My Muppet OC - Grub

[Gaby]

Here's my muppet OC Grub, I'll be posting a build journal of him as and when I can. He was a super fun make I got around to when I had a couple weeks downtime at university before I started a module.

 

[Gaby]

I backed the patterns which were all printed and fit on A4 sheets of paper onto 220gsm artist paper using PVA glue. I cut out the straight lines using scissors and any curves or fine parts, I cut with a scalpel.

 

[Gaby]

The plywood mouthplate was marked out from the pattern and cut using a band saw. The edges were bevelled using a dremel to allow free movement of the mouth. This mouthplate has some back and forth motion as well as the snappy up and down. The pieces were then glued to red felt for the inside mouth colour using contact adhesive. It was easy to then cut around the felt to the shape of the mouthplate.

The first mouthplate I made was out of MDF, but when gluing the felt onto it, the layer that it was glued to delaminated. I'm glad I found this out before installing it into the puppet!

 

[Gaby]

I made finger loops that would be a comfortable size for my hands out of soft leather, wrapping strips of leather around a finger and marking to size. I then cut them to size and sewed them to a backing strip which was glued to the mouthplate, again using contact adhesive.

 

[Gaby]

Armatures were made for the hands out of galvanised steel wire and could be posed for holding objects and to house linen pockets to hold the hand rods. The same pattern that was used for the hand was used to measure out the armatures.

 

[Gaby]

From this point, if I mention that I used glue, I used contact adhesive, unless stated otherwise.

The foam used in this build was just 1/2inch thick upholstery foam from Abakhan. The pattern was marked out using a permanent marker and cut using a personna blade. Care was taken to keep the blade square with the foam whilst cutting.
Two hands were made the same and the armatures with the pockets were glued using contact adhestive in the centre of the two. Taking care not to place the wire close the the edge of the foam as this might leave the chance of it to poke out.

In order to get the clean edges, as seen in the second picture glue was spread along the thickness of the foam and the edges were pressed together. Each side of the pocket was glued to the edge of the hand to leave a clean and easy opening for the hand rods.

 

[Gaby]

In order to make things match up when gluing, the corners were put together first, even when gluing the mouthplate.

 

[Gaby]

A photo of the parts of the body. The tulip shaped part was the belly, which was made to make the character look a little pot bellied. The curved edges of the other two bits glued to the belly piece and the straight bits were glued together which created the back.

Once the pieces had been glued together, boning was measured to fit the top and bottom of the puppet. A bevel was cut into the top and bottom of the puppet using a personna blade so that the boning would sit inside. the boning was then cut to size, hand stitched and glued in place.

 

[Gaby]

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The fleece was pinned to the foam in order to sew it in place. Everything was hand stitched using white thread (I have a later picture which shows the kind of stitch better). The edge of the fleece was glued to the mouthplate to a neat line which was drawn on with biro. To create the hair, I sewed some super chunky wool to the top of his head. I was also at this point testing where the facial features would go and if they'd look as good in real life as they did on my drawings.

 

[Gaby]

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Later in the stitching, the pieces were cut without seam allowance and brought together using the stitch, this got rid of any bunching that occurred when the fabric was brought together.

 

[Gaby]

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When making the arms, cord was placed inside them. At one end, the hands were glued, the other end was kept open to tie onto the body. When fleecing the arm, it was cut over the length at the top and glued to the plastic 'bead' at the top for a neat edge.

The fleece pattern for the arms was made by bringing together the foam patterns for the arm, wrist and hand.

 

[Gaby]

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Making the facial features
The nose was carved out of foam using a personna blade and covered with felt by placing it over the bridge and cutting darts at the folds of the nostrils. Eyeforms were sculpted, moulded and cast (the picture of the sculpted eyeform was not the finished sculpt). The eyes were cast in fast cast and sprayed white, then black circle vinyl stickers were made for the pupils.

They were stuck to the puppet using wig tape, which has a good grip but allows for replacement eyes and noses to be made which might change the expression or even make a slightly different character.

- - - Updated - - -

That's pretty much it for the make. Sorry if this was a very vague build journal, I made this two years ago but I'm only just getting around to writing about it.

 

[animator]

The puppet came out great! Thanks for posting your build! I've always wanted to try making a puppet like this.