Puppets

Stop-motion animation has always been really interesting to me. Over the past school year I've been working in stop-motion, and like it a lot! These are the first two puppets I made, in the summer before third year.

Penny the clown is the first puppet that I built, so the process of making a lot of her parts was new to me. She has a simple wire and epoxy armature, with cotton and latex hands. Her torso is carved out of upholstery foam, and her face was sculpted in Sculpey. After the face, arms, and shoes were painted, I sewed clothing and covered the legs in fabric. Her hair is made of a synthetic wig which was cut up into small sections, glued to her head, and then cut to the right length. The whole process of building her was a lot of fun!

To try building a puppet with a different armature structure, I built this ostrich, named Oliver. This puppet also uses a wire armature, with cotton, latex and foam over top. The wings and the main portion of the puppet’s body are covered in fabric and feathers. The material on his head and neck is grey wool that I needle-felted, and then sewed onto the puppet. His beak is built with a wire structure inside, covered in cotton and latex. Oliver has wire glasses and fabric spats, with small sculpted buttons sewn on.

Oliver and Penny were both great practice for making puppets, and I learned a lot of things by making them!