Today’s Topic: Making Soft Sculpture Puppets
Hi, I am Barbara Dewey. Welcome to our next session that is called “Puppet and Ventriloquist Doll Characterization”.
I am going to start off today with Lord and Lady Dundee, our English-speaking couple. I will show you how they are made.
Lord Dundee is a grandpa and I wanted two grandpas because we are just alike because originally, I was not going to change costumes, and he is a fireman. Underneath he has a fireman’s outfit.
So, we made the second head and it was so much different that I had to make it different character because with sculptured puppets, it is very hard to make two alike because they are so different. Well, we have got this little lower lip that is sculpted right here just by stitching from there to there, they are all in cotton. He has got a white mustache and a little nose, and got those little, dark animal eyes with a little circle felt, right behind him, and some eyebrows.
Since he is a Lord, and English Lord, I want to make a monocle for him, but I do not have one yet. I have to make one out with another pair of glasses with a string down one end and just cut the glasses off. Use your ingenuity because you can find a lot of things and make things out of other things.
The stitching on the top was done right across his head. You could see it right there, and you cover it up and put a little line of fake fur right across the top like a loose hair that you can buy. It is really not a fake fur, although a fake fur would work there, too. These are just loose strands of hair, like an angora-type hair that you can buy in the craft shop. And across the back, he has this line of hair again. It covers up the stitching back here.
His clothing—well, his ears, let us look at his ears, too. He has sculptured ears and just stitched with a sewing machine right around. First, we put cotton in the nylon and then stitch it around them with a sewing machine. You may have a few trial and errors, but it could happen, and you will get it.
Now his clothing, I bought this out of a resale shop, Salvation Army actually, and I made him to fit the clothing. I think he is around 4’5” maybe. And his clothing, I have a little fake turtleneck here.
And underneath, when he is a different character, he is woodsman when he is out chopping wood, or outside. He has got jeans and red plaid shirt.
And underneath that, he has—as I said, he is a fireman. He has all this, he has got a bathrobe—a red bathrobe, and you know red, red suspenders—you know, why does a fireman have red suspenders. And so, when he is a fireman, he puts on a red hat. And I also have a little red hat and little red jacket that I can wear when we talk about fire prevention, talk about taking care of your house, and how not to burn your house down, so that is what you can use. And there are all kinds of ideas I could use with him. We are just getting started.
Well, his wife is Lady…
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services