces together. During the session, a reporter from the local paper came through the room with the director of the program. The reporter asked me questions about my experience over my four years at Beyond the Sock and how I have used the experience in my puppetry and teaching practice. The interview did slow my work down, and I had a particularly challenging build with the sheer number of fur pieces I had to put together, but I enjoyed talking about my work with the reporter.
3D printed mouth plate grip designed by Project Puppet.
Tricky bend join of the muzzle and face front.
Reverse doll joint nose assembly designed by Project Puppet
Inserting the reverse doll joint nose assembly into the foam head.
Inserting the foam padding inside the foam head.
Interior of joam head with padding
Finished foam head
Learning to right hand, and use live hand puppets.
Working in the Studio
In the afternoon performing session, the advanced group had the opportunity to learn how to puppeteer live hand puppets, and the concept of performing a right hand for a main puppeteer. I had the good fortune to right hand for my teacher. The exercise involved passing a roll of tape between each of the three characters. It was very challenging because I could not see a monitor, and my teacher is significantly taller than me. Many of the people in the advanced group, including myself all pulled up sore in the upper arm after the right handing exercise.
We had a casual get together in the hotel that night after dinner. I spent the evening sewing more of the pieces of the head fur together so that I could catch up to the rest of the group with my work.
Materials for making the mouth plate. Lining pattern, plastic mouth plate shapes and gaffer tape.
